: Ymgysylltu â'r Gymuned

Mi ddechreues i sgrifennu post hir am orielau, ond beth ddois i yma i'w ddweud yw: dw i wedi mwynhau arddangosfa Mi Wela i... Natur yn Amgueddfa Genedlaethol Caerdydd, sydd ar agor tan fis Ebrill 2015. Bob tro dw i wedi ymweld, mae'r lle wedi bod yn llawn teuluoedd, sgyrsiau, a phlant wedi gwisgo fel gwyddonwyr a thrychfilod, yn sboncio o un cesyn arddangos i'r llall.

Llun clou iawn o flaen un o'n gweithgareddau rhyngweithiol, er mwyn ceisio osgoi amharu ar breifatrwydd ein hymwelwyr!

Rho Mi wela i... Natur gyfle i ni weld y byd o safbwynt gwyddonydd, ystlum a phry. Yn wir, cyn belled â dy fod o dan 10, galli wisgo i fyny fel un cyn archwilio'r sbesimenau o'r casgliad trychfilod, cwrel wedi'i brintio ar argraffydd 3D, cwisiau rhyngweithiol a gweithgareddau. Mae'r sgrîn feicroscôp ryngweithiol enfawr soniodd David amdani yn ei flog yn eistedd o flaen wal wydr brydferth o sleidiau, o'r 100 mlynedd diwethaf. I'r rhai ohonoch sy'n hoffi chwarae labordy, mae yna feicroscôp gwyddonydd ar gael hefyd, gyda bwrdd troelli llawn sleidiau i'w harchwilio.

Mae'r tîm Mi Wela i... wedi bod yn teithio ar hyd Cymru gyda'u gwrthrychau hynod - er enghraifft, dyma @CardiffCurator yn gafael mewn gwrthrych anarferol iawn yn yr Eisteddfod:

Mae @CardiffCurator wedi denu lot o sylw gyda'i chragen enfawr ar stondyn @AmgueddfaCymru yn yr @eisteddfod heddi! pic.twitter.com/cxsOTVhg7r

— Gareth Bonello (@ghbonello) August 7, 2014

Bydd Fflach-Amgueddfa Mi Wela i... yn ymddangos am y tro olaf eleni, yng nghanolfan siopa Capitol yng Nghaerdydd, rhwng y 28ain a'r 30ain o Awst. Ymysg y gemwaith, y paneidiau a'r sêl-diwedd-tymor, cewch ddarganfod sgorpionau, bwystfilod bychain, ac wrth gwrs, cragen sy'n fwy na'ch pen! Galwch heibio rhwng 11am a 3pm i weld beth welwch chi!

We are here @Capitol_Cardiff with our pop up #IspyNature exhibition Come and meet our scientists @Museum_Cardiff pic.twitter.com/3YikdnBPfp

— Cardiff Curator (@CardiffCurator) July 24, 2014

#fflachamgueddfa #popupmuseum

Heddiw, cynhaliwyd y gweithdy cyntaf ar gyfer creu fflach amgueddfa yng Nghynhadledd Cymdeithas yr Amgueddfeydd ym mis Hydref yng Nghanolfan y Mileniwm yn Amgueddfa Stori Caerdydd. Daeth staff o Amgueddfa Stori Caerdydd, Amgueddfa Cymru a Chronfa Dreftadaeth y Loteri ynghyd gydag aelodau o Fforwm Ieuenctid a gwirfoddolwyr Amgueddfa Cymru ac Amgueddfa Stori Caerdydd i brofi’r broses angenrheidiol ar gyfer creu fflach amgueddfa.

Cytunodd y rhai a fynychodd y byddai defnyddio Caerdydd fel thema yn syniad da. Bydd Beth yw eich stori Caerdydd? Neu beth mae Caerdydd yn ei olygu ichi? Yn rhoddi cyfleoedd  i bobl roddi eu barn am Gaerdydd- prif ddinas Cymru, hyd yn oes os nad ydynt erioed wedi ymweld â’r Ddinas. Bydd yn cynnwys pobl sydd wedi eu geni a’u magu yn y Ddinas neu’r rhai hynny sydd newydd gyrraedd Caerdydd am y tro cyntaf erioed; y rhai sy’n mynychu cynhadledd Cymdeithas yr Amgueddfeydd a theuluoedd yn ymweld â Chanolfan y Mileniwm fel rhan o Ŵyl Amgueddfeydd Cymru.

Roedd proses drefnus wedi ei gosod lle'r oedd pawb yn cymryd tro i ysgrifennu, tynnu llun o’u gwrthrych, cael tynnu llun o’u hunain a chael eu ffilmio yn siarad am eu stori Caerdydd.

