exploring the digital museum · pdf fileexploring the digital museum dr ... could and should...

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Exploring the Digital Museum

Dr. Ana Sanchez Laws

Associate Professor

Faculty of Arts and Physical Education

Volda University College

+A tectonic shift?

Once a visitor carries a fully

searchable encyclopaedia in their

pocket (not to mention access to

all our collection including the

objects not on display), the whole

idea of a museum and how it

could and should be designed

changes In my view these are

long term tectonic shifts in the

move from 'collections to

services'. (Chan 2011)

Seb Chan / Fresh+New blog

+Digital Heritage

Resources of human knowledge or expression are increasingly created digitally, or converted into digital form from existing analogue resources. Where resources are born digital, there is no other format but the digital original. Digital materials include texts, databases, still and moving images, audio, graphics, software, and web pages, among a wide and growing range of formats. They are frequently ephemeral, and require purposeful production, maintenance and management to be retained. Many of these resources have lasting value and significance, and therefore constitute a heritage that should be protected and preserved for current and future generations. This heritage may exist in any language, in any part of the world, and in any area of human knowledge or expression. (Webb 2003)

Digital heritage is material primarily stored and retrieved in binary format. It may be the product of an analogue to digital conversion or it may be born digital (originate and remain exclusively within the digital domain), and it can include both analogue and digital components. The key difference between digital heritage and other forms of heritage lies in its binary format, which demands distinctive approaches to the conservation of its significance and value.

UNESCO Alternative

+Digital Heritage Sustainability

Humanity has the ability to

make development sustainable

to ensure that it meets the

needs of the present without

compromising the ability of

future generations to meet their

own needs (Brundtland,

Environment, and Development

1987).

Digital heritage sustainability

involves the collaborative

maintenance, enrichment and

enjoyment of digital heritage

resources over periods of time

that span across generations. It

involves the maintenance of the

integrity of data and metadata

in binary format, and the

maintenance of the digital

technologies that make these

data and metadata accessible

to the broadest range of

stakeholders.

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Understanding contexts

Investigating policy and archives, economic factors, social and

political factors

To map changing concepts of trust, privacy,

security

To understand when policies promote or

hinder digital heritage sustainability

Investigating services providers and

technology companies

As drivers of change with or without the

participation of the community of heritage

stakeholders

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Identifying stakeholders

Identifying roles and their levels of decision-making

Understanding networks of

accountability and stewardship

Mapping commonalities and

differences

Identifying homogeneity of

goals

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Monitoring

digital practices

Understanding evaluation instruments

(i.e. analytics packages)

Identifying traditional and emerging

practices

Identifying technological features

as producing new rules and constraints

Identifying future technological needs

Understanding the computational modelling of responsibility

+Contexts

How do the various economic, political and social drivers

impact the way in which stakeholders interact around a

digital heritage resource?

Do these contexts promote or deter sustainability?

+Stakeholders

Who are the presumed, actual, and expected stakeholders? Who is included, who is excluded?

What are their roles (technical, curatorial, non-expert, collaborator)?

How have these roles changed with the use of digital media?

To what extent do stakeholders share the same goals around the digital heritage resource?

What roles do stakeholders have in the decision-making process?

And how does this translate into sustainable or unsustainable management of the digital heritage resource?

+Digital practices

How is digital heritage modelled by the language and technologies a digital media service uses?

What are the assumptions in the software analytics packages that sit at the backend of these services, and how do they shape museums digital heritage practices?

How do the types of communication enabled in a given digital media platform contribute to establishing common goals around a digital heritage resource?

Which curatorial practices are applicable to digital media? Which ones are not?

Which digital media practices enrich digital heritage, which ones pollute it?

+Museum of London

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Frazer Swift

Theres a much greater emphasis now on

engaging learners interactively so rather

than the museum being a teacher and

just transmitting information

Its a two way process and we think much

more about the learning needs of visitors

and tailor what we do to their needs we

tend to talk more about learning than

education

Education has connotations of instructions,

whereas what we want to do is have a

dialogue with people as opposed to

being a formal didactic approach so we

use lots of actors and storytellers and

people doing things as opposed to

people passively receiving. (Wu 2009)

Director, Clore Learning Centre

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Image sources: Museum of London, Ana Sanchez Laws

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Cathy Ross:

Our whole story of London needed refreshment. The old galleries tell the story of London in quite an inward looking way: it was the story of the city, of the infrastructure, the roads, the search, the transport, very much looking inwards. These galleries were done in the 1970s 80s and 90s so there were some stories that we are interested in today, like migration and identity, that were just not in there. We wanted to tell a new story of London with new emphasis on it, new points of interest. We have two narratives. One is Londons relationship with the world so it is much more outwards looking we have these two big narratives: London and the world and the other one is London and people, people coming to London from the world. In both of these we wanted very much to underline change, so we have got how London changes the world how the world changes London and how people change London and London changes people. (Wu 2009)

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RenderingPlanned redesign of caf area

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Completed caf area

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Interactive in twentieth century

galleriesUsing multitouch screens to present Charles Booths map of

London Poverty in 1887-9

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World War 2 display

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Image sources: Museum of London, Ana Sanchez Laws

Old galleries Redesigned galleries

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Bilkis Mosodik:

Our site is not tailored for just one general visitor. There is the visitor, tourists, the researchers, academics, students who want to research and then we have other museums who want to find out what we are doing. It is four audiences rather than one so each part is tailored towards different audiences. Our learning section would be very different from exhibition section, but our collection section is quite different, because that is for researchers The whole site is not one audience: each part of the site has different voice for different audiences and needs (Wu 2009)

http://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/london-wall/

http://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/london-wall/

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Bilkis Mosodik:

(The blog helps) reach out to people

as MOL employees and showcase the

expertise within the MOL. We are not

just about artefacts and gallery

exhibition events, we are actually more

than that: we are expertise. Every

curator has an expertise that is

valuable, and is showcasing that. (Wu

2009)

http://www.mymuseumoflondon.org.u

k/blogs/

http://www.mymuseumoflondon.org.uk/blogs/

+ Cathy RossWe are not typical of London museums, we are

not about collections of objects but about

stories and every object has to be eloquent

about the story of London. We have never been

about collections of objects but about

engagement and you may say that is the

corporate culture. (Wu 2009)

+Augmenting the Garden of Australian Dreams

(GoAD) at the National Museum of Australia (NMA)

Ana Sanchez Laws / Stephen Barrass

In collaboration with Cath Styles at NMA and 150 students from Cross Media

Production, UC

The GOAD project Stephen Barrass, Ana Sanchez Laws

+The Tasks

1. Walk around and find out what is there.

2. While walking around think about a Journey through the space that could be connected to form a story of some kind.

3. Select at least 5 waypoints along the Journey - graphic, sculptural, geographic, sonic, etc.

4. Document each waypoint using any or all of photos, sound recordings,