Interdisciplinary Museum Content Oakland Museum of California June 8, 2012
All: There! Yes, it has to be there. Sa sha : The discussions about this exhibit often circle back to how we can educate people about the natural world when they’re standing in a very unnatural place—a concrete fortress of a museum. If we can bring them to nature, the work is done for us. Everyone knows the magic of the National Park Service, or the effects of actually hiking outdoors. I guess I just want to make sure we don’t circumvent the main challenge, which is that somehow the connection with nature has to be forged from within a building. That’s far more difficult for my mind to grapple with than brainstorming a creative intervention in the real landscape of the Bay. Nikki: I was thinking of it as a two-way street. You get the shopper, you tease them in with this amazing thing, and then you tell them where to go find out about it. You’re talking about a very limited group of people who are actually going to come to a museum exhibit. But the billboards and your shopping centers, how many millions are being hit by those? Lisa : There is a monument down there. My friend calls it the Ohlone Guilt Monument. It’s a sculpture next to the mall and it completely blends in with the corporate aesthetic. You wouldn’t even notice it. It might be the perfect place to bring attention to the history of the place. Wa lt e r : Focusing on the leveling off of the mound interests me, but I’m also interested in the people that formed it and how it got formed and if there’s a parallel with what our culture leaves behind. What’s our equivalent to a shellmound? I think you need to create a personal investment in that site and connect it to today. If there were shells in that site, how were they acquired? How were they used? What became of them? I’m searching for a parallel because I don’t know very much about this topic, but I’m curious how you might help people identify with how the Shellmound was created.
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