Mewn awr, crëwyd amgueddfa syml, ar raddfa fechan. 12 gwrthrych, 8 stori, 7 voxpop a 12 llun oedd i gyd yn dweud rhywbeth gwahanol am Gaerdydd a beth mae’n ei olygu, neu wedi ei olygu i’r rhai hynny oedd yn cymryd rhan, unai heddiw neu yn y gorffennol.

Arran Rees, Curadur Casgliadau Amgueddfa Stori Caerdydd rannodd ei wrthrych a’i stori gyntaf.

Tro pawb arall oedd hi wedyn, ac o fewn 30 munud, cafwyd llu o wrthrychau gwahanol o bice ar y maen i ffosil oedd yn datgelu rhywbeth am Gaerdydd. Defnyddiodd y person rannodd y Pice ar y Maen y cacennau fel ffordd i ddangos ei hoffter o’r stondin ym Marchnad Caerdydd a sut yr oedd yn meddwl am Gaerdydd a Chymru gan iddi ddod i’w hoffi er gwaetha’r ffaith ei bod yn casáu ffrwythau wedi eu sychu. Gwrthrych arall oedd modrwy oedd yn symbolaidd o gyfeillgarwch ac amseroedd da ym Mhrifysgol Caerdydd. Rhannodd person arall ei phrofiad fel perfformwraig ym Mardi Gras Caerdydd yn 2013. Roedd pawb eisiau darllen storiâu pawb arall ac ysgogodd y gwrthrychau drafodaeth am Gaerdydd – y da a’r drwg, presennol a gorffennol.

Roedd y gweithdy’n hynod o ddefnyddiol. Cadarnhaodd y grŵp fod thema fwy eang yn well, ac yn fwy agored, gyda’r potensial o apelio at fwy o bobl i gyfrannu na rhywbeth rhy benodol. Roedd technoleg syml yn gweithio, a bydd yn gallu creu diddordeb a thrafodaeth – hyd yn oed os nad yw technoleg yn gweithio.

Nawr bod y syniad wedi ei brofi, rydym yn barod ar gyfer ein gweithdy nesaf. Bydd gweithdy agored, eto yn Amgueddfa Stori Caerdydd, 30 Awst 11yb-1yh. Ymunwch a ni a rhannu beth mae Caerdydd yn ei olygu ichi.

Cysylltwch â Arran Rees yn Amgueddfa Stori Caerdydd am fwy o wybodaeth: cardiffstory@cardiff.gov.uk

02920 788334

There is an exhibition showing at National Museum Cardiff called: I-Spy…Nature (until April 2015). One of the touch screens (picture 1) focuses on a selection of diverse, interesting and beautiful biological and geological slides from the Museum’s Natural History Collections. This blog is about the small aspects of the touch screen that I was involved with; plain and simple. 

Resources & Outlines

• One general overview image of 36 slides
• 12 very high resolution images of some of those slides
• 27 inch touch screen
• Complement an actual Micrarium, which would be displayed neatly above the touch screen
• Incorporate a Victoriana style
• Target audience: young folk

Flourishes

The high resolution slide images were always the prize, therefore it seemed obvious to sort out the zoom features first. Using the Javascript version of Zoomify (other javascript frameworks are available) gave us a good foundation to work on. We just needed to tap into their Zoomify Javascript code a little, then add our own layer of Javascript and graphical flourishes to make the design fit in with the exhibition outlines.   

All the controls were laid out in plain sight, hopefully to reduce any learning curve when approaching the interactive; and since the touch screen is quite large (27 inches) we had the space.

Five additional features were added to the zoom screen (picture 4):

• Zoom controls
• Navigation controls
• Home button
• Information button
• Change language (English/Welsh) 

n.b. where possible I tried to avoid using words to describe button functions, hence why the home button is only an image, but this idea fell down a little when it became clear you couldn’t avoid a word or two to help the visitor work out what specimen they were observing.

Into the Arms of a Microscope

Once or twice someone may have caught me saying things like: “Plagioclase Feldspar” or “Olivine”. Anyhow, part of the fun with looking at slides is the process of selecting a new slide, I thought so anyway - you were never sure what would be on the other side of the glass.

I wanted to avoid the conventional method of changing between images, which is usually to include a ‘next’ and ‘previous’ button; so tried to incorporate some of my vague science memories with a quick reconnaissance mission (picture 5) to see the microscope that was being prepped for the exhibition.

Since there were 36 lower resolution images on the home screen, but twelve high resolution images on the slide selection screen, it gave some space to move a simple microscope stand into view, which provided the excuse to animate the microscope arms and float the slides back and forth. The iris transition between the microscope slide view and the zoom view is loosely based on the idea of looking down a microscope eyepiece.   

