The Commons and Digital Humanities in Museums | Neal Stimler

On Wednesday, November 28, "The Commons and Digital Humanities in Museums" was hosted at the Graduate Center, CUNY by the CUNY Digital Humanities Initiative and cosponsored by the Graduate Center's Ph.D. Program in Art History and the Center for the Humanities.

The remarks herein are the personal views of Neal Stimler and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Neal Stimler takes an interdisciplinary approach to humanistic scholarship that is informed by art history, cultural studies, digital technology, and sociology.

Inspired by the work of Lawrence Lessig, Lewis Hyde, and Bill Ivey, among others, museum technologists have been striving to provide greater access to cultural heritage collections in the form of commons. The currents of DIY, digital humanities, and free and remix culture have challenged museums to transform their relationships with scholars and the public toward openness and democratic participation. The GLAM-WIKI movement and Creative Commons licenses have also significantly reshaped museum practices. How can museums build vanguard collaborations and collective resources not only to aid constituents as they use institutional content but to create anew in a digital culture? This panel will explore the diverse implications of the formation of commons by museums.