Tag Archives: Multimedia

Maggie Struckmeier of Past Horizons on volunteer archaeology and online media

Maggie Struckmeier describes how Past Horizons used a web portal, magazine, podcast, video, maps and community projects to help non-specialists find meaningful ways into archaeology. The interview is an early example of digital media being used not just to explain heritage work, but to recruit people into it—turning audiences into participants and giving archaeology a more public-facing, networked layer.

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Video Netcast: Past Horizons Magazine, Heritage Travel Community, Smithsonian 2.0

This 2009 netcast captures cultural institutions testing a range of participatory digital ideas at once: online archaeology publishing, heritage-travel communities, Facebook fundraising, and the Smithsonian’s effort to imagine a more open and interactive digital future. Seen together, the stories document a moment when “2.0” thinking was moving from experimentation at the margins toward institutional strategy, with public contribution and digital access beginning to reshape expectations.

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John Leeke V-log: Steam Paint Removal

In this installment of his Voices of the Past V-log, John Leeke demonstrates using steam to remove heavy paint build up from wood surfaces. Steam paint removal softens the paint film so it can be more easily scraped away. It works well with the heavy paint buildup commonly found on the exterior of older buildings during house restoration and historic preservation projects.

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Voices of the Past Audio Podcast: Conducting a cultural resource survey of the UT-Austin campus (with Fran Gale)

Preservation specialist Fran Gale discusses a Getty Foundation-supported cultural-resource survey of the University of Texas at Austin’s historic campus. The project combined documentation of significant buildings and landscapes with a broader management plan, graduate instruction, professional workshops, and interpretation. The conversation offers a practical example of preservation as a system: research, planning, education, and public understanding working together to guide stewardship of a complex historic environment.

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Voices of the Past Video Netcast: Taj Hotel Artworks, Kate Chopin House salvage operation

This early Voices netcast brings together stories of cultural resources under pressure from terrorism, economic downturn, fire, and long-term preservation challenges. From damaged artworks at Mumbai’s Taj Hotel to the loss of the Kate Chopin House and threats to state parks, the episode shows heritage reporting as a way to connect seemingly separate events through a shared question: what happens to cultural memory when larger social forces place it at risk?

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John Leeke Preservation Trades V-log: Timber Repair

John Leeke of Historic HomeWorks demonstrates preservation-trades knowledge through short-form web video, focusing here on timber repair for older and historic buildings. The original Blip.tv video is gone, but the post remains evidence of an early effort to move hands-on preservation instruction onto the social web.

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