RIJKSSTUDIO

and the Idea of "Public Humanities"


Anna-Sophia Zingarelli-Sweet
LIS2975: Digital Scholarship
University of Pittsburgh
13 November 2013


Julie Ellison
"This American Life: How are the Humanities Public?"
Humanities Indicators Prototype: The Humanities in American Life
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
2013

  • developed out of town/gown relationships
  • but "the actual making of public culture through humanistic projects cannot be carried out in colleges and universities alone; it can move forward only through collaborations across sectors."

What does "Public" mean?

  • publicly funded
  • linked to a public cultural institution
  • occurring in a public space
  • driven by commitment to public good
  • involving the general public (anyone/everyone)

Why does the public Matter?

  • "because the production of cultural knowledge is changing"
  • partnerships among universities, cultural heritage institutions, community groups
  • shift in understanding of who creates culture, who consumes culture, and how they consume it

RIJKSMUSEUM

  • Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
  • Opened in 1800
  • National museum of the Netherlands
  • Initially formed from viceregal collection
  • Mission: "At the Rijksmuseum, art and history take on new meaning for a broad-based, contemporary national and international audience."

RIJKSSTUDIO

  • Begun 2012
  • To celebrate 1st anniversary, initiated "Rijksstudio Award" for best original creation
  • Networked gigapixel image technology?

Title

as of April 2013:
  • 92,000 users
  • 110,000 collections
  • 3,180,000 visits from 2,330,000 unique visitors
  • average time spent looking at each image: 9min
  • (compared to estimates that a visitor in a museum will spend max 30 seconds in front of an object)

-Martijn Pronk, "Le Rijksstudio: Ici, on peut toucher les ouvres!"
Bulletin des Bibliothèques de France 58:5
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