Dwi'n edrych ymlaen at ein digwyddiad sgyrsiau fflach yfory - cyfle i staff o wahanol adrannau gyflwyo eu hymchwil mewn pum munud.
O ystyried amrywiaeth y disgyblaethau a'r arbenigedd sy'n bodoli 'ma (o ddaeareg gynnar i gelf modern, gofalu am esgyrn i dynnu llo...), dwi'n disgwyl dysgu rhywbeth, a'n gobeithio rhannu arfer da.
Pum Munud i Drafod Dyddiadur
Fe fydda i'n cyflwyno pum munud am @DyddiadurKate - er fod calon ymchwilydd gen i, y tîm yn Sain Ffagan sydd wedi bod yn dod â hanes Kate a'i chynefin at gynulleidfa newydd. Yn aml fe fydda i'n ymladd fy ngreddf i ymgolli mewn casgliadau a'n atgoffa fy hun mai pen hwylusydd sydd gen i - a mai fy rôl innau yw i greu gofod ar gyfer y tîm, eu hannog, a rhannu eu gwaith da ymhellach.
Model Rhannu Casgliadau
Dwi wedi fy argyhoeddi fod model @DyddiadurKate yn un y gellir ei ddyblygu i rannu casgliadau eraill - yn enwedig y gwrthrychau cynnil hynny na fydd byth yn ennill teitl fel 'trysor' neu 'eicon'. Ond ofer fyddai mentro'r un peth eto heb ymroddiad tîm, a'r holl gynnwys cefnogol sydd gennym ar flaenau'n bysedd.
O ran stwff nyrdlyd, technolegol, mae arferion rhannu asedau da wedi helpu, yn ogystal â phlatfform rhag-bostio, er mwyn rhyddhau'r curaduron o'r dasg ddyddiol o bostio, i greu amser iddyn nhw afael mewn pynciau perthnasol a'u hymchwilio ar gyfer y blog, neu greu cysylltiadau efo casgliadau eraill.
Y Rhife
Hyd yn hyn, mae dros 207,000 o argraffiadau wedi'u cofnodi ar y cyfri - llawer iawn mwy nag y gallen ni ei hwyluso yn gofforol, a mwy nag y gallai'r ddogfen ei ddioddef, yn gorffol, hefyd. Mae'r prosiect wedi codi traffig i flog Cymraeg yr Amgueddfa dros 800% o'i gymharu â llynedd - sy'n fy argyhoeddi mhellach o bwysigrwydd creu cynnwys gwreiddiol ar gyfer siaradwyr Cymraeg y we, i ateb galw go iawn, ac i greu cysylltiadau rhithiol ar hyd a lled y wlad, o'n swyddfa fach y tu ôl' i'r orielau celf.
Dwi'n ddiolchgar iawn 'mod i wedi sgrifennu'r rhestr yma wythnos diwetha, yn syth ar ôl cwrs ar google analytics efo Jess Spate o Thoughtful SEO. Mi ges i olwg graff ar beth mae'r platfform yn gallu'i gyflawni - o ddefnyddio tameidiau ohono dros y blynyddoedd, ro'n i'n amau bod llawer mwy y gallwn ei fesur a'i ddadansoddi. Mae sawl aelod o'r tîm digidol yn giamstars yn barod, felly beth am ifi ddechrau efo rhywbeth reit syml i ymarfer? Dyma 5 darlun mwyaf poblogaidd Celf Arlein:
San Giorgio Maggiore by Twilight - Monet
Mae cynifer o ddarluniau hynod a hudol 'da ni o Fenis, gan gynnwys y noslun hwn gan Whistler, a fy ffefryn, y Palazzo Camerlenghi gan Sickert. Y darlun mwyaf pobolgaidd ar Celf Arlein, fodd bynnag, yw'r darlun amryliw yma gan Monet. Fe ddowch o hyd i'r fersiwn 'go iawn' yn Oriel 16, yma yn Amgueddfa Genedlaethol Caerdydd.
