A hot topic at the moment is museums, particularly in new museums and the curation of new exhibits, is the idea of the Virtual Museum. My first contact with this idea came while I was at my new job; the online tool department transformed the collection of the Staatliche Kunstsammlung Dresden (Dresden State Art Collections) into a Second Life platform. That means those who are registered on Second Life with their own digital self, or sometimes called an avatar, can virtually walk through the museum and view digitized works of art!

At first the idea struck me as disappointing; why would someone look at a mini-copy of a work of art on his or her computer screen instead of going to see the actual work? But then again this goes back to the issue of movie theaters having problems with viewers streaming movies online…

The advantage to digitizing museums has one crystal clear advantage; education and research. Although many museums still have The other interesting idea behind the Second Life museum is that it differentiates itself from online museum archives, which have already been around for a few year, in spatial aspects, presentation, and pedagogical strategies. Welcome the birth of digital curation…

I read an article in the New York Times (Süddeutsche Zeitung, 8.Feb.2010) entitled “Online, It’s the Mouse That Runs the Museum.” The article explores the advantages to digital museum presentation and curation. Because of the general knowledge of social media platforms (a.k.a facebook and Twitter), web users are becoming more accustomed to having influence on subject material. At the Museum of the History of Polish Jews, which will open in Warsaw in 2012, a virtual platform allows web users to support the collection by sending their own photographs, videos, etc. Even more exciting is the French project for the Museum of Afghan Civilization, which only exists in digital form. Its goal is to allow people in Afghanistan to share photographs that are taken there in areas where computers are scare. A new way of communicating culture! The founder of this museum stated, “Curators are starting to realize that they can be challenged by the audience.”

What a wonderful idea! I’ll have to admit, I’ll be excited if at some point I cross paths with a digital curating project!

My trip to Paris with “Historische Kunst- und Bilddiskurse” was from March 22 to the 27.  The first day we arrived in Paris, via TGV (an express train) was a Sunday, and already fairly late in the day.  We were welcomed by two of our professors and received an introduction to the week at one of their apartments, which included a small introduction to French cheese! I think I liked the cheese a little too much!

Afterward, once we had checked into out hotel and the sun had set, we set out on a introduction to the city of Paris and wondered the dark and mystic streets. Here’s a picture of our exploratory posse:

You can already see in the background of this picture what our next destination was. Actually, it was food…we were looking for a specially tasty falafel stand, but it just happened to be in the direction of the Pompidou!

Here you see the Pompidou lit up by night. It’s the famous art museum with the piping on the outside. There was an exhibit on Alexander Calder there that I would have very much liked to see, but the purpose of our excursion to Paris was to learn more about Symbolism, an art movement that took place at the end of the 19th Century. In the following blog posts I will get more into the details of the movement, the artists involved, and the museums we visited in their reference.

After finding food, we headed in the direction of the Île de la Cité, where Notre Dame is located. The night lighting and the bridges on the way were gorgeous:

We took a short stop outside the Notre Dame, and then a few from the company came up to me to tell me about the wonderful English bookstore on the south bank.  So many knew of it and like it, that we decided to detour over there. So we reached the Rue de la Bucherie:

The Street of the Bookshops! There was a lovely antique bookshop there as well as the English bookshop, where I contemplated purchasing Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray…it seemed befitting; the only novel written by one of  my favorite playwrights as well as a literary work of Symbolism…but in the end I shied away from either antiques or relevant literature, considering the additional weight on my back while traveling. However, as we were leaving the Rue de la Bucherie, I did find something quite close to my heart:

I just love this! It’s like a deja vu of culture…a moment of complete and total juxaposition completely out of left field…in a street in FRANCE…a sign in ENGLISH…selling cheap GERMAN books…wonderful!  I loved the subtlety of it was well, a very inconspicuous and cheap cardboard box!

