I set up this blog for a number of reasons:
to question what we understand as heritage through the medium of car parks
to question museum organisational management approaches through the medium of farcical incompetence
to think generally think about museums in new and unreasonable ways
to achieve fame and notoriety by blogging pseudonymously (on reflection I need to have thought that one through a bit more)
After 3 years of tirelessly sacrificing myself in the crucible of 300 words of weekly (should that be weakly) original text, have I been successful? In many ways my blog has been incredibly successful, in other ways a hopeless failure, but undeniably always average. Let us start with the success.
To question what we understand as heritage through the medium of car parks
I can state quite confidently that no other blog in the universe has focused on the heritage of car park art. I have inspired reflection and photographic art submission of car spaces. In other words, success beyond my wildest dreams. I have proved that everything and anything can be of worth if it is looked at unreasonably. My work here is done and there seems little point in continuing the blog. The creation of a museum of car parking spaces seems irrelevant now. I have moved heritage's aesthetic paradigms forward sufficiently to know that, in the fulness of time, the Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England (at least once it has been re-separated from English Heritage's populist heritage fascism) will have a car parks division. We must give thanks to the Americans who submitted the car park art. By which I mean celebrating the space for what it is, totally uncontextualised, not for what it might be, not for what it contains or as the starting point for a conceptual flight of fancy. Glorious! Perhaps it is time for me to emigrate and find kindred spirits in the land of the free parking.
Marks out of 10 - 11
To question museum organisational management approaches through the medium of farcical incompetence
My gentle mocking of management theories and practice during the course of this blog seems to have backfired spectacularly as my most popular blog post was 'Five Management Secrets I Learnt from My Cat'. In fact this post was 5X more popular than the next most read one. It was designed as a riposte to all gurus expounding on how to run companies/organisations/life more efficiently and more effectively - such generosity in the face of a no doubt modest management fee. It reached the height of absurdity with a serious article that based management development on a pet dog. He cannot have seriously learnt 'loyalty' in business from an animal. Barking! My more generally failed attempts to write farce based management has given me a a renewed respect for the writers of 'Are You Being Served?' It is difficult. It is much easier to be po-faced and pretentious (and probably attracts a higher fee). So I've decided to give up and join the guru game properly. So in 2014 watch out for my DK published dvd, cd and flip up book 'I Can Talk to the Animals: Anthropomorphic Management for Museums'
Marks out of 10 - 1
To think generally think about museums in new and Charles Handy inspired unreasonable ways
As regular readers will know, one of my heroes is Charles Handy. His 1989 book 'The Age of Unreason' is one of the original 'think outside the box' organisation books. He recognised that new technologies, different ways of working and social change meant that leaders of the future had to think about new business models. He called it discontinuous change. He foresaw the internet, outsourcing, social media etc. etc. The fundamental issue that he realised was that the way we communicate with each other was going to change and organisational structures needed to adapt to survive.
Have museums gone through that change of thinking? We have tried to reach new audiences, become more participatory, interactive and engaging. BUT has the core of what a museum is changed? Have we truly seen a radical new way of thinking about the way we preserve and present the past as Handy encouraged us all those years ago. Have we begun to communicate with each other and our constituents all that differently? I don't think so.
We still need a Museum of Unreason. We need to unthink the museum and rebuild it in the light of public sector cuts, economic downturn, an ageing population, digital natives, the I'm a Strictly X Factor Get Me Out of Here Dancing Academy entertainment generation. We cannot preserve the past if we cannot create a sustainable future for it. We can have all the ethics we like, right up until the point that our collections are put up for auction and our lovely listed building is transformed into a hotel.
Thus my blog in its modest little way has taken a contrary view as to what good management is, what heritage is, what a museum could be. From nonsense to good sense one day perhaps?
Marks out of 10 - 2
To achieve fame and notoriety by blogging pseudonymously
Hmmm.
Although convincing myself that I am some sort of Howard Hughes character sitting on the top floor of my museum constantly washing my hands and cackling loudly gives me some sort of solace.
Marks out of 10 - 11
Conclusion - mixed results.
Enough of looking back, As 2014 begins to wind down I have realised the year actually adds up to the theosophical number '7'. Seven days to create the world, seven colours of the spectrum, seven principles of man, seven major chakras in the human body and seven pints of Theakston's Old Peculier is my limit nowadays (as I discovered on New Year's Eve). I've done 70 blogs, 7 of which were any good and sometimes as many as 7 read my blog each week and I feel 70 years old.
