Digital Objects: My Jewelry Set

In this collection I have my engagement ring, wedding ring, women’s ridgeline silicone ring, mother’s engagement ring and Swarovski earrings.

My engagement ring

Wedding Ring

Women’s ridgeline silicone ring

Mother’s Engagement ring

Swarovski earrings

These pieces of jewelry were given to me over the past ten years. I created the item set and listed it as Sarah Tallant’s Jewelry Set to help myself and others find it easily.  

I used metadata fields like owner, maker, creator, theme, date accepted, format, and audience for many of the items listed in my collection. 

The metadata fields that I chose to describe my jewelry with is for the audience. Hopefully it would give them a better understanding of what is listed with descriptor fields. It can only help the audience acquire knowledge about the item along with the basic title and description of each object.    

I feel that a challenge I faced was in the early stages of this project. I had a hard time with the titles for each one of the objects and whether it should be described in a more formal way. Since they were personal items though I listed them for what they are to me. I think it was challenging trying to come up with an idea for a collection, but once I knew what I wanted it was fun to organize it from that point.

I think it could facilitate new ways people can view details unlike before. There are limited details in person sometimes and in some museums it is expected to do your own research about the objects while walking around. With digital exhibits the audience can now learn more than ever about the item they are viewing.

People still want to see the real artwork or collection in person. Many people still don’t have access to internet services and the exhibit might require using an app to access more information on items in the collection. This could even lead to software issues with compatible IOS or Android, or generational issues. The digital divide plays a part here where people even with the privilege of having those services do not know how to access the right material. If an exhibit is only online there might be a large portion of people who miss out on a learning opportunity. 

I think that museums will have to choose carefully what they want as digital exhibits. I think the collaboration between digital exhibits and the physical museum can work seamlessly if under proper management and expertise.