Interactive Design for Museums

PGTE 5516 | 201130 | Faculty: Jeffrey Tancil

This course is part museum studies, part cultural critique and part lab. We will start with a critical look at how three different museums approach the history of American art. On-site meetings with educational/curatorial staff at the Metropolitan Museum, the Brooklyn Museum of Art, and the Whitney Museum of American Art are scheduled. We will also look at non-traditional museums (Exit Art, the DIA, and the Tenement Museum are examples), and how these institutions engage in public dialogues about art/history and its place in American culture. Class meetings will focus on broader issues such as installation design, visual connections, and the role/placement of didactic materials. Following this investigation, students will work on projects in collaboration with Historic House Trust. Members of the Trust's curatorial staff will advise the class, and students will form teams and select a specific house to study/research, with the goal of creating an interactive project (an exhibit, a virtual tour, a carefully considered "reaction" that is designed for the public). Final presentations will be open to the Trust staff and to the staff of the selected houses.Open to: MTC majors; non-majors with permission of program