Rock Crawling and Photographs

A few months ago, the museum was contacted by the Bureau of Land Management to do some photography for a National Public Lands Day event. Normally, NPLD is a day for people to give back to the lands they have been using by doing some clean-up or restoration project, but this year BLM decided to shake things up, and do an educational/interpretive event, to help celebrate the 40th anniversary of Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976. Partnering with the California State Parks and Recreation, the BLM hosted veterans and active military members on a 4x4 ride and hike through Devil's Canyon, which is otherwise of limits without special permits.

Eric taking on a very large boulder. 

To help support BLM in the this task, they contacted 2 4x4 groups out of San Diego, San Diego 4 Wheelers and Tierra Del Soul 4x4. They also invited Jacumba Hikers to come and join the hiking portion of the trip. To handle the photography of both groups, I stuck with the 4x4s, and had a friend of mine, Jacob Parker, take the hike.

Jody prepping to go down a waterfall.

The experience with the 4x4ers was amazing. I had 3 drivers that day, in 3 different vehicles. I first rode with Kevin, who drove a beautiful green Jeep. As we rode together, he taught me the basic ideas of rock crawling, how to prevent getting stuck, and (most importantly) how to buckle my self with their fancy safety gear. Next I rode with Eric, who spent a lot of time in Ocotillo as a kid. His grandfather lived (and died) out here in the desert, so we reminiscence about his childhood out here. Jody, a national championship rock crawler, discussed very openly with me the idea of conservation versus land use. He said to me, "We happy to not going into land that needs to be conserved. We want to protect what needs to be protected. We just don't want the whole desert taken away from us. There is enough for everyone to share."

Kevin and his Jeep.

Jacob, here to help with photos!

This was an incredible trip for me. As a historian, it was interesting to be taken out of my comfort zone, and expected to do the job of a professional photographer, and then to excelled at it. While my photographs aren't perfect, I was still extremely successful in my goal. It was also amazing to see the other side of the desert use argument. I haven't spent a lot of time with conservationists, hikers, and scientists, but not as much with off roaders. This gives me a depth of understanding to our community that I did not have before. 

Building a Sign

I spent my Wednesday working with Dan Evers from the Rainforest Art Project, an orginization that is a nature and history-based, educational, healing arts program that inspires children and their families by building a sense of pride and ownership through the creation of permanent ceramic and mosaic art. We have begun to work together to build an entry sign for the Imperial Valley Desert Museum, with the students from Seeley Unified School District. This is of particular excitement for myself, as I am from Seeley, and my daughter attends the school. This makes this project etremely personal, as the kids I am working with are not simply kids I met on this project, but they are my neighbors, my daughter's friends, and a part of my personal community. 

My daughter helping us with the sign! 

The sign is going to be gorgeous. There are brilliantly colored glass peices that are being placed in a mosaic that will reflect the beautiful natural landscape that surrounds the museum. It will feature native plants, like to ocotillo, and animals, including a roadrunner and a scorpion. While teaching students about the process of making a glass mosaic, I hope to teach them a little bit about their home as well. This will be a fantastic project to be able to work with these students to show them how art, science, and history are not isolated subjects, but are deeply entertwined with each other. 

Dan Evers working with students!

Engaging Youth At Their Level

SO CUTE!

Last night the museum held an event featuring David LamFrom, who was the editor of "Tortoise Through the Lens". While I LOVE tortoises (because I really, really do. They are so cute!), I was really struck by the program that led him to creating this book. He took 13 high school students, from around the California Desert, and taught them animal photography, and helped them author this book.  His presentation stuck me very deeply, since his message is one that I strive to do myself. If we are going to connect our children to the desert, we have to do so on THEIR level, not ours. 

Myself, Edgar, Robin, David, and Robert

So what does that even mean? It means that as educators and museum professionals, we need to stop assuming that youth are interested in what we want to teach them because we think it is important. We need to start asking ourselves, "Why would these young people think these things are important?" and try to to tap into their interests, to teach them. The attitude that "Well, these kids aren't interested in what I have to say so it is hopeless to teach them," is not effective. We need to stop talking at our youth audiences, and start talking with them. If they love Minecraft or Pokemon, then start to integrate that into your lessons. Let students see the bridges between what they love, and what you love, and before you know it, you have taught them what you wanted them to know, and they will be far more passionate about it. 

It has been my greatest honor and joy to teach the children of my community to love our home. I didn't have that a child, and so I want to make sure they have their chance. It is my passion, and one of my major life goals. 

Sick day, shimk day.

