I laughed hysterically the first time I saw a sketch on a popular comedy
series that depicted the internet as if it were a real place. I have only
seen most of the things the comedian encountered in this physical interpretation
of the web in museums of dubious merit in places like Amsterdam, but the more
I thought about it, the more I realized that we really do conceptualize the
internet as a realm with physical properties. We "visit" internet "sites"
and move through "cyber-space", a term coined by science fiction novelist
William Gibson. Companies are calling their shopping sites "stores" and people
with common interests can meet in chat "rooms".
This popular understanding of the internet as a "place" has some interesting
implications for how we present museums on the web. Many museums simply create
a page where they post upcoming exhibition information, entrance fees and
opening hours. They are using web technology like they would a sandwich board,
to convey basic information that helps visitors to the museum site make plans.
Other museums make their in-house
physical displays available as a virtual tour. This is especially
useful for people who are too far away to visit or who are preparing
to visit and want a taste of what the museum has to offer. The virtual
tour comes in a few different guises, including a presentation of digital
photographs of exhibits within the museum space accompanied by text,
or a series of images of the objects within a collection.
In another scenario, the internet
visitor can simulate physical movement by controlling video of the museum
exhibit, or by accessing something like a QuickTime VR file. This
software stitches together a series of still photographs to create a
seamless panorama or 360 degree view of a place or space. This
means that the visitor can view the museum as if she were positioned
in the centre of the exhibit, turning around to see it from all directions.
It can also allow access to images of many pages in a book that is usually
displayed open to a single folio, or to see many angles of an object
usually housed in a closed display case.
The virtual tour has some exciting
potential in that it can "take" visitors to places and times that
do not actually exist. A clear example of this is the use of CAD
(Computer Assisted Drafting) and other three-dimensional modelling programmes
to draw archaeological sites as they would have appeared at other times
in history. This type of tour has potential uses within the museum
space as an aspect of an exhibit as well as part of an internet experience.
But perhaps the most meaningful
relationship between museums and the internet develops when we stop
trying to represent a real space and look to a model of learning, teaching
and exhibiting that transcends physical boundaries. A particularly
rich example is the "Museum With No Frontiers" project, which is
in the midst of setting up a trans-national virtual museum involving
14 countries, 9 languages and multiple collections and virtual exhibits,
spanning time, space and culture through virtual curation.
Collections and exhibits can be brought together that discuss themes and
questions by translating ideas and experiences for the internet audience rather
than relying on displaying, borrowing or purchasing materials. Connections
can be drawn between themes by setting up links that allow visitors to jump
from one part of the web site to another, something that poses logistical
challenges in the museum space. Sure, there is no substitute for the real
thing, but we can't always get to Amsterdam.
Angela Andersen (angela@zeroonedesign.com) is not a geek herself, but frequently associates with them. (Case in point: she has happily worked as a researcher and writer with Zero One Design Inc. (www.zeroonedesign.com) since 1999, and they are about as geek-ey as they come.) Angela holds an MA and has focused her academic and professional research on art, architecture and intercultural interactions.