New Wave Museums

Museums have evolved over the centuries from the mouseion of antiquity to the curiosity cabinets or Wunderkammer of the 17th century, and to the museum as we know it today in it's various incarnations: art, history, general, specialized, science, etc. Museums have gone from their earliest manifestations as spaces dedicated to study and the arts (house of the muses) to being viewed as mere repositories of artifacts. Today this static view of the role that museums must play in society has been exchanged for something more akin to how the Greeks viewed museums. Museums are given the task of intellectual conservation and expected to study, interpret, catalogue, and evaluate cultural objects as well as negotiate with society questioning and modifying the sociological environment. In order to remain relevant museums must continue to utilize and find new ways to use technology.

Anonymous, Cabinet of Curiosities (late seventeenth century)
Oil on canvas, Florence, Opificio delle Pietre Dure
source

Technology + Museums

Technology is being used to “transform museums into more dynamic institutions in the 21st century” (Canos 313). Traditionally, museums have made use of text and labels as a storytelling aid and, while invaluable as a means of conveying background information at once, they are rather static and limited. Technology is now used to augment in-person visits to museums with virtual information designed to enhance the visitor's understanding. With the availability of the public internet and the World Wide Web the amount of people utilizing online resources and the number of resources available as well as contributing providers have increased exponentially. Anyone with internet access can publish information as illustrated by this blog.

TRS-80, Tandy Radio Shack´s first desktop computer
source: Computer History Museum

Online vs In-Person visits

Today libraries and museums evoke a great deal of public trust. They rank higher than other information sources including government, commercial, and private websites, with libraries just barely outranking museums for the title of ultimate trustworthiness. There is some concern that the pervasiveness of the internet as a source of information will lead to the demise of museums in their physical form in exchange for their virtual counterparts. Studies suggest, however, that this public trust readily migrates to an online environment (Johnson). In fact, there are data that suggest the internet is not replacing in-person visits and may actually increase them. A 2006 survey found that about 23% of adults who have only visited museums in-person and not online said they have visited more often in the past year than previously. A slightly higher percentage (29%) said they visited both in-person and online and that they too visited more often in the past year. Internet users have been shown to visit museums in-person 2.6 times more often than non-internet users. The data also revealed that a majority of adults continue to visit museums in-person and a slightly smaller percentage visit both in-person and online. Only a very small percentage (5.1%) said they visited exclusively online (Griffiths 12, 14).

GettyGuide

A good example of a museum that has at least attempted to remain cutting edge by integrating new technology into exhibits is the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles. In the mid-1980s they developed a videodisc system to augment their exhibits but by the mid-1990s had realized the limitations of this technology. The content could not be edited to reflect changes within the exhibit and was limited in its mode of presentation. In 1995 they developed GettyGuide, a kiosk-accessible, database-driven access system which included a database of art and artists, along with related images and videos, and ways to search for art by subject and type.


Robin Lilien, Manager of Information and Media Systems at the time, said their primary goal was to enhance the visitor's experience with the art objects themselves: “The technology needs to support what we want visitors to experience, not to interfere with it or distract from it. It should not become the main event” (Marshak 5). The following image represents a timeline of the Gettys' technological evolution since the 80s.

(click image to enlarge)

Online Collections

The GettyGuide kiosks have been translated to the Explore Art section of their website which allows visitors to access the collection in a digital format from home. Online visitors can browse by artist, type of art, or by theme or topic. There is also a Collection Overview that allows visitors to get in-depth information about the various Getty collections and a Video Gallery featuring videos about the museum's collection, techniques, conservation, and exhibitions, and includes many interviews with artists and curators. One of the most interesting features is their Getty Bookmarks. With this users can mark objects as they come across them on the website and later use the bookmarks to create a printable map of the physical museum indicating where all of the items are located. Essentially, users can create their own customized tour to bring with them to the museum. This is a great example of how remote access to collections can actually serve to increase in-person visits to a museum.

(click image to visit the Getty's website)

The State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia is another example of a museum that is making use of their website to share their collection and attract visitors. The Virtual Visit section allows online visitors to virtually 'walk' through the museum. Visitors can choose a room on any level of the Winter Palace and experience 360-degree panoramic views. These panoramic views have little more than mere entertainment value. None of the objects in the rooms can be seen very clearly except for two or three which are offered as thumbnails below the video and can be seen on a larger scale with a short description when clicked on. These panoramic views could, however, create enough interest in the museum's collection that the online visitor would feel compelled to visit in person for a first-hand experience.

Pieces from the St George Service, F. Ya. Gardner Factory
Designer G. I. Kozlov, 1778, Porcelain; underglaze painting, polychrome gilt

source

Museums + Web 2.0

The Hermitage has done an excellent job of making some of its 3,000,000+ item collection available online but definitely has some room to grow. Many museums are now making use of recent trends in the use of World Wide Web technology, or what is known as Web 2.0. This new use of existing technology is intended to “enhance creativity, communications, secure information sharing, collaboration, and functionality of the web.” Most people are familiar with Web 2.0 in the form of social-networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook, video sharing sites such as YouTube, and blogs. A blog (a portmanteau of the words “web” and “log”) is a website maintained by an individual and regularly updated with entries, or posts, of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as photos or video. The ability for readers to leave comments in an interactive format are an important part of most blogs. Many museums, especially contemporary art museums with a young demographic, have blogs in addition to their websites. The blogs differ from the website in that they use a conversational and personal tone rather than an institutional one and may consist of many contributors' voices. Blogs also evolve with the community that contributes to them and “can create an environment of person to person communication by seeking opinions, ideas, and feedback and by encouraging the visitors to participate and contribute . . . and share experiences” (Beazley). This shows that the museum is listening to its visitors, helps to break barriers, and allows visitors to be more engaged with the museum. Blogs are also an opportunity for smaller museums that may have very little funding to create an online presence for free.

(click image to enlarge)

source: Museum 2.0

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