I have, to be honest more than one occasion, been refered to as an "over-achiever". While I prefer Dr. Hitch's term "driven", the point still stands, I often push myself very hard. Most of the time, the outcome is very good. I get difficult jobs completed on time, my grades are high, and I don't tend to take no for an answer. Everyonce in a while though, it blows up in my face. Today was one of those days. Between hard deadlines at work and school, and a series of family health scares (two out of three of them ended with much better diagnosises than we thought, the third is scary, but temporary), I have brought myself down and became ill. Being the person I am, I hardly let that stop me.

I felt that going to work was a bad idea, but instead of laying in bed and watching movies, I laid in bed and edited Cal Humanities: Stories of Change videos. In preperation of facing some time sitting in hospital waiting rooms, and delivery rooms (my best friend is having a sweet baby boy!) I began to orginize my stuff so I can work on the go. I am so glad I did, because it gave me the option of resting today, so that I can hopefully recover quickly, and get back to making things happen.

The biggest take away from today is I need to remember to take better care of myself. Also, being prepped to work on the go does have it's benefits. And even a sick day, can be a productive day.

Exhibits: Design vs User

Marcie,

I have been evaluating the exhibits at the Museum of the Aleutians and your current discussion of exhibit development got me to thinking about how visitors use exhibits versus how exhibits are designed to be used.


The design documents here begin with Concept Design in February 2009, and end with the Exhibit Manual in October 2013. Everything seems to have been built according to the concept design except for one gallery: the Fishing History exhibit. The exhibit text panels were all produced according to the Design Development documents, but the room is totally reconfigured, and the panels are placed in an awkward layout that makes them user-unfriendly. There is a video produced in 1997 playing in the middle of the room. The exhibit has the lowest visitor stay time in the museum.

The exhibit looks like it was designed to be a photo station where you can dress up in rain gear and take your picture on the deck of a crab vessel, IE. Deadliest Catch. I tried this myself a couple days ago to see if I was right!

I have never seen a visitor try on the rain gear, however, let alone take a picture.

At first I thought this owed to the fact that there is no sign telling you to try on the clothes. But no, today I see that the words above the clothes tell you to try them on.

I have been in this gallery every day for 30 days and never noticed the sign telling you to try on the clothes. I am sure that when the exhibit was designed it made perfect sense and everyone thought it was clear and clever. But the lesson is that only by assessing the actual visitor experience can you really understand how your exhibit works. And in this case, you must make sure you can make changes or alterations that allow people to experience your learning objectives.

Otherwise, your exhibits will just be clothes hanging on a wall.

Memories in Art

~Marcie Rodriguez

Yesterday marked the opening of art exhibit I have been working on in a gallery design class at Imperial Valley College. It features two artists, Terry Arena and Matthew Picon. Terry's exhibit, Symbiotic Crisis: Southeast (Imperial Valley), features beautifully drawn pictures of bees on container lids. The artwork is delicate and precise, and presents a discussion of the destruction of bees in our environment. The artwork tries to make a statement about what bees mean to humans. Matthew's exhibit (which is the one I helped to install), Coyotes, Whiskey, and Fireworks, left a very powerful impression on me. 

Matthew’s work is complex, speaking to the layered nature of growing up in an area like the high desert. I saw much of my own feelings of growing up here in the Imperial Valley reflected in his work. When you look at his art from one direction you get one meaning, and from another, you have a completely different experience. I have some very vivid memories of a trip to the high desert with an old friend, Brian.  He passed away several years ago. Brian was from the High Desert and I was meeting someone there, so we drove up together. We spent the four hour trip talking about what it was like growing up in our respective deserts, both the similarities and the differences.  I thought about this while I was looking at the exhibit.. The exhibit has a touch a sadness to it, (the artist lost a friend in the high desert), but maybe this just reflected my own feelings on those bittersweet memories. 

My partners in crime and best friends,
Lesliee and Sharon, came with me to the
opening. 

Reflecting on this opening I realize exhibits are more engaging when you have some kind of personal connection to what you are viewing. We all bring the experience of our past into the exhibits we see. Coyotes, Whiskey, and Fireworks caused me to reflect on old memories and emotions, which caused me to reflect on the artwork. I know museum professionals think about this when designing exhibits, but how can we push the boundaries? I want to create exhibits with “deep” engagement and even deeper reflection. I don’t know how to do this yet, but I am going to start experimenting.  

Creating Our Fossil Drawer

~Marcie Rodriguez

We have tool boxes at work which we use to teach students geology and archeology. Today I began the process of installing safety foam into the draws to protect the artifacts and geologic specimens. I started with our fossil drawer. Working with the foam cutter, I was able to cut out the places for the fossils to sit. This is the first time that I am totally on my own with constructing something like this. I was a bit nervous at first, and was frustrated when at first the cuts I made were not up to the standard I hold myself too. I soon realized I needed to take a deep breath, and do partial cuts with a razor before using the hot wire knife, so I could guide myself. At the end, I was very proud of what I had made, and very excited to make the next drawer.