mo_museum

A gentle place has a personal aesthetic, one that is both timeless and fresh, organic, attaching itself naturally to the person inhabiting it.

A gentle place leaves room for the unthinkable; we know we are on the verge of something special, something already changing as we enter it.

A gentle place allows us to entertain our inner world.

A gentle place... See more

Collecting and archiving ground us. They invite us to trace connections, dismantle rigid categorizations, and uncover links between the unexpected.

Whenever I slip into collector-archivist mode online—chasing rabbit holes of papers, forgotten PDFs, or obscure books—I break free from the pull of mindless consumption.

A collection is more than the sum of its parts; it is shaped by the countless ways those parts relate to one another, to every observer who encounters and engages with them, and to the myriad possibilities for mapping, displaying, or reinterpreting the collection.

This line from the Ta-Nehisi Coates book, Between the World and Me: “I was made for the library, not the classroom. The classroom was a jail of other people’s interests. The library was open, unending, free.”

Is there anything in particular you do to transport yourself into that zone?

I recently learned Einstein used to do something specific. To get his brain in the zone, he would bring together two very different things to see what the connection was between them. Are.na at its best is really good for that. So if I haven’t used Are.na in a more... See more

It’s a very cheesy phrase, but we sometimes ask, “How can we make being smart cool?”. That is, how can we make casual research—seeking out new knowledge just for the sake of it—a part of an everyday process for a normal internet user?

“But museums also choose what to display, what to let rest in the dark, and what to reveal again under new light.

They’re not mausoleums — they are spaces of loss and rebirth. Alive, even in silence.

We are like that too.

Full of rooms. Piled-up memories. Crookedly hung frames.

Ideas that need to come out of storage.”

Archives As Anchors

Collecting and archiving are ways to reclaim and own our attention—they are acts of meaning-making. These practices are rituals: habits and skills that demand time, patience, and a willingness to look beyond the surface.