As a stepping stone in the engineering design process, we recently developed our team mission statement:
“Advancing preventive conservation by designing, developing, and implementing superior storage solutions that meet the needs of The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. “
Today we were given a list of priceless artifacts from the Museum of Fine Arts Houston. Though these three-dimensional artifacts range from the last quarter of the 17th century to modern art, they all have one thing in common: the need for quality storage solutions. We decided to tackle a total of five pieces. One piece we decided to tackle as a large, team project that presents a significant challenge. The four smaller pieces will be managed by a team leader who will master the issues surrounding the artifact’s material composition.
For the large team project we will be working on a piece by Antonio Berni, an Argentinean artist. Created in 1964, La sordidez is the largest piece selected in physical dimension, at a staggering 400 centimeters long. It is made from a variety of material including wood, steel, cardboard, roots, and enamel.
Rhodes Coffey will be the project manager for the storage of a marble bust called, Portrait of a Gentleman, created by the workshop of Gian-Lorenzo Bernini that dates back to the end of the 17th century. Caleb Brown will be overseeing a storage solution for, Head of a Child, a wax and plaster sculpture by Medardo Rosso created in 1892. Kristi Day selected Aster 350 T12/5000K, a fragile piece made of fluorescent lighting by Thomas Glassford in 2001. Nicole Garcia will be focusing on a paper dress designed by Ginger Owen-Murakami in 2007-08 called History Dress #1.
These pieces were selected based on the diversity of the materials used to create them, the age of the artifact, and the way they rest or hang. We have decided that everyone will work on each piece under the direction of the designated project manager for that piece. This will ensure that each piece’s specific needs are addressed adequately in the overall design of our storage solution.
Today, we were given a tour of the Museum of Fine Arts Houston (MFAH) collection and storage areas by Wynne Phelan, MFAH Conservation Director, and Julie Bakke, Chief Registrar of the MFAH. They started the tour by showcasing a variety of pieces in the museum and explaining the conservation issues surrounding these pieces.
One of the things we learned was that the history of the piece’s treatment was often more important than the age of the piece. We also learned about the specific concerns for different materials. They talked about specific needs for the housing of each piece. Some of the main priorities in establishing housing are visibility of the piece, minimizing handling, stabilizing the piece inside the housing, and making efficient use of space in the storage facilities.
They also gave us a behind-the-scenes tour of some of the current storage facilities. The storage of most of the MFAH permanent collection takes place at an off-site facility. We will be touring this facility next week. In the storage areas, we were surprised to find such basic components as cardboard boxes and bubblewrap that were being used to protect priceless works of art. Many of the objects weren’t packed at all, but placed on crowded shelves. This really opened our eyes to the need for a new approach to housing artwork.
After finishing the tour, we were able to sit down with Wynne and Julie and have some of our specific questions answered so that we could get a better understanding of the goals of our project. We need to create housing solutions that will meet the needs of the artwork under all circumstances with the exception of when they are on display. We came away with a better vision of what our project is really aiming for.
One of the most exciting things about our day was having a chance to see some of the pieces that Wynne and Julie had selected as possiblities for us to work with. A few of those pieces are currently on display at the museum, while others are in storage. After our museum trip, we had a chance to sit down and discuss which pieces we should design housing for. Choosing the actual pieces that will be the basis for our project was an important step, and is really making the project start to come to life.
The Center for Civic Engagement (CCE) and the School of Engineering at Rice University have selected four students, Kristi Day, Caleb Brown, Nicole Garcia, and Rhodes Coffey, for the 2009 summer internship. We will be working with Dr. Matthew Wettergreen of Caroline Collective and Dr. Maria Oden, Professor of Engineering Education, on a multi-disciplinary collaborative design project with the Museum of Fine Arts Houston (MFAH). Our project is to develop custom storage solutions for priceless works from the museum’s permanent collection and to establish a curriculum for a course that will be taught at Rice in the fall, adapting our multidisciplinary approach to solve other community problems.
Our first step will be to gain a better understanding of the unique challenges that exist in the field of conservation through vigorous research. We will examine all aspects of the problem to identify challenges we will encounter throughout the design process. We will also be attending talks and lectures from conservators and experts in the field, some of which work at the MFAH, to see real world conservation in action and to understand more of the real world problems faced by preventative conservation. Finally, we will be working with actual artifacts from MFAH and constructing effective storage solutions for those pieces.
Other important aspects of this project include working as a team, and having input from other groups. In order to ensure that we are working together as best we can and to foster creative thinking, we will participate in daily team building exercises. The Rice Center for Civic Engagement will be facilitating our relationship between Rice and the outside world. We will attend weekly meetings where we will have a chance to hear from community members as well as other students who share our title of Center for Civic Engagement Fellows. Here we will learn about their different projects, as well as provide up-to-date information about ours. During the summer, we will also be enrolled in the Innovation Norway course taught by Dr. Brad Burke of Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship in the Jones School of Management in order to gain a better understanding of business and entrepreneurship practices.
As a multi-disciplinary project, we will be utilizing a digital workflow process that incorporates several online tools. Our website, edaac.rice.edu, will showcase all of the work that we complete along with daily posts about team-building activities and pertinent media. Within the digital workflow process, several websites will be employed to organize and publish our ongoing work. Delicious will be used to organize online bookmarks, a wiki page will be used to brainstorm and organize team thoughts, and Dropbox and Google docs will be needed for document sharing. Youtube and Vimeo will be used to store videos of the process while Flickr will be used to store pictures. The goal of the digital workflow process is to more efficiently manage our ideas and resources while also displaying our final results in a more visible spectrum to those interested. For more information about digital workflow, see our post.
As a multi-disciplinary project, we will be utilizing a digital workflow process that incorporates several online tools. Within the digital workflow process, several websites will be employed to organize and publish our ongoing work. These tools will lead to the documentation of solidified knowledge or actions on our website. Our website will showcase all of the work that we complete along with daily posts about team-building activities and pertinent media.
The components of digital workflow that we will be utilizing for our project include:
(1) Communication will take form through skype or gmail. This communication is important for instant relay of information between team members. Skype, Gmail.
(2) Document storage will occur at dropbox and google documents. Document storage allows us to access various documents and research information from anywhere.
GetDropbox
(3) Digitial bookmarking will take place at delicious.com and we will be sending out pertinent links via digg.com. Delicious allows us a place to share the relevant information within the websites that we have accessed and found pertinent to our research. Digg allows us to share our research and progress with readers on the web.
Digg, delicious.com/edaac
(4) Picture storage will take place at flickr.com.
flickr.com/edaac
(5) video storage will take place at youtube.com and vimeo.com.
Youtube and Vimeo
(6) Scheduling, vital for meeting goals and deadlines, will be organized on google calendar.
(7) For team brainstorming, storage of information, and collaboration, a wiki page will be utilized via the wetpaint.com website.
Wetpaint
Digital workflow is a good tool for collaboration, efficient organization, and shared research. The goal of the digital workflow process is to more effectively manage our ideas and resources while also displaying our final results in a more visible spectrum to those interested conservators and engineers on the internet. We have chosen to use digital workflow because it will not only allow us to meet our project goals, but also to reach out to a public audience.
By documenting all of our steps in this endeavor, we are making it possible for others to reproduce our process in engineering design, teamwork, and a multi-disciplinary approach to problem-solving.
