How to look at contemporary art

A good friend and fellow museum professional and I started museum/gallery hopping two weeks ago. Both of us have been away from the Philippines for a while (I for over three years!) and we thought that this would be a great way for us to get re-introduced to the Philippine art scene.

Our recent adventures have taken us to several contemporary art spaces around the metro. I have probably  been to hundreds of museums and seen thousands of art works. But I still get confounded by contemporary art!  I would often ask myself "what am I looking at?" or "what does this mean?". Don't get me wrong, I appreciate contemporary art and most often than not, I am intrigued by them (and the artists who create them). But sometimes I just don't get it!

Diving and Climbing Sparkies Go to a Summer Camp

Tanya Garner, Lemelson Center’s Interpretative Exhibit Manager, goes to a school in Washington View once a week for an all-girls summer camp. She invited us to bring the Diving Sparky and Climbing Sparky to test it out with the camp’s participants. Since I have been testing the Diving Sparky and Climbing Sparky activities with a number of Spark!Lab visitors for over a week, we felt that both activities are now ready to travel.

        

Inventors' Week at the Spark!Lab

In celebration of National Inventors' Month (2009), the Spark!Lab partnered with Lego for a weekend of inventing. For August 1 and 2, Lego builders set up shop at the National Museum of American History’s lobby to create an eight-foot tall bulb completely made up of Lego bricks. Museum visitors helped by creating the bricks, while the builders assembled the bulb.

The seven-foot LEGO light bulb and its mini-me

Joe and the Diving Sparky

Experiments and activities at the Spark!Lab normally starts at 11am. However, at the request of two docents who were eager to learn how to conduct the Diving Sparky activity, I started facilitating the first activity at 1030 am.  Ten kids participated during the first round. As these kids were leaving the bench (this is how we call the table where experiments are done), eight more kids immediately took their place! So as not to disappoint them, we decided to conduct another activity right away. This time, however, I asked Joe to facilitate the activity. Joe is one of the docents who has been very enthusiastic about the Diving Sparky activity and was very interested in conducting it himself. He has been observing me conduct the Diving Sparky every time he is on duty at the Spark!Lab. 

Visiting the museum next door: National Museum of Natural History

We usually have two or more docents and volunteers at the Spark!Lab every morning. But for some reason, this morning there weren’t any volunteer or docent at the Spark!Lab. So it was up to me and Danielle Weaver (one of three of Spark!Lab’s part-time facilitators) to conduct all the activities. There were a lot of visitors at the Spark!Lab today so Danielle and I did two experiments simultaneously. Danielle facilitated the DNA extraction, while I chose to do the CO2 experiment. After conducting three back-to-back experiments within two hours (we normally just conduct experiments every hour on the hour unless there are a lot of visitors), I was more than ready to take my break and do something else! Luckily, some of the docents and volunteers arrived and took over.

Developing the Diving and Climbing Sparkies

For my internship project, I was tasked to develop activities/experiments that can be implemented at the Spark!Lab. Since the Spark!Lab focuses on creativity and invention, I decided to create two activities that support both. Steve and I both agreed that making toys that explain basic science concepts would be a good activity for kids. Thus, I started developing one diving toy, based on the Cartesian Diver, and a climbing toy, based on something I read online.

Cartesian Diver

Sneak peak at the Lemelson Center

I arrived in Washington, DC on the afternoon of Wednesday, June 17. Since my internship does not start until June 22 and I have some time on my hands, I decided to re-visit the National Mall the following day. It has been almost seven years since my last visit and I have forgotten how many people come to see its museums! If only visiting museums could be as popular in the Philippines...

What I took Home from the AAM Conference

Think about it!

I was among the 21 AAM members who were fortunate enough to be able to attend this year’s conference through the Diversity Fellowship program. As a student, and an international one from a third world country at that, it is almost impossible for me to attend a national conference of this magnitude because it is just beyond my financial capacity. This is why I am tremendously grateful for the fellowship.

Reaching for the stars

One of the few perks of working at the Corporate Communications Team is the opportunity to attend cool events organized by fellow Corp. Comms. members. I had the privilege of meeting two very inspiring people at the last 2 DHL-organized events. And saw two encouraging signs for my future.

First was Illac Angelo Diaz. Yes the former model/actor, but that's not the reason why I am ecstatic about meeting him. He is the Philippine's 1^st National winner for the DHL Young Entrepreneurs for Sustainability (YES) Awards. He attended the regional YES awards in Singapore and I had a chance to meet him. This guy has impressive list of achievements- he earned his MBA at the Asian Institute of Management; was awarded the first TOYM Award for social entrepreneurship; went to MIT on research fellowship; and has now moved on as a research fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government!

But what's more impressive is the fact that he has put his skills and learning into projects that benefit our fellowmen. He established Pier One- no not the restaurant! This is a dormitory for Filipino sea farers. Another project he pioneered is the MyShelter Foundation- a non-profit organization which addresses housing and educational infrastructure concerns of rural areas.

As a Filipino, I was oh so proud when his name was called during the presentation of awardees at the DHL YES Regional Awards. Did I mention that he is still as dashing as ever especially in his barong tagalong walking down the catwalk leading up to the stage during the awards ceremony?

Oh and his fellowship at MIT was through a Fulbright-Humphrey award! Coincidence or serendipity?

The second stellar individual I met was Anousheh Ansari. She was the guest speaker at the DHL Leadership Dialogue Series held on September 12, 2007 at the National Museum of Singapore. Anousheh is a multi-million entrepreneur who made her fortune in the telecoms industry and was the 1st female private space explorer and 1^st space ambassador (yeah, you can now buy tickets to go to outer space!). Extremely inspiring woman! She dreamed of seeing the stars when she was a kid in Iran and she did! Talk about reaching for the stars.

Anyway, guess where she completed her master's degree? At George Washington University !!! Is this yet another sign for my future as a grad student under Fulbright? I surely hope so! Spoke to her and told her I was aiming to get accepted to GWU. She said to let her know if she needs to put in a good word for me. Is she just being polite? Heck, I don't care- she gave me her card and I will send her an e-mail to remind her of it. I hope it reaches her though. She's heavily involved in CSR for children, education, culture and of course, technology. This is like an opportunity presenting itself to me!

Again, I ask myself- coincidence or serendipity?

I feel so fortunate to have had the opportunity to attend these kinds of events. These leave you with such a positive energy and prompt you to do something significant with your life- to live not just for yourself but for multitudes of other people as well.