Skyfaller.space

When I say that something is a museum piece, it often carries the connotation that it is something that no longer has relevance to a living culture, and that it can only be found behind glass panels in a museum. This got me to thinking… what if museums thought of themselves as preserving things that are akin to endangered species, that would disappear without a specific effort to preserve them, and they made it part of their mission to “release them back into the wild,” to make them part of a living culture again, to try to preserve the environments that created them? Why keep art and cultural artifacts dead behind glass walls? Why not infuse our culture with old memes every now and then, after they’ve been forgotten? Clearly, this would not be appropriate for some museums, such as the Holocaust museum, but surely this would produce good results for many art, historical, and cultural museums. Is this already being done by anyone? If so, to what degree?

UPDATE: In a slightly related train of thought, while googling “museum piece”, I came upon this poem… it’s probably not that profound, but I found it interesting:

==Richard Wilbur – Museum Piece==

The good gray guardians of art
Patrol the halls on spongy shoes,
Impartially protective, though
Perhaps suspicious of Toulouse.

Here dozes one against the wall,
Disposed upon a funeral chair.
A Degas dancer pirouettes
Upon the parting of his hair.

See how she spins! The grace is there,
But strain as well is plain to see.
Degas loved the two together:
Beauty joined to energy.

Edgar Degas purchased once
A fine El Greco, which he kept
Against the wall beside his bed
To hang his pants on while he slept.

For people who just can’t get enough of Nelson, there’s a picture of me in Newsweek this week. I also get to say a line or two, although they unfortunately don’t mention FreeCulture.org. Ah well, maybe people will google my name and turn up my blog, and find out about free culture that way 🙂

UPDATE: In case the original article becomes unavailable, here’s my quote:

And yet, for those who fully embrace the new world, the possibilities are great. Napster, after all, was created by Shawn Fanning in his dorm room at Northeastern, and college dropouts famously founded Microsoft and Apple. Students push technology forward. That’s why Nelson Pavlosky, a Swarthmore student active in the copyright wars over file sharing, thinks all campuses are worth watching. “It’s what the rest of the country might look like in two to five years.” And then he pauses for a profundity moment. “Hey,” he says. “We are the future.” It’s the sort of thing college students have always said. But guys like Pavlosky might actually be right.

By John Schwartz
Newsweek © 2005

As you may be aware, the Pavlosky development team has recently reached release 1.1 of Nelson Pavlosky, the revolutionary free culture advocate and guitar-playing geek, and we are steaming at full speed towards the 2.0 release. These are exciting times! What new features can you expect as we race towards 2.0? Well, first let us look at what we have already achieved.

==Nelson 1.0==
With the 1.0 release, we certified Nelson as sane, sanitary, and sexy enough for normal women to date (for some values of “normal”). Features included:
* Eats well enough to have a sex drive
* Knows how to cook own food (with a rather limited but healthy menu)
* Showers/bathes daily
* Leaves room at least once a day
* Does not play computer or video games frequently

While the 1.0 release was groundbreaking in many ways, especially compared to the cringe-worthy beta releases, it left a great deal to be desired. Nevertheless, it made Nelson a contender in the marketplace!

Certain bug reports, among them the infamous “total disrespect for authority” and the “tendency to break into song at inopportune moments” bugs, were marked WON’T FIX. These are features, not bugs. Similarly, while we hope to make strides towards a healthier Nelson, he is not intended to be an athlete. We will stick to what we’re good at, which is producing geeks and dorks. Jock-lovers should look elsewhere.

==Nelson 1.1==
With our recent 1.1 release, we added important features such as:
* Flosses daily
* Cuts toenails every two weeks (whether they need it or not)
* Uses deodorant
* Keeps to-do lists
* Knows how to do own laundry

We continue to make progress on basic organization and personal hygiene issues. We expect to make many incremental improvements over the summer, so while there may not be earth-shattering developments, we hope that you will be pleased with our handiwork by the “Swarthmore Senior” release in the fall.

==The Road to 2.0==
The 2.0 release will include dramatic improvements, including:
* Gets to class/work on time on a regular basis
* Keeps all required tasks in centralized to-do lists, maintains/updates them
* Meets deadlines (with few or no extensions required)
* Exercises daily
* Eats enough calories to build muscles/fat

Stick around until 2.0, and you’ll discover the many other pleasant surprises that we will have in store for you! Please feel free to leave comments on this development blog if you have feature requests or bug reports, until we have an official bug-tracking system.

Several days ago, I unhinged my jaw in order to eat a piece of food that was too large to fit in my mouth in the normal fashion. When I rehinged my jaw, it hurt! The left side of my jaw has been hurting since then.

Now, I know you’re going to say, “Nelson, you idiot, why did you unhinge your jaw? You’re not a snake. That’s what knives are for… if you can’t fit a piece of food in your mouth, use your opposable thumbs and your tools and chop it up into bite-size pieces.” However, you’re missing something… I unhinged my jaw many times when I was a child to eat large pieces of food, and it never hurt before! I guess I’m just getting old and inflexible.