It seems then that the omens are good to retire this blog. I hope you have enjoyed meandering along the byways of the museum world with me and look out for the great car park artists of the future. Who knows, I might regenerate like a certain fictional character and resurface as Emeritus Curator of Parking Lots in Uriah, Alabama.
So in the unfathomable words of Dan Quayle, 'the future will be better tomorrow'
Adieu!
I can state quite confidently that no other blog in the universe has focused on the heritage of car park art. I have inspired reflection and photographic art submission of car spaces. In other words, success beyond my wildest dreams. I have proved that everything and anything can be of worth if it is looked at unreasonably. My work here is done and there seems little point in continuing the blog. The creation of a museum of car parking spaces seems irrelevant now. I have moved heritage's aesthetic paradigms forward sufficiently to know that, in the fulness of time, the Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England (at least once it has been re-separated from English Heritage's populist heritage fascism) will have a car parks division. We must give thanks to the Americans who submitted the car park art. By which I mean celebrating the space for what it is, totally uncontextualised, not for what it might be, not for what it contains or as the starting point for a conceptual flight of fancy. Glorious! Perhaps it is time for me to emigrate and find kindred spirits in the land of the free parking.
Marks out of 10 - 11
To question museum organisational management approaches through the medium of farcical incompetence
My gentle mocking of management theories and practice during the course of this blog seems to have backfired spectacularly as my most popular blog post was 'Five Management Secrets I Learnt from My Cat'. In fact this post was 5X more popular than the next most read one. It was designed as a riposte to all gurus expounding on how to run companies/organisations/life more efficiently and more effectively - such generosity in the face of a no doubt modest management fee. It reached the height of absurdity with a serious article that based management development on a pet dog. He cannot have seriously learnt 'loyalty' in business from an animal. Barking! My more generally failed attempts to write farce based management has given me a a renewed respect for the writers of 'Are You Being Served?' It is difficult. It is much easier to be po-faced and pretentious (and probably attracts a higher fee). So I've decided to give up and join the guru game properly. So in 2014 watch out for my DK published dvd, cd and flip up book 'I Can Talk to the Animals: Anthropomorphic Management for Museums'
Marks out of 10 - 1
To think generally think about museums in new and Charles Handy inspired unreasonable ways
As regular readers will know, one of my heroes is Charles Handy. His 1989 book 'The Age of Unreason' is one of the original 'think outside the box' organisation books. He recognised that new technologies, different ways of working and social change meant that leaders of the future had to think about new business models. He called it discontinuous change. He foresaw the internet, outsourcing, social media etc. etc. The fundamental issue that he realised was that the way we communicate with each other was going to change and organisational structures needed to adapt to survive.
Have museums gone through that change of thinking? We have tried to reach new audiences, become more participatory, interactive and engaging. BUT has the core of what a museum is changed? Have we truly seen a radical new way of thinking about the way we preserve and present the past as Handy encouraged us all those years ago. Have we begun to communicate with each other and our constituents all that differently? I don't think so.
We still need a Museum of Unreason. We need to unthink the museum and rebuild it in the light of public sector cuts, economic downturn, an ageing population, digital natives, the I'm a Strictly X Factor Get Me Out of Here Dancing Academy entertainment generation. We cannot preserve the past if we cannot create a sustainable future for it. We can have all the ethics we like, right up until the point that our collections are put up for auction and our lovely listed building is transformed into a hotel.
Thus my blog in its modest little way has taken a contrary view as to what good management is, what heritage is, what a museum could be. From nonsense to good sense one day perhaps?
Marks out of 10 - 2
To achieve fame and notoriety by blogging pseudonymously
Hmmm.
Although convincing myself that I am some sort of Howard Hughes character sitting on the top floor of my museum constantly washing my hands and cackling loudly gives me some sort of solace.
Marks out of 10 - 11
Conclusion - mixed results.
Enough of looking back, As 2014 begins to wind down I have realised the year actually adds up to the theosophical number '7'. Seven days to create the world, seven colours of the spectrum, seven principles of man, seven major chakras in the human body and seven pints of Theakston's Old Peculier is my limit nowadays (as I discovered on New Year's Eve). I've done 70 blogs, 7 of which were any good and sometimes as many as 7 read my blog each week and I feel 70 years old.
It seems then that the omens are good to retire this blog. I hope you have enjoyed meandering along the byways of the museum world with me and look out for the great car park artists of the future. Who knows, I might regenerate like a certain fictional character and resurface as Emeritus Curator of Parking Lots in Uriah, Alabama.
So in the unfathomable words of Dan Quayle, 'the future will be better tomorrow'
Adieu!
