Spring Into Action!

6 February 2011

Here’s a quick round up of some museum related online projects that I’ve discovered in the last week or so (mostly thanks to Twitter). If you’ve not come across them already, you should definitely check them out - and take part, of course!

Lets Get Lyrical
Ok, so the first one is not about museums, but it still relates to the cultural sector and it’s right on my doorstep. Let’s Get Lyrical is a month-long programme during February between Edinburgh UNESCO City of Literature and Glasgow UNESCO City of Music to celebrate  song lyrics. As well as attending the events themselves if you’re in the area, you can submit a story about your favourite lyrics and what they mean to you via their website. There’s also daily discussions on Twitter about lyrics, often on a specific theme. To take part follow @LetsGetLyrical. 

Yorkshire’s Favourite Paintings
I love the idea for this project to get people engaging with paintings, and it’s a nicely designed website too: you can browse the collections of paintings in Yorkshire in the online gallery, write a short story about your favourite painting (and if you’re lucky win an exclusive print of it), or read other people’s stories and vote for your favourite one. If you’re in the area, you can also print off a customised trail based on theme and location to explore the paintings for real. BTW, I chose Meredith Frampton’s A Game of Patience as my favourite (and feel honoured to have been the first person outwith the agency who made the site to submit my story^^) - if you want to know why, you’ll have to go and visit the site!

Split Second: Indian Paintings
The Brooklyn Museum is planning an installation of Indian paintings from their collection to open in summer. Leading up to this they are running an online experiment until April, in which visitors to their website are asked to react to a selection of paintings, including choosing their favourites from randomly generated pairs, writing about them in their own words, and rating their appeal based on interpretive text. The experiment explores “how our initial reaction to a work of art is affected by what we know, what we’re asked, and what we’re told about the object in question”. It takes slightly longer than a split second to take part, but if you have 5 or 10 minutes to spare give it a go, it’s quite fun.

Evolving English: One Language Many Voices
The British Library is currently showing an exhibition about the evolution of the English language, which runs until April. Alongside this, they are running a project to help with their research into how language works. Participant are asked to read the story of Mr Tickle (or, alternatively, a list of six selected words) and add it to their voice map. The easiest way to take part is via the free Audioboo app, if you have a smart phone, or you can do it via a computer. You can of course also listen to other people’s recordings - if you ever needed an excuse to reconnect with the Mr Men, now’s your chance!

High Tea
OK, so this final one is a game and not a project, but I had great fun playing it so thought I’d add it in. To accompany their current exhibition High Society, which explores the history of drugs around the world and runs until February, this game from the Wellcome Collection challenges you to smuggle and trade opium in China’s Pearl Delta, in order to buy tea and keep Britain happy. Oh, and learn more about the history of the Opium War in the process.