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The project develops an on-line exhibition template for use in junior and senior courses within the Department of Art History and Theory. Students are taught how to curate an exhibition that takes place on the web by choosing a theme, selecting images, writing explanatory texts for concepts and objects, and designing the layout of their pages. They also review each other's exhibitions, which provides experience with the writing of art criticism for on-line distribution.
The project is primarily focused on building skills in art history, visual analysis, curatorial work and art criticism. These skills have broad educational applications for professions in museums, galleries and the media. The exhibition project is one that could be modified with ease for use in a wide variety of disciplines, including Classics, Archaeology, Media Studies, Architecture, Museum Studies and History. Modifications would involve a change to the type of materials to be exhibited on-line (ie: from paintings and sculpture to antiquities, films, buildings, rare books, etc.). The tasks of the project (selection of materials, writing of text, arrangement of site) could also be adapted for the pedagogical and professional aims of each discipline. In sum, the project provides a template for use in almost any department within an Arts faculty and could also be exported to museum and galleries.
On-line exhibitions are just becoming popular on museum sites throughout the world. Very few universities, however, have developed teaching programs that incorporate the teaching of skills necessary for the production or virtual exhibitions or even make students aware of this future professional opportunity. This project highlights the unique capabilities of Cumulus (as written for Apple application) as a resource for building an exhibition on-line.
The project began in December 2001, when I began to develop the on-line exhibition project for ARHT1001. The first phase of development kept the design simple with a small group of images selected for student use and a single theme set for the exhibition. The exhibition project was an essential component of the course in 2002, with students assessed for their on-line group participation and exhibition text. They were also allowed to redesign their web page with the assistance of a tutor. The design of the on-line exhibition at this stage, however, did not allow students to develop the conceptual and visual skills necessary for the building of an exhibition from scratch. Therefore the current project realizes a fully modifiable template for the second phase of development, so that students can chose from our large database of images on Cumulus and devise their own exhibition theme.
Using Apple applications, the Department of Art History and Theory has built an extensive image database with over 40,000 images. This database is used extensively in the teaching and research within the Department, but also by other departments (such as Classics) and faculties (such as Architecture). Most recently, we have used this database as the foundation for building up on-line teaching and learning within our first-year course (ARHT1001-1002) using WebCT and also for distance learning in senior options. The image database and WebCT are essential components of the on-line exhibition project, which was developed as a core leaning and assessment task of the first-year course. These materials were entirely developed using Apple applications.
Like the image database, the exhibition project is designed for optimal use on an Apple computer and students are encouraged to use Macs in the computer centres across campus (and at their own homes, when possible). Cumulus as designed for Macintosh application is far more effective than the PC application, a fact that is conveyed to students. Moreover, the graphic possibilities of Apple applications are a compelling aspect of their use for such a virtual exhibition project. In addition to the generous funding from Apple Australia, the project has been supported by Teaching Initiatives Awards and Teaching Improvement Funds from the Faculty of Arts.
| For further information contact Kaye Placing |
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