Rain - Auvers - Van Gogh
Un o ddarluniau olaf Van Gogh, sydd ar daith yn yr UDA ar hyn o bryd. Bydd yn werth ymweld ag e pan fydd yn dychwelyd - mae'r paent yn drwch blêr wrth ddangos cwysau'r tir, a'r glaw fel petae'n hollti'r ganfas. Bron ag y gallwch chi hogle'r petrichor.
Teulu Henry VIII: Alegori o'r Olyniaeth Duduriaidd - Lucas de Heere
Efallai bo'r lluniau anffurfiol o George a Charlotte yn wahanol iawn eu naws, ond, 500 mlynedd ar wahan, ffocysu ar rym a phwysigrwydd llinach benodol y mae'r darlun hwn hefyd. Mae i'w weld yn Oriel 10 yn AGC: dwi i wrth fy modd yn edrych yn fanwl ar y llun yma, nid ar y cymeriadau ond ar y tecstiliau yn y llun. Mae'r artist wedi gwneud cryn ymdrech i beintio'r ffabrigau crand 'ma - a ma nhw ddipyn yn grandiach na'r dillad 'Tuduraidd' o'n i'n arfer ei wisgo yn Sain Ffagan!
La Parisienne - Renoir
Un o hoelion wyth y casgliad, a brynwyd gan y chwiorydd Davies - eu hatyniad at weithiau argraffiadol a'u gwaith elusennol a sefydlodd egin yr amgueddfa fel yr ydym ni'n ei hadnabod hi heddiw. Dwi erioed di dirnad cweit beth sydd y tu ôl i grechwen y 'Ferch o Baris' - efallai mai dyna sy'n ei gwneud hi'n Mona Lisa Caerdydd! Mi wnes i ddwlu ar y llun yma hefyd, a dynnwyd gan Sioned a Nia mewn priodas fis diwetha.
Yr unig ddarlun gan rywun o Gymru sy'n ymddangos yn y rhestr - a ffefryn go iawn ymysg ein hymwelwyr i'r oriel. Mae'r gwaith bywiog, amwys hwn am ail-ymddangos ar wal ein horielau ar yr 20ed o Awst. Dw'n cofio cael fy syfrdanu gan hwn pan y gweles i e, a'r eilwaith gan ddarllen y teitl: mae'r artist yn rhoi digon o arweiniad i'r dychymyg, ond yn rhoi digon o le iddo grwydro hefyd. Sgwn i sut y daeth antur y torrwr gwallt i ben?
Felly, dyna'r 5 darlun mwyaf poblogaidd yn Celf Arlein - dwi'n licio defnyddio'r nodwedd 'dewis ar hap' i ddarganfod rhan newydd o'r casgliad, neu waith newydd gan artist câr. Ac wrth gwrs, heb anghofio, os fyddwch chi'n cwmpo mewn cariad ag unrhyw rai o'r gweithau 'ma, ewch draw i'n tudalen Argraffu yn Ôl y Galw i archebu copi ohono ar gyfer eich oriel chi gartre!
Yn ystafell ffansi'r cyngor y byddwn ni'n cwrdd yfory, ar gyfer ail drydarfod blynyddol Amgueddfa Genedlaethol Caerdydd. Cynhaliwyd yr un cynta y llynedd i annog trydawyr amgueddfa i ddod i adnabod ei gilydd yn y cigfyd. Amcan gudd i fi (a eglurwyd i bawb cyn cychwyn) oedd i fi gael dod i ddeall rhagor am arfer da a rhwystrau cyffredin 'roedden nhw'n dod ar ei draws yn eu gwaith ar y cyfryngau cymdeithasol.
Fe ges i ddigon o adborth i lenwi blwyddyn o raglen waith, yn edrych ar broblemau oedd angen eu datrys ar lefel reolaethol; patrymau gwaith organig, clymog, oedd angen eu twtio, a chanu cloch uwch ar ran nifer o brosiectau da. Fe gadwais i'n brysur, felly, yn diweddaru polisi, cynnal hyfforddiant sylfaen, yn ogystal â phrosiectau peilot mwy uchelgeisiol, a chadw llygad fwy craff ar analytics. Dwi wedi mwynhau cyd-weithio efo'r holl bobl sy di cyfrannu at y prosesau uchod, a mae dychwelyd at fy nghariad cyntaf - y we - mewn cyd-destun proffesiynol, wedi bod yn hwyl chwerw-felys hefyd.
