Technology and Museums - Not Always a Good Thing

We have visited many museums of many different types and it has been noticeable how they are changing -  the displays are becoming tidier and cleaner and more information is being provided. Quite often you can scan a QR code that takes you to a link where you can hear and/or read about the item. Information is provided in at least two languages - the home country's and English so many more people can learn about the displays.

So why is this not a good thing? Many museums have now added touch screens so that you can read about the objects. The problem with this is that it limits the number of people who can read about the items. You may be able to read over someone's shoulder depending on how the touch screen is placed but that doesn't help if they are reading in a different language than the one you want. Also, so much information is provided on these screens that a person could be standing at one for quite a while.

Therefore you can have two different reviews of the same museum that are both true:- great displays with much information stayed longer than expected; boring museum, not much information, not worth the money we paid.

Like anything, you are not going to please all the people and museum curators are passionate about their subject and want to spread the information and this is an easy end result. Although I am sure that it is much more work than a numbered display.

Personally, this is a dilemma, I appreciate the information but found that sometimes I was spending more time reading than looking. Technology is a good way to provide information but not the only way.

 

Blogging About Our Trip

Remember in the early days of social media when you were warned not to post that you were on vacation, at a concert etc? And now everybody's lives are spread all over the internet. 

Way back when, but only two posts ago, I wrote about choosing yarn to take on a trip, and have been silent since the end of March in a way indicating that that trip was taking place. Initially it was so that I was not giving away the exact dates of our trip and then posts were delayed because I was wondering what to write about. If it was just about knitting, there wouldn't be much to say. How many variations of, long train journey spent knitting, out all day hiking/touristing too tired to knit, could I make sound interesting?

I was unsure what I could add to what is already out there, if I wrote about the places we visited. I thought about just writing about why we chose the different forms of transport when travelling between cities, in the hopes it would be of use to someone but I wasn't sure that would be of much interest to most people. In the end I've decided to just do what I have always done for this blog - write about my crafting and whatever else interests me.

And if anyone had wanted to take the time to find my exact address during this absence, they would have been disappointed to find that there were people living in it.