My dreams are filled with digital museum experiences. Easy, intuitive access to art. Inspiring and creative interactions with art, ideas and people that transform me. And entering from stage left, a herd of rhinos. Pink elephants emerge stage right. Rhinos and elephants and art? Yes! Rhinos and elephants and art! You see, the ever so talented Peter Samis is sharing his passion for interactive multimedia experiences and art through a grand open source project named The Pachyderm Project.
The first time I saw Peter’s work was the Anderson Collection, where he brilliantly designed “Art as Experiment. Art as Experience.” From his excellent use of Zoomify in A Closer Look to his thoughtful use of video and audio and text, Peter’s ability to create experiences that engage and inspire is obvious. And this post wouldn’t be complete without a reference to Making Sense of Modern Art. The only thing better than Peter’s online experiences would be a personal guided tour of SFMOMA with a curator.
Now Pachyderm makes the authoring tools for rich multimedia learning objects and puts them in the hands of museum professionals. Am I dreaming? Or is this real? (pinch) Awake! Oh how I want to see what happens when you mix one Pachyderm, a digital art collection and the creative minds of the Blanton.