We then slowly began our saunter back to the hotel…crossing back over the river Seine and catching our first glimpse at the Eiffel Tower. One of us wanted to wander off in that direction, but we decided to save that for a later night. From a bridge, I took two pictures:

Tried from the train ride and walking through the streets of Paris (no knowing what was in store for the next few days) we winding through the maze back to our hotel.  On the way we went through an underground shopping mall, the Forum des Halles (picture below) and then crashed into bed.

My room, which I shared with two other girls, was on the fifth floor of our quaint little youth-hostel like hotel.  The following morning we were surprised by tasty instant coffee in milk and a large baguette with butter and jam…the same breakfast we had the following four mornings, but which never got old! It became the morning fuel for what I’m starting to call “Art History Bootcamp”…but more on that in the following posts!

The last time I was in Paris was in the summer of 2000…believe it or not, 9 years ago!  When I was there, I had a picture taken of me in from of Picasso’s former studio near Montmartre.  9 years later I found myself in the same street and was surprisingly able to recognize the door after all that time! So here’s a Parisian time-warp for you:

About a month ago I went on an excursion with “Historische Kunst- und Bilddiskurse” (my Master’s program) to academically celebrate the end of the semester.  First we had a project seminar in Höchstädt (actually in the palace there!) and then we continued on a overview adventure of Baroque churches in Bavaria, particularly those from Dominikus Zimmerman and his brother Johann Baptist Zimmerman. I don’t think I’ll go into detail about each church (could be a little over the top and most definitely repetitive), so I’ll list them all now, in case you care to google them: Kloster Maria Medingen, the Frauenkirche in Günzberg, Kartause Buxheim, Residenz and Kirche Kempten, Steingaden, Steinhausen (yep, that’s somewhere else!), the Wieskirche (you may have heard of that one…it’s protected by UNESCO), the beautiful library and church in Bad Schussenried, Ottobeuren (a name I’ll never forget), and the Johanneskirche in Landsberg an der Lech.

The thing I liked most about this excursion was the spectrum in which we explored, which allowed me to finally understand the difference between Baroque and Rococo architecture. Apparently the transition mainly took place in none of than the (then) country of Bavaria. I’ll get to that more specifically in just a bit…

Here’s the palace in Höchstädt where we spent about 10 hours a day in a workshop:

I have to say, I can’t really complain about the location! We also had a few breaks during the workshop in which we were given tours of the palace, which is partially restored and still undergoing the remaining restorations. In this wing we saw the restored frescoes:

I actually quite liked this restoration, as it did not have the goal of bringing the works back to their original quality by adding what was missing, but instead restored what was there and nothing more. It leaves the frescoes with a very rustic and authentic look. I was also quite amused that this wing of the palace actually housed a chapel for weddings! I was quite appealed myself, until it was pointed out that the frescoes in the chapel portray the Fall from Eden! Yikes! Get married and you’re thrown from Paradise! Actually, come to think of it, maybe the irony is, in fact, a good omen. Sort of a way to ward off those demons from the start.

This is actually good, it gives me a chance to use some of the things in my wordpress folder that ususally just sit around…

Here’s a good start…a happy picture of me and Philipp:

Philipp will be going in for knee surgery next Monday! I know, quite sad, but think of it this way…he gets to have me as a servant for at least the first week while he can’t walk! He’s even decided he wants to get a bell to ring.  The upside for me is that for this week, Philipp and been getting up and going into the kitchen, etc. to get me things. Don’t worry, I know how to play it right!

What else have a got in this folder…oh! here’s a cool painting of the Munich skyline that I found on the outside of a tent at Oktoberfest.  Pretty random, but that’s exactly what this post is for:

And finally, to bring up the subject of the “new” (like the blog posts I will be making soon, right?!?!) I have a picture from Mad About You, with Murray the Magic Dog:

THIS IS NEW!!!

