Collections are significant in our attempt to construct the world; the effort to understand them is
one way to understand the meta-narrative, of which each “era" composes a small part (37).
The educational roles of museums has always been considered paramount, as much
can be learned from objects about the development of technologies, design, other cultures, the
past and present, and the natural world (Keene 66). Museums and art/artifact collections are
important to the growing digital media arts sector as well. Museums have been enthusiastic
about the web, and even the smallest of collection generally have websites and attempt to
reach new audiences via new media. In addition, multimedia exhibits are becoming
commonplace in museum displays and exhibits. Digital media have enormous potential for
enlivening, explaining, and enhancing access to collections (107). A few areas of (admittedly)
field-specific interest include: decorative arts; literary authors; f ilms, music and sound;
collections as “places” of interest, i.e., museum buildings themselves, and the design and
architecture of collections. For academics, research fields and access are rapidly expanding
thanks to the digitization and cataloguing of collections—digitization initiatives are quickly
making available searchable databases. The essence of the modern museum is a building, but
in the future the museum will be more a process or an experience that moves out into the
communities they serve (139).
Technology in the Museum
A wide array of digital and communication technologies are making an impact on
museum collections, including content, infrastructure, delivery, and rapidity of change (140).
Content consumed by museum visitors includes digitized images, virtual reality,
personification, and multiple media: audio, video, and touch. The general categories I’ll
highlight here include digital media in the physical museum, virtual tours and mobile
application, and the digitization of major collections.
Perhaps the most familiar way digital technologies are shaping and enhancing the
spectacle of museums is within museums themselves. Museums were quick to adopt
technologies to enhance the experience of visiting the brick and mortar collections. This
approach includes excerpted or specially made videos that enhance parts of the physical
collection. An example of this blended approach is the relatively young Topography of Terror
museum in Berlin. Here the collection itself relies heavily on multimedia and reproductions of
primary source material to guide the visitor through the realities of politics and genocide in the
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