Attendant's View Blog and Cartoons

Haunted museums

31/10/2013

Well, it would be remiss to not mention that it's Halloween, especially given that many museum and heritage staff find themselves are some point working in old and rather odd buildings...

Whatever you believe, from it being hysteria and hokum, through to a genuine ability to communicate with those in a life beyond living, there's no denying that some places make you plain uncomfortable, and it's sort of fun and interesting to poke that feeling.

You can scratch a supernatural itch with http://www.hauntedhappenings.co.uk who access amazing places such as Leeds Old Asylum (now Thackray Medical Museum) Tatton Old Hall and Oxford castle. Not flashy with actors jumping out, the folks have the kit to try and record and investigate what's going on, to try and se what it's all about. I would love to do their Alton Towers tour.

At some point I need to wholly document the time when 'Most Haunted' filmed at Staircase House (hilarious for all the wrong reasons) but for now here's a cracking video about exploring a museum in Indiana. Do share your own 'haunted' related tales!

1 Comment

Cold Spots

28/10/2013

0 Comments

One from Staircase House on a vaguely Halloween theme. There were some genuinely funny peculiar things in that building, such as the infra red alarm on the stairs often being set off by nothing whatsoever/the old butler (depending on who you believed). However the kicker was visitors coming because they had heard that the building was haunted, and feeling a cold presence... - in a room which had a broken leaded window panel, so was evidently going to be colder, with a sudden drop as you walked near the window.

Many of the mghost fans didn't pick up the same feelings that regular staff did, which always made me feel like the spirits hid from the tourists "Oh bugger, it's half term, quick, under the stairs!"

0 Comments

Welcome to Golgotha: a poo museum job

21/10/2013

0 Comments

"Has anyone reported losing a very nice pair of sunglasses?"

"Not that we know of. Why, did you find some?"

"Yes. They were down the toilet in the gent's on Friday. We found them because they had blocked the system up, and caused the toilets to overflow. They overflowed all the way down the stairs."

"..."

"Yeah."

0 Comments

Strange lesson for museums and social media

17/10/2013

1 Comment

Find a wasp stuck in a display cabinet, crawling over the contents, and take a slightly amusing picture of it being a nuisance.

Post the image on the facebook feed for your venue, and watch it reach about twice the usual number of people as everyone likes and shares it.

It amused me, but I had no idea it would tickle so many other people as well!

1 Comment

What price art?

14/10/2013

0 Comments

First Impressions Count - Websites for Museum Cabinets

10/10/2013

1 Comment

I'm currently hunting down a variety of display cabinets to show and tell for my managers, and thus have spent a few days trawling online. I've discovered a few poorly thought out elements which put me off delving a website properly, and thus may loose custom for these potentially excellent cabinetmakers.

1 Comment

Museum envy

9/10/2013

0 Comments

I'm currently partway into a project which is turning into a form of torture.

Having been tasked with providing lots of examples of different types of display case, for a potential forthcoming re-display of our main space, I'm increasingly making desperate squeaky noises at the websites I'm viewing. http://www.clicknetherfield.com/ has been the recent culprit, giving me a strong desire to leg it off to the National Museum of Scotland, Imperial War Museum North (parts of which I actually hate) Smithsonian, British Museum, somewhere in Iran the name of which eludes me but oh! their use of light!.... I'm drooling over innovative uses of cases, colour, floorplan, placing of interpretation and decals and all but stroking the screen while making slight keening noises.

It may be worrying that in most instances I can't recall what was actually on display, just how amazing the displays themselves are, but I'm putting that down to a form of display case induced tunnel vision.

This might be on a nerdy par with photographing the interpretation panels at The Making of Harry Potter because they're nicely themed. :/

0 Comments

...And so's my wife!

3/10/2013

1 Comment

A cracking rumor is doing the rounds today that we had Brian Blessed in the building yesterday. Although our team has no idea if this is true in even the vaguest sense, we've all relished the chance to utter "I'M BRIAN BLESSED!" and other well known phrases.

It's perhaps a good job, if he did visit, that we didn't know about it at the time or the poor chap would have be hounded out of the site!

1 Comment