Intermittent Contact

The interactive was built on HTML and Javascript with animations mainly driven by CSS. Due to the amount of images used in this interactive (up to 120MB), the project was exported from Amgueddfacms CMS into a standalone ZIP file then installed onto the exhibition PC - this improves the interactive response times, since it doesn’t have to wait for any image files to download over a network connection.

We’ve been using Firefox for a while as its platform independent and has neat little add-ons (R-Kiosk and Block Site). In this case, the operating system is Windows 7, with a locked down user account which only has access to Firefox and the touch screen drivers.

Usually we use Google Analytics to record button events, to give us an indication of how much the interactives are being used, but Google Analytics is designed to work with regular domain websites, which is not the case when running locally from simple hard drive files - therefore the button events are recorded by the web server listening to AJAX calls from the kiosk.

Video Demo:

I've included a short demo video for posterity:

Mae partneriaeth rhwng Amgueddfa Stori Caerdydd, Amgueddfa Cymru a Cronfa Dreftadaeth y Loteri yn ceisio creu fflach amgueddfa wedi eu llywio’n gyfan gwbl gan aelodau’r cyhoedd sydd gyda rhywbeth i’w ddweud am Gaerdydd.

Bydd y themâu, y cynnwys a’r modd y mae’n cael ei arddangos yn cael eu penderfynu gan y cyhoedd a bydd yn cael ei greu a’i arddangos yng Nghanolfan y Mileniwm, Caerdydd, o 9 - 12 Hydref. Gall unrhyw un ymweld, ac un ai helpu i’w greu neu ei weld, a hefyd cael y cyfle i roi ei gwrthrych a’u stori hwy fel rhan o’r arddangosfa!

Dros y ddau fis nesaf byddwn yn cynnal nifer o weithdai fel bod pobl yn cael y cyfle i glywed sut y gallant for yn rhan o’r fenter hon, a darganfod mwy ynglŷn â sut y gall fflach amgueddfa weithio.

Bydd y gweithdai yn cael eu cynnal yn Amgueddfa Stori Caerdydd fel a ganlyn:

• Sadwrn 30ain Awst, 11yb-1yh
• Iau 11eg o Fedi, 6yh-8yh
• Sadwrn 27ain o Fedi, 11yb-1yh

Byddwn yn cadw blog ac yn trydar drwy gydol y cyfnod hwn, felly bydd gyfle i bawb lle bynnag eich bod yn byw fod yn rhan o hyn, a sicrhau eich bod yn gweld sut mae’r cyfan yn datblygu a pha straeon mae pobl yn eu rhannu ynglŷn â Chaerdydd. #fflachamgueddfa

For this year’s Art Carbootique at Chapter Arts Centre in Cardiff, 'Made in Roath' were lucky enough to be able to work with Annette and Jules, the natural science conservators at the Amgueddfa Cymru - National Museum Wales in Cathays Park.

The National Museum of Wales has a vast collection of approximately 2000 taxidermy specimens most of which are not on display, and some of which present interesting curatorial challenges because of their history and the stories they tell. Having long been fascinated by the stuffed animal collection on display in the Natural History gallery at the museum, we felt really privileged to be invited behind the scenes and view the specimens in storage.

This was an amazing experience; the conservator’s stores are wonderful -  heartbreaking and fascinating in equal measure. We decided that our mission would be to make a ‘museum’ in our caravan of a selection of these unseen animals, allowing them to temporarily escape the museum archive and be seen by the public. In this context, the specimen is not just being viewed as a singular object but as part of a wider culture, referencing human practices such as hunting, shipping and collecting happening in the Victorian period, but which are still practiced today. Furthermore, a consideration of the specimen’s history within the museum itself, with its changing site,  politics and attitudes, exposes how wider socio-political forces have shaped the specimen’s display, reception and curation at the local level of the museum. Jules and Annette were really helpful and accommodating when we told them what we wanted to do, they went up to Nantgarw to the stores there and selected some more specimens to add to the collection, many of which had not been displayed for many years.

We installed the work, with a lot of help from Jules, and drove over to Chapter – there is something very surreal about towing a caravan full of stuffed animals through central Cardiff on a rainy Sunday Morning, but it was worth it. The response from the public was great, both adults and children have such a fascination for taxidermy, the exhibition was a big success, we’d also photographed the animals and made masks to give to visitors, so the animals had another opportunity to ‘escape’. Although the emphasis was on fun, we had expected to get some criticism with people possibly disapproving of the museums stuffed animals, but apart from some healthy and thought provoking discussion about the way human beings treat animals, it was a hugely enjoyable day. Thanks to AC-NMW, especially Annette and Jules, for making it happen.

The 'Made in Roath' Team!

Find out more about the work of 'Made in Roath' at http://madeinroath.com/