How To | MUSEUM FATIGUE

Mobile Visual Ethnography Kit

February 18, 2015 by Museum Fatigue

Last year I posted a bit about the simple, mobile equipment that I have put together for the students in my visual anthropology class to use on their visual documentary projects. This year I have made a few updates that are worth a quick share. I’m still committed to using Zoom H1s for audio capture—there really isn’t a better recorder for the price—and I’m a big fan of the tripod/case accessory package that is available for the Zoom H1 on […]

Categories: Anthropology, Fieldwork, Gear, How To, Visual Anthropology • Tags: Canon VIXIA HF R500, FurryHead Windscreens, mobile equipment, visual ethnography, Zoom H1

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(Simple) Mobile Visual Ethnography Equipment

March 13, 2014 by Museum Fatigue

I’m often telling folks that the goal of my visual anthropology class is not to make filmmakers, but to use basic equipment to have my students make films together with others… For the past few years, students in my class have been working with local volunteers from our university neighborhood—The Hamline Midway—to make simple films together. During the first half of the semester they get to know one another, and the students get to learn the equipment, by making a […]

Categories: Anthropology, Fieldwork, Gear, How To, Visual Anthropology • Tags: FlipCam, FurryHead Windscreens, iPhone, visual ethnography, Zoom H1

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Master “The Double Tap” for Success on Assignments

December 14, 2013 by Museum Fatigue

“In those moments when you’re not sure the undead are really dead dead, don’t get all stingy with your bullets. I mean, one more clean shot to the head and this lady could have avoided becoming a human happy meal. Woulda. Coulda. Shoulda.”—Zombieland (2009) It always seems to be at the end of the semester when a good portion of students finally get around to visiting me during office hours, asking about their scores and inquiring about tactics to be […]

Categories: Assignments, Higher Education, How To, Introduction to Anthropology • Tags: "double tap", assignments, final exam, midterm exam, success, test taking, Zombieland

Flying Spaghetti Monster Pasta

February 17, 2013 by Museum Fatigue

Tonight we decided to have a little fun with our food. Inspired by a photo of sausages connected by spaghetti, we were inspired to go one step further—to create a pastafarian meal in honor of His Noodliness, The Flying Spaghetti Monster. It went well with a glass of Hey Mambo Sultry Red. Click on the photos for an explanation of the steps. “May you be forever touched by His Noodly Appendage.”

Categories: Food, How To, Photo Essays • Tags: Flying Spaghetti Monster, humor

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Making Zongzi

June 20, 2012 by Museum Fatigue

While walking in some of the back streets of Nanjing just days before the Duanwu Festival I came upon a woman preparing zongzi for sale. I have eaten the bamboo leaf-wrapped rice many times over the past two decades, but until then had never seen how they were made. I was fascinated by how the simple ingredients of rice and red beans were deftly filled and wrapped by her experienced hands. It took her about half a minute to make […]

Categories: Food, How To, Video clips • Tags: China, cooking, food, zongzi

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iPad Apps For the Digital Professor

May 23, 2012 by Museum Fatigue

Since getting my first iPad on the day it was released two years ago, I have enjoyed the challenge of experimenting with it in new ways—seeing how I can use it effectively in my daily work and professional life. This has involved trying lots of apps and removing lots of apps to see which ones stick around to become useful. It has also meant experimenting with the iPad in class or to document class work. Along the way I have […]

Categories: How To, iPad, Teaching • Tags: fieldwork, iPad, productivity, teaching, technology

Editing a Homework Film on iMovie for the iPad

March 12, 2012 by Museum Fatigue

This past week in the anthropology senior seminar we looked at narrative documentaries in anthropology and discussed issues of dramatization and aesthetics in John Marshall’s classic, The Hunters, and Robert Gardner’s Dead Birds. Both films were shot without sync sound equipment and feature both the heavy editorial hand of the filmmaker and a strong narrative voice (“Voice of God”) telling the story. In class we spent some time discussing the aspects of social life that cameras are good at capturing—things like movement, color, […]

Categories: How To, iPad, Teaching, Visual Anthropology Class • Tags: Anthropology, imovie, iPad, senior seminar, teaching, The Hunters, visual anthropology

“Visual Notes” with iPhoto for the iPad

March 10, 2012 by Museum Fatigue

Just days after posting a long description of teaching film with the iPad that discussed streaming ethnographic film, taking visual “notes”, and presenting them during class discussions, Apple announced iPhoto for the iPad. I purchased the application the evening it was released and immediately I realized it would improve upon the way I organize and present my “visual notes” during class discussions. As I described in my earlier post, it is really easy to use the iPad to make screen captures of […]

Categories: How To, iPad, Teaching • Tags: classroom experience, film, iPad, iphoto, teaching, teaching film, visual anthropology

Teaching Film: Streaming Films and Taking “Visual Notes” on the iPad

February 29, 2012 by Museum Fatigue

Since the day my first iPad arrived nearly two years ago, I have enjoyed experimenting with it in my research and teaching. From the beginning I was impressed with the possibility that a single device could replace my lecture notes, deliver my Keynote presentations in class, store movie clips, file journal articles, keep ebooks, record field notes and just be fun. Initially I had planned to blog about my experiences, sharing things that I learned. I started out strong with […]

Categories: How To, iPad, Teaching, Visual Anthropology Class • Tags: classroom experience, film, iPad, teaching, visual anthropology

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Using an iPad in China

June 3, 2010 by Museum Fatigue

I often travel to China with student groups or for research and never leave home without my MacBook. It is the place I keep things to read, write fieldnotes, store the many photos I take and keep in touch with friends and family through e-mail, Skype and Facebook. Lugging it around always seemed a bit much, and after a drop at the Tokyo airport last January that left a nasty dent in the corner of its otherwise immaculate aluminum frame, […]

Categories: Essays, How To • Tags: Anthropology, China, fieldwork, iPad