As a Dutchwoman with roots in Noord-Holland, cheese making is something that my ancestors, if they did not actually partake in it themselves, would at least have been very familiar with. The Hollands Kaasmuseum (Holland Cheese Museum) in Alkmaar is therefore a place I long felt I should visit at some point, and now, with […]
Category: Blog
Projecting your own expressionist art?
Everyone, including me, who ever visited a modern or contemporary art museum can get a little bit confused by its content. ‘How can this be art?’ ‘What has this to do with art history?’ or ‘How can you find this just as beautiful as the great works of Rembrandt or Da Vinci?’ are questions that […]
Digital cannon balls: the siege of Alkmaar told in a multi-inclusive way
On September 16th, I visited the Stedelijk Museum Alkmaar (SMA). According to it’s website, the museum claims to be the memory of Alkmaar where one can experience and discover the history and art of this city and its surroundings. The museum has several permanent and temporary exhibitions. I paid a visit to Victorie! Het Beleg van […]
Hilde’s house: ‘a digital experience’
In 1995, during archaeological research a skeleton was found near the Dutch city of Castricum. The skeleton was more than 1600 years old and turned out to be a woman from the 4th century. She was probably between 24 and 30 years old and she originally came from East Germany. After further research the University […]
Digging into digital techniques
It is cold, you are descending into a dark, damp, cave-like cellar, you do not see much, everyone around you is silent. Can you still turn around? Yes! But don’t, because you are entering a museum called DOMunder: a fascinating place that promises to teach you all about 2000 years of history in Utrecht, the […]
The Dutch Canon as a digital cannon
Bringing together the entire history of the Netherlands in one exhibition: that sounds almost impossible. Nevertheless, a brave attempt has been made. Exactly a year ago, the permanent exhibition De Canon van Nederland (the Dutch Canon) opened in the Nederlands Openluchtmuseum (Dutch Open Air Museum) in Arnhem. About fifty windows showing the historical and cultural […]
A (digital) chain is only as strong as its weakest (web)link
Outside the museum that once started with one of the earliest public collections of the ethnographic type, the Volkenkunde Museum in Leiden, hangs a huge poster with different photographs on it of all kinds of people from all over the world. Pronto the attention of the soon-to-be-visitor is drawn to the different faces on the […]
A Journey Back in Time Through the Eyes of a German Doctor: an Analysis of Het Sieboldhuis
The Japanese people have evolved greatly since abandoning their isolationist attitude originating from 1854. Their isolationist attitude caused Japan to be a rather closed society that did not accept any foreign intervention, cultures and influences. However, the Dutch Republic was allowed to establish a trading post on the artificial island Deshima, near Nagasaki. This trading […]
Museum Hoge Woerd, a treasure? – an analysis of the exhibition ‘3000 years of living and working in Leidsche Rijn’
Leidsche Rijn, by archaeologist and poet Esther Jansma (English version is my own translation) This poem by Esther Jansma is on one of the walls in the exhibition “3000 jaar wonen en werken in Leidsche Rijn” (3000 years of living and working in Leidsche Rijn). I think a lot of people would agree […]
The use of the audio guide at the Verzetsmuseum. Should we resist?
Yesterday I went to see the exhibition ‘Explosiegevaar!’ in the Vetzetsmuseum in Amsterdam. This exhibition is all about the attack on the Amsterdam population register on the 27th of March 1943. On this date a group of Dutch resistance members blew up – and set on fire – the population register, in order to destroy […]