Museumweek - cyfle i werthuso
Bu Museumweek 2014 yn gyfle da i weld beth oedd iechyd rhwydwaith twitter Amgueddfa Cymru - mae'n wythnos pan fo pawb, o'r trydarwyr tawel i'r trydarwyr diocswrth (diolch @geiriadur) i fod yn rhoi rhywbeth ar y platfform. Felly, er nad yw'n sampl gynrychioladol o 'wythnos arferol' yn Amgueddfa Cymru, mae'n rhoi sbec i ni ar sut mae'r rhwydwaith yn siapo pan ma pawb (i fod) yn rhoi tro go lew arni. Pan ddaeth yr ymgyrch rownd unwaith eto, roedd yn amser i fesur eto i weld i le 'dyn ni'n mynd fel amgueddfa sy'n trydar.
Lawrlwytha'r adroddiad cryno
Mi fydda i'n dangos dau neu dri sleid yfory yn y trydarfod, ond dwi hefyd yn awyddus i bobl gael gweld crynodeb fwy manwl os hoffen nhw: mae modd lawrlwytho un fan hyn: lawrlwytho adroddiad cryno (pdf).
Mi sgrifennais i fe ar gyfer pwyllgor penodol - sgwn i sut y byddai'r adroddiad yn edrych petawn i wedi ei sgrifennu ar eich cyfer chi, fy nghynulleidfa ddychmygol? Gan fo fy nghenfndir mewn gwerthuso dysgu amgueddfaol, dw i wastad wedi gwyro tuag at yr ansoddol, felly roedd llunio adroddiad mesurol yn brofiad boddhaol, er i fi betruso wrth ei sgrifennu.
Adborth i'w gynnig?
Fe fyddwn i'n falch iawn o gael adborth gan unrhyw gyd-weithwyr sector sydd â sylw adeiladol i'w wneud ar sut y gallwn i fod wedi cyflwyno fy nehongliad a'm casgliadau. Neu labeli fy ngraffiau, unrhywbeth, rili, y gall wneud y gwaith yn eglurach ac yn fwy defnyddiol.
Fy nhasg nesaf fydd i gael gafael ar ddanteithion ar gyfer cyfarfod fory. O edrych ar ddata y llynedd, dwi di nodi tuedd ffafriol tuag at siocled a glwten. Gobeithio y bydd y canlyniad yma yn help i mi pan af i siopa bisgedi nes ymlaen.
A lot of people wander around exhibitions with phones in their pockets or handbags. We decided to utilise this idea and serve up a Wi-Fi audio tour for the Chalkie Davies: the NME Years exhibition (9 May - 6 September 2015) - the museum has a web-server and there is Wi-Fi broadcasting in the exhibition gallery, allowing us to give it a whirl.
We wanted to give access to the maximum number of people with phones from this decade (HTML5 compatible devices).
We didn’t want an ‘app' because it creates a lot of hoops for developers and the museum to jump through, plus visitors probably don't want excessive fuss when entering an exhibition especially as they might only use it for five minutes in total.
We didn’t want to bring in traditional audio tour guides because of the hire price for the museum and we weren't going to ask the visitors to pay, as it's free entry to the exhibition.
We might want to use it again and would hope to do so with the minimum amount of technical fuss.
Free Wi-Fi but not sitting a Coffee Shop
Once the visitor has connected to the free Wi-Fi audio tour ‘Chalkie' the Wi-Fi capture software will direct them to the correct web page with the name of the exhibition and a choice of languages (see picture 1). All is going well.
Language Choice
The english audio tour was written and recorded by Chalkie Davies and his team - it provides his personal insights into each of the photographs on display and some back stories. The welsh audio version was recorded in-house by Rhodri Viney (recording and editing) and Telor Gwyn (voice), using the Chalkie Davies translated transcript.
Choose a Number between One and Nine
The visitor is given a choice of nine numbers, each matching a number on the gallery wall which refers to a selection of photographs (see picture 2). Once the person selects one of these numbers the audio tour begins...
