This week, we talked about what makes for an effective online exhibition.  Students presented exhibits from the early days of the internet and contrasted them with more recently developed sites.

Digital History Class Notes Week Nine

March 10, 2015

4:30 p.m. – 4:50 p.m.

• Omeka formatting notes
  • Fields should contain information with first letter capitalized and second word lowercase (Photographic print)
  • Description should contain complete sentences
• Upcoming assignments
  • Digital tools review
  • Digital history site review
• Online exhibit best practices
  • What makes an exhibit different from an archive?
    • Interpretive experience
    • Selection process, a specific subset of a collection
  • What are different types of online exhibits?
    • Aesthetic
      • Organized around the beauty of the objects
    • Emotive
      • Meant to elicit an emotional response
    • Evocative
      • Designed to create an atmosphere
    • Didactic
      • Created to teach something or tell a specific story
    • Entertaining
      • Just for fun!
    • Most are a hybrid.
  • What are the characteristics of an effective online exhibit?
    • Concept
      • Clearly expressed
    • Object selection
      • It can be easy to have too many objects in your exhibit
        • Think about having a few examples.
    • Narrative
      • Thematic
      • Chronological
      • Non-linear
    • Design
      • Be kind to your audience!
      • Fonts
      • Colors
      • A/V access points
      • Frames
      • Navigation
    • Interactivity
      • Can visitors leave comments?
      • Can visitors save or share their experience?
      • Can visitors create their own coherent experience?
• Creating exhibits in Omeka
  • Exhibit Builder
    • Customeka Theme for exhibits
      • https://github.com/JonathanReeve/theme-customeka
    • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l772yYCxNKE
    • http://gvh.aphdigital.org/admin/

• Strikingly clear exhibit:
• http://gvh.aphdigital.org/exhibits/show/edith-kramer–immigrant–artis
• Somewhat less visually arresting exhibit:
  • http://gvh.aphdigital.org/exhibits/show/eastvillageprotest

• Neatline
  • http://neatline.org/demos/
  • http://hotchkiss.neatline.org/neatline-exhibits/show/battle-of-chancellorsville/fullscreen

• http://henshaw.neatline.org/

• New Neatline Features:
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPofW7j_6Y0

• Neatline Timelapse

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_c6Fw0zgg2w
• Building a Timeline in Neatline:
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mv3txyZ7vdc

4:50 – 5:00

• Break

5:15 – 7:00

• Online Exhibit Show-and Tell
• Everyone will have 10 minutes to present your exhibits and discuss them
• Focus on concept, object selection, narrative, design, and interactivity