First photo:

This photo is actually a poster in the Reno airport (technically taken at the end of the trip because I got the digital camera I took the picture with for Christmas), but it being in the airport is symbolic, as my last picture is also of a poster, but in the Munich airport (see below).  This photo is also the inspiration for the title of this blog post, as the Reno arch is the rainbow…

Let’s see, next photo…ooo! Another poster, except this time…

Philipp is in the middle of it!  Great story…we went to the movies to see, um, Yes Man, and I got bought a drink.  When I was finished I started to look around for Philipp and couldn’t find him, but heard a cute little Philipp voice cry out “Darby” a few times, and so I got very confused.  I finally found Philipp’s face in this poster and jumped for shock!  I think continued laughing until I was able to take the photo!

Here’s a picture of Philipp and my dad bbqing…a favorite pastime for both of them!  Speaking of food, we went to my favorite sushi place in Reno, The Oceano at the Peppermill, with my mom, my sister, and my cousin Jesse.

We got the typical wooden chopsticks, like at all other sushi place, but for some reason Philipp was inspired to put them under his upper lip so that they made tusks!  I was chatting with the others and didn’t realize him doing this, but everyone else saw him and started laughing.  I turned around and once again was shocked by Philipp.  So we all took our chopsticks and became sushi walruses, and had our picture taken by the waiter.

If you ever go to the Oceano, make sure to get the Oceano house roll, a bit spicy but really yummy…I could get 4 or 5 if they were put in front of me (and I hadn’t had anything else to eat).  Man, I’m starting to crave one right now but I’m not in Reno! Darn.

So…moving along with my digital photo album of Reno…

For New Years, Philipp and I met up with some good friends at Ceol, an Irish Pub in Reno that has become our “Stammtisch” or I guess you could say regular place to go out.  Even if you don’t tell anyone that you’re going there on a Friday or Saturday night, you’re bound to run into someone that you know.

This picture is of myself and my best friend Nick…based on the looks on our faces you can probably tell we’ve know each other for a while…

We stayed at Ceol for the “ball dropping,” although is was the first year that I didn’t actually see the ball drop on television.  We sang Auld Lang Syne at midnight, which was either very appropriate, being a celtic song sung in a pub named after the word for music in Gaelic, or incredibly ironic, because the song is Scottish, which isn’t quite Irish…hm…

I think my new years resolution will be to learn the lyrics of Auld Lang Syne.

The second photo here is also from New Years.  After Ceol, Philipp and I went downtown and found Jade, my sister’s boyfriend, at Harrah’s.  He had just gotten off work, so we went out with him to celebrate.  His face paint is pretty cool!

Here’s a cute picture of Philipp and me sitting in the back of the car with my puppy Lilybloom! I was so happy to see her!

And for a bit of a surprise, not another photo, but a video!  Philipp gives Lily a doggy biscuit, known to her as a “cookie.”

My puppy is like family to me!  And I have some more pictures of family!  Here are two photos taken with my grandparents.  I’m glad that Philipp is in these photos too!

And during the last weekend Philipp and I were in Reno we went sledding!  Poor Philipp couldn’t go skiing or ice skating because of his knee that he injured while playing handball, so sledding was the snowy alternative.  And we went with my aunt and uncle, there two sons (now all grown up) and three grandchildren.  The youngest son, Cash, went down the slope on a spiffy sled that was driven by his uncle Jesse, and every time they went down, Jesse pushed Cash back up the hill on the sled while Cash persisted “Again!”  It was very cute.  Here are two pictures from that…3 generations shown in one picture and my aunt with her granddaughter in the other photo.

Oh, and I almost forgot the picture of Philipp and me in the snow too!

And last, but not least:

Right after Philipp and I got off the plane at the Munich airport, I found this sign!  Technically it’s an advertisement for the cell phone service O2, but I liked the fact that it’s the Munich skyline and a welcoming phrase in English.  I guess I did feel at home again, even though I had just left home.  I think I like the fact that now, no matter what direction I’m flying between Reno and Munich, I’m always flying home.

Until next time!

(This photo supported blog post is brought to you by my dad, who gave me a new digital camera! Thank you!)