"Listen To What The Man Said"
For the best experience the visitor should have headphones, but it's not the end of the world if they don't, they can still listen through their devices' built-in speaker, although this can look and feel a little awkward. Alternatively they could hand over £1.50 for headphones in the museum shop downstairs.
If they don’t want to walk around with a mobile phone protruding from their head, or leave the exhibition and come back in again to buy headphones downstairs, or find that their mobile phone has a low battery percentage - there is a printed version of the audio tour available within the gallery. They are the same words.
A Perfect Circle
I used to have an analogue watch, but I left it accidentally next to the squash courts in the University - if anyone picked it up, could they hand it back please? Anyway, time can be measured within a circle. I like circles, so I built a large circle to indicate the progress of the audio track playing. The animated graphic uses SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics), which meant the page avoided the usual graphical software - it's all written in code: HTML5, javascript and CSS [Well, I find it mildly exciting] (see picture 3 and 4).
Pressing the circle will pause the audio. If the visitor listening to the audio tour wants to change to another number they can press the ‘Home’ button and the page will scroll up to the nine numbered keypad again. Another loop, of sorts…and repeat.
Before we go any further, maybe we could pause for a short film clip...
Additional Details You Might Enjoy
The gallery has a capacity of 40 people at one time.
There are two Wi-Fi hubs at each end of the gallery broadcasting wireless-N.
A web-server streaming the audio.
Each of the audio tracks are compressed to less than 2MB (MP3).
It takes less than ten seconds to download the whole MP3 on a iPhone 5S and the audio plays almost immediately.
We’ve tested it with various phones including one of the first Android audio HTML5 compatible phones (Gingerbread 2.3.6 ~ circa 2011) and Windows 8 phones.
If the device is not capable of displaying a SVG there is a fallback to similar looking GIFs.
Media Monitoring
The web-server records each time a track is requested. Therefore, we will have some data to indicate how much the audio tour is being used - thinking about it, we shoud gather additional information about the type of browser requesting the audio (it's a closed network so we can't involve Google Analytics, which is the usual goto reference for 'what kind of computer has visited the website recently'). We will monitor things during the exhibition and conduct evaluation once it has closed.
I was just making coffee for the team and when I looked around at everyone beavering away at their desks - and realised just how diverse the work we do is… Take this afternoon as an example:
Kay Hanson, our Peoples Collection Wales Technical Officer is fresh from the launch of a brand new “Learn’ section of the People's Collection Wales website – over six months in the planning, such a milestone is no mean feat. The result is the combination of thousands of assets from the main heritage institutions around Wales as well as content contributed from the public and filters all this data according to what educational purpose you require. Give it a go yourself at: www.peoplescollection.wales, what will you learn?
Rhodry Viney our Web Officer (and Final Cut Pro guru) is hard at work editing, slicing and generally making good the video he filmed in the field a few weeks ago with our scientists and paleontologists. It'll be ready soon, but in the meantime I’ll give you a clue… it’s big, it’s extinct and it had lots of teeth. (Shhhhh!!)
Chris Owen our Web Manager is working hard on creating exiting new sections for our website, where all the collections content is brought together in the most user-friendly way possible. Not an easy task given we have 7 physical sites, 5 main collecting departments, hundreds of staff and millions of collections… oh yeah, and two languages to consider!
Dave Thorpe, Senior Developer is tweaking his very popular audio guides, developed as a first for Amgueddfa Cymru – for the new exhibition: Chalkie Davies: The NME Years at National Museum Cardiff. The exhibition focuses its interpretation on an audio guide you access through your own mobile device. Given the theme of the gallery is based around photographs captured in the 1970’s, bringing our new mobile era into the mix is very interesting. He’s also fine tuning some super duper interactives in the gallery. But come and visit the show for yourself to witness his handywork first hand!
Myself, I’m the Digital Programmes Manager and have been up to my eyes in fleshing out software/digital briefs for the new galleries in development at St. Fagans. Funded by a HLF grant, the largest ever awarded in Wales, the plans are ambitious and exciting. Not due to open until 2017/18, it's all about planning at this stage so I’m surrounded by spreadsheets, tables and forms - what a good time to stop for a coffee break and to knock out a quick blog post!
