art history writing

Just the Punctuation

I ran across a cool new tool on Twitter recently. Created by tech writer Clive Thompson (@pomeranian99 on Twitter), the tool strips all the letters from your writing, leaving you only the punctuation. It’s called Just the Punctuation [https://just-the-punctuation.glitch.me]. If you’re a writer, go ahead and give it a try. Paste some of your writing into the box and click the Submit button at the bottom. It helps if you use  a substantial piece of…

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history museums pragmatic historian preservation

The Museum of Loaned Artifacts – For Reals!

After publishing last week’s post about a thought experiment regarding setting up a history museum that has no collection but uses short-term loans, I got some feedback on LinkedIn. David Grabitske (yes, him again!) said he knew of someone who was part of such a museum. The museum of loaned artifacts – for reals! –  is the Bullock Texas State History Museum in Austin, Texas. Tom Wancho, exhibit planner for the museum, said in our…

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design observations thought fodder

Spelunking Online

Spelunking is the term used for exploring caves. Urban explorers in London have been spelunking in the underground structures of the city and documenting what they find because most of these areas are off-limits to the public. People love mucking about in hidden places. On a planet that seems to have had every square inch explored, what might there be left to uncover? As London’s urban explorers have found, human beings have created hidden and forgotten…

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