Writing

Every once in a great while, I write things down!

Chromolodeon by Seth Tisue. CC BY-SA 2.0
A red LED bulb is illuminated on a black background. The bulb is not connected to a socket.

Innovation is not infrastructure

October 19, 2025

Innovation alone will not solve the arts’ infrastructure problems.
Close-up of vintage telephone keypad buttons, with a yellowed 0 OPER button in the center.

Your first call with a funder

September 19, 2024

How to have a productive first call with a grantmaker.
Close-up image of the control panel for a vintage analog synth, with rows of physical buttons, dials, and quarter-inch phono jacks.

At what cost?

February 12, 2019

Is the increased use of commercial digital solutions proving to have unintended consequences for the museum sector?
A pamphlet titled People. The pamphlet is one of eight found in a portfolio titled Soul City. The pamphlet is printed using blue and black ink. The front features six images. The images are of two people in front of a blackboard, a girl hugging a woman, a man taking a picture, a baby, a man’s face and a boy holding a football. The pamphlet describes how the community plans to improve the quality of life for residents.

Take care of your people

December 16, 2018

We’re not doing enough to take care of museum workers.
Visitors pose in a pool of oversize sprinkles at the Museum of Ice Cream in w:San Francisco.

On selfie museums and empty calories

November 12, 2018

A few words on the emerging phenomenon of so-called experience museums and the their implications for the work we do.
Exterior of TWA Flight Center at JFK Airport in New York City, New York.

Museum technology at cruising altitude

May 16, 2018

Some further thoughts after MW18 on the contraction of the musetech sector and what that might mean for the immediate future of our work.
Black and white image of a man crouched in front of a bank of analog computers, with numerous switches, readouts, and cables.

Is the museum technology sector shrinking?

April 19, 2018

As more and more people leave the field, some thoughts about where musetech is now and where it might be going.
This quiet scene between a channel of water shows the famous Mt. Fuji in the background. A man in the foreground carries a group of passengers away from the auspicious mountain.

The conference backchannel and the ‘right on’

April 18, 2018

Thinking about how discourse has changed on social media as the result of a few design decisions, and how that’s changed the musetech conference backchannel.
Image of a beige mailing wrapper, with multiple postage stamps across the entire surface. In the middle of the mailing wrapper is the address for the sender, Harry Winston.

The great museum unbundling

June 12, 2016

Thinking about the museum as a bundle of connected services, and what disconnecting them might mean.
Image depicts a vintage Zenith radio dial with a needle pointing between 100 and 110 on the dial.

On losing Rdio

December 22, 2015

A eulogy for the only music streaming service I’ve ever truly loved.
The site of the Calvary, a shrine built in 1628 at the top of a cliff overlooking the medieval town of Honfleur, was popular in the nineteenth century among tourists, pilgrims, and people offering prayers for men at sea. Corot painted this work during a trip to Normandy, probably in 1830.

More on relevance

March 2, 2015

Some further thoughts on ‘relevance’ and why chasing it is trouble for museums.

Net Neutrality and the museum community

July 15, 2014

Copy of the text I sent to the FCC about the dangers posed by the proposed 2014 net neutrality regulations to the museum community.
Instructional illustration of the lifecycle of moths.

The museum as skeuomorph

July 1, 2014

Examining the idea of skeuomorphism and how it (unfortunately) applies to a lot of museum thinking.
Watercolor drawing of purple grapes on a vine.

The irrelevance of relevance

May 18, 2014

Does it make sense for museums to strive for relevance as an end goal?
Image of two people in front of a large screen with hundreds of images of works of art. Both are touching the screen and immediately between the two figures a larger artwork image is visible and the words 'decorative arts' are immediately underneath it.

Gallery One and visible technology

May 1, 2014

Thinking about the very visible technology of Cleveland Museum of Art’s Gallery One in an era where most musetech is about making the tech invisible.
A picture showing the Brooklyn Museum in March 2018, when the David Bowie Is exhibition was showing there.

The technology skeptic

April 5, 2014

Thinking about what it means to transition from being a full-time cheerleader to a skeptical veteran.

…aand here’s a blueprint of the floorplan.

April 5, 2014

A short post on other ways of accessing museum mobile content other than maps.
Brown grasslands receding into the horizon, with a single tree in the center of the frame.

Why are we so tired?

October 30, 2013

A few words of concern on the exhaustion of the musetech sector.
Ink-and-pen drawing of leafy green plants.

How can museums make memorable apps?

July 18, 2013
Painting of male and female cafe-goers dressed in late 1800s attire.

The majesty and wonder of Drinking About Museums

July 5, 2013