The Wave of the Future
In Wallace's essay The Virtual Past: Media and History Museums, he approaches the topic of technology and its incorporation into museums. He seems particularly wary of virtual reality and the Internet and how it just might prevent individuals from visiting museums altogether. Indeed, they just might become "couch-potato museum-goers. (p 107)" Now, some leeway is allowed given that the article was written in 1993, however, Wallace's approach borderlines either propagandaesque fear-mongering or just downright ignorance, I'm not sure which. Anyone who grew up in the 90s knew about the potential of virtual reality, but it was a given that it would never be something which most people would use as much as they use phones, as Wallace suggests on page 93. He also fears that museum visiting will once again become a hobby of the elite as the Internet will become privatized and thus inaccessible to the less affluent.
The benefit of retrospect allows us to see that much of what Wallace fears is not really the case. Putting a museum on the Internet can never possibly replace the real thing, just as seeing a theme park on the web cannot replace going and riding the rides. It is not as if seeing what is in museums in another format--a book, for example--is a novel concept. While researching Holocaust resistance, I came across a book which photographed a myriad of death camps being preserved in Europe. This hardly hindered my desire to visit Auschwitz. Ultimately, the Internet just makes this type of information more accessible in an informative and summarized format. It is far from a replacement.
As a final, rather superficial observation--and I implore you to take this with a grain of salt--I also believe there is the factor of just saying you did or saw something not done everyday. It is not worth much of an experience to simply say, "I went online last night and saw pictures of the Kitty Hawk at the NASM." However, it is far different to say, "Last summer I went to the NASM and stood 3 feet away from the Enola Gay, one of the most famous planes in history."
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Are there other ways that the Internet might advance museums beyond creating more awareness of them? While any way to advertise what you have to offer should be embraced, are there other positive effects that placing yourself online could have? For example, do you think a message board would be a worthwhile addition to a site for a new exhibit? If so, should topics be tightly focused or more general? Would the time to produce an interactive segment be worth it? While budget, expertise and other factors would determine answers to these questions for specific institutions, how much should a website for a museum look into these options?
Post a Comment