Name: KT Lowe

Birthdate: The last day of the last Year of the Fire Dragon of the past century

What's a Museum Thinkerer: Someone deeply interested in the functions of museums and how to make them more meaningful to a public that doesn't always feel invested in them.

Ambition: To become the world's authority on physical objects: how they're understood by viewers, how they act in a mercantile society, how they represent cultures and what personal meanings are attached to them over time, learning why material culture still matters in a digital world, educating others through stuff, juxtaposing objects against their digital counterparts.

If I Had to Write My Dissertation Today: I'd write on the intersection between physical and digital objects, specifically in a museum setting. Although we're becoming more wired, we still have expectations of digital objects that are very grounded in the physical world. We expect a digital photograph to retain a certain amount of colors, we expect digital music to preserve sounds in a meaningful, intelligible manner and we expect digital books to be separated into pages and chapters. In a digital museum, however, what are we replicating? Is it the objects? The walkthrough? The aura? How do we interact with digital museum objects differently than we do in an actual museum? And what does that mean for the future of the museum?

Desired futures: I believe that museums are places of creation, exploration and innovation, and I want nothing more than to work in them for always and always and always. A position as a museum educator, curator of education or other similar position would be ideal. Museum exhibitions and media preservation would also be among my top dream career choices. Else, my nickname is Professor Kechi, and I certainly wouldn't turn away the chance to teach in an institutional setting.

Height: Short

Hair: Long

Glasses: Marchon Flexon 507, 44-19-140

Tattoos: One of these days.

What's the deal with the kitty cats: Doesn't everyone love kittens? Seriously, though, I grew up in a CFA-registered cattery and developed a lifelong love for the beautiful animals. At various times in my life they have been my friends, my comfort, my solace and my joy, and while I cannot say I have one of my own at this time, I do hope to rectify this soon enough.

Pounds of Chocolate Consumed Since 1994: 128.4 (approximate). Favorites: Pralus Equateur 75%, Cluizel Los Ancones, Domori Porcelana, Soma Drinking Chocolate (available only in Canada).

Education: University of Michigan - Bachelor of Arts, Asian Studies (2008), Master of Science in Information (2011), Certificate of Museum Studies (2011). Or you could check out my CV.

Influences: Chuck Lowe, Warren Zevon, every rock and roll record released between 1954 and 1968 or so.

Favorite artists: Toshusai Sharaku, Frank Stella, Kitagawa Utamaro, Ren Xiong, Gustav Klimt, John Dugdale

Favorite writers: TS Eliot, Jonathan Carroll, Aleksandr Pushkin, Mark Morford, Gabriel Garcia Marquez (but I read mostly nonfiction)

Hobbies: Reading, writing, walking, thinking, museum-hopping, dreaming, reciting, factoid-finding, chocolate tasting, memorizing Billboard Hot 100 charts and petting cats wherever they may be.