Monthly Archive for March, 2009

Shelley Bernstein speaks at the Powerhouse

Published on March 11, 2009 in Research enquiries. 0 Comments

Last Tuesday, Research Library manager, Karen Johnson attended an entertaining talk at the Powerhouse given by Shelley Bernstein, Chief of Technology at the Brooklyn Museum .

Shelley spoke about BM’s commitment to engaging online with the local Brooklyn community. The aim is to encourage public participation in the museum’s online and physical presence via social platforms such as blogging, FaceBook, YouTube, Flickr and Twitter. This sort of community ‘conversation’ with museums is relatively new and not without challenges. One word comments from online participants such as ‘awesome’, ‘cool’ ‘wow’ are regarded as closed remarks and lacking purpose, whereas constructive comments are open and invite further dialogue between participants.

Shelley said that in spite of the difficulties, the hugely positive outcomes for the Museum have been worth it. According to Karen, the talk offered practical ideas for integrating an online presence with museum business in a way that benefits both the museum and its community.

Shelley was in Australia courtesy of the Australian Museum and the Transformation in Cultural and Scientific Communications Conference held in Melbourne 5-6 March 2009.

Draping/shaping

Published on March 10, 2009 in Research enquiries. 0 Comments

Another week and two more visits from Fiona Alldis, a UTS fashion student who is doing a Bachelor of Design in Fashion & Textiles/Bachelor of International Studies, a 6 year course that includes a foreign language component with a placement at a fashion centre in Italy or France. Now in her third year, Fiona is focusing on the application of couture techniques – working with flat patterns on fabric for everyday fashion design, as well as doing the draping/shaping of fabric directly on to a mannequin that is part of haute couture. This semester, she has to create a haute couture bodice in the style of a given designer, in Fiona’s case, Elsa Schiaparelli . For comparison, she is studying the works of French designers of the period such as Coco Chanel, Madeleine Vionnet, Jeanne Lanvin.

Luckily, as Fiona says, she is passionate about the creative process of haute couture. She has promised to bring in some of her millinery inventions. Watch this space…