Friday, December 6, 2013

What on Earth is a QR Code?: "Following our Path: Regis College through its Art Collection"



            
 by: Sarah Vedrani

Now that we’ve had our last official class, it’s time to look ahead to some of the projects that we’ll be doing in the spring; the goal is to really bring the exhibit to life through programming, lectures, and anything else we can think of. The biggest of these projects, and probably the most innovative, will be the addition of supplemental material to the exhibit. This information can be accessed through a technology known as “QR codes.” I had no idea what those were or how they worked until very recently, so here’s a brief explanation. 


QR codes look something like this:


and can be read by smartphones; you just need to download a free QR code reader app. These codes can be found in many different locations, including advertisements, food containers, and now, museums. Many museums are using this technology to create a new kind of audio tour, or as a way to link visitors to more information that couldn’t be fit into an exhibit space. QR codes can link to supplemental material, audio and sound clips, or websites.

We’ve been able to pack quite a bit of information into our exhibit, but there’s still more that we couldn’t possibly have fit in because of time and space that we’d love to have available somehow, and that’s where the QR codes come in. Some of our ideas are:

  • recordings of the school and class songs
  • sound or audio clips of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Boston
  • link to HI 516’s Flickr account for photos of the dig

With the addition of this technology to our exhibit, we will become a part of the campus-wide technology initiative that began in the fall of 2012; students and faculty can use their iPads to scan the codes throughout the exhibit, and their visitors can make use of their smartphones. In our technology-driven society, it makes sense for us to make use of this new and very exciting tool to help make our exhibit more engaging for visitors.

Wednesday, December 4, 2013

The Home Stretch: "Following our Path: Regis College through its Art Collection"

By: Kerry Pintabona



We are now in the homestretch of the planning phase of our exhibit. I remember how skeptical I was in the beginning that we would be able to pull together a polished and well done exhibit. As our list of pieces is being finalized and our labels are in the final drafting process, I am excited at the work that we have done and so proud of all that has been accomplished thus far.

Now, we are mostly working towards getting the exhibit to flow the way we would like and to finalize where each piece will be located in the exhibit. This has been a tricky process. In my mind when we are thinking of where each piece will go, I think about the pieces in a line. The challenge has been to think about where the pieces will be, not in a straight line, but in context with the exhibit space. In this case, the exhibit space is in the Carney Gallery.

The wonderful and most difficult aspect of the Carney Gallery is that it is a more unconventional space. There are walls that appear shorter than others, walls that run in a diagonal, and four very large glass doors. Aspects such as these make the process of visualizing how each and every piece will work within the space and also in conjunction with other items all the more important. In the end though, the hard work at planning will pay off hopefully with a more visually dynamic and interesting exhibit.