Learning from Rem
Posted by Steffen Böddeker
There is a certain way museums publish their lectures online. This usually takes the form of a static video feed (2 alternating angles for museums with bigger budgets) showing the speaker on stage, with details of the slides inserted at more or less the right moments. Depending on the speaker’s skills this can be excruciating or palpable, and I am not sure how many of even the most dedicated fans will watch 45 minutes (or more) of this on a computer or iPod.
Some museum sites offer transcripts, a great benefit for those interested in browsing or studying the content for research purposes. See the CCA’s series of Mellon Lectures as a good example, where mp3 audio files are accompanied by downloadable illustrated transcripts (although the PDF files aren’t searchable on the site). As I've mentioned before, ArtBabble is doing a great service by annotating the videos and creating a searchable database, which saves you a lot of time if you are looking for specific references - but it doesn’t give you a workable text.
I just came across the Lectures section on Rem Koolhaas’s website (via Abitare). Here is a different model that I haven’t seen commonly used on museum sites, although it could serve them well. The lectures are represented by a manageable selection of images followed by the transcript - no media. I like this because you can instantly see what each lecture is about, you can look at the reference images for as long as you like, and you can linger over the text (which can also be printed or saved). Published directly on the site, the text is also fully searchable.
There are currently five lectures dating from 2002 through March 2009, four by Koolhaas and one by his partner Reinier de Graaf. The selection adresses broad topics such as “Sustainability: advancement vs. apocalypse” and “Lagos: infrastructure and improvisation”, as well as more specifically the firm’s work in Dubai and for the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, Russia.
Such a simple interface and format could very well serve museums that don't have the time or financial resources to capture, produce, and host audio/video content on their websites. The only challenge is to get the spearker's transcript...
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