The Albert Khan museum was my favorite museum exhibition I have seen during this course. The storytelling, siloing, multimedia elements, and contemporary commentary all work together to create an immersive and impactful experience. I was struck by how closely the upstairs exhibit resembled spectacular realities and the LACMA catalog. It laid emphasis on the importance of movement in the 19th century world, it drew a strong connection between film and travel,  it talked about cinema capturing the “theater of the streets,” it even included a segment about subjects’ “look backs” at camera operators. The exhibition also did a wonderful job displaying “brass behind glass.” Not only did it explain and show early film technology like the praxinoscope, but it did a wonderful job displaying travel cameraman's cases and color photography equipment. What really enhanced my understanding of these technologies and their historical uses were the didactic videos that accompanied the artifacts. Simple and animated, the videos did a good job portraying the right amount of information in a digestible way that informs and satisfies viewers without overloading them. A genius element to the videos was their placement and interactivity. By placing the videos on different sized screens in different places, it made them part of the exhibit, not just an add on. The touch screen gave viewers the ability to select, start, and stop certain videos. This in turn gives the viewer that feeling of discovery and agency that one craves when in a museum. On a similar note of new media in museums, I found the room where viewers could slide an Ipad to different sections of the archive and project photographs and film, along with didactic information, amazing. Again, this system is digitized and displayed on screens, but it still keeps the essence of viewer agency by allowing viewers to select what they look at, and of movement through space, by adding physical requirements(sliding the Ipad) to a digital space. 
I spent a while listening to contemporary PHD students, professors, historians, and museum staff speak about the archive. I found this very interesting because with a collection as large and diverse as that of the “Archives of the Planet,” it is interesting to see its actual and varying applications. From the staff member who spoke to me through a video, I learned about the museum's “open source” practice in which they are constantly searching for more information about the places and subjects depicted in photographs and calling in specialists to write and rewrite image captions. The collection is also available for the most part online. The museum found a server willing to host the large collection and is making use of interesting features like a map to categorize content. This website makes the collection available to the public who in turn can provide additional information or context about images through the website if they have it. I thought this accessible and contributive nature totally in line with the mission of Khan. 

Although the Archive of the Planet photographers were doing similar work to that of early Luminer and Pathe transport filmmakers and gathering similar content, the purpose of their works diverged. Similar to the City of Cinema, the Albert Khan museum emphasizes the capturing of reality through the image in the late 19th century. But where they diverge is in application of this image. Cinema evolved through the genius commodification of these images and narratives. Albert Kahn’s mission was completely different. The images come from his personal love of travel, and his sense of its importance in the human experience. The images are his attempt to amplify and distribute the transport effect for educational and formative purposes rather than entertaining or commodifying. 
Do you believe the archives are being displayed and distributed in the best fashion? To what extent do you believe in the mission of Albert Khan and to what extent, if any, do you think the archive has an imperial effect? What was your perception of the technology displayed in the Albert Khan exhibit, and what's your opinion on new media in museums?