New Media & Museums = Changing Attitudes

As I did research for this assignment, I ran across an article from May 10, 1999 titled "Art Museums, The Internet and New Technology". This article highlighted some of the conversation amongst directors of the world's most famous museums: Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Louvre in Paris, British Museum in London, and Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia. At this time, most art museums had been a bit slow in adopting new technology and there was a lot of expectation that museums should incorporate new technology into the museum experience. Of course, there was a feeling that museums would post photos of artwork online and that the physical presence of the museum would become obsolete.

In addition to that article, I've found an article from 2005 about the Indianapolis Museum of Art which designed interactive and 3D devices to enhance visitors' experience of their physical displays. The conversation was not so much about technology replacing physical displays, but, more about how technology could enhance physical displays while expanding access to information about the artists and their work. The technology involved was quite amazing in that at some points visitors physically interacted with the technology displays to customize their experience. The museum didn't just relegate visitor interaction to a screen. The 3D display allowed visitors to customize and display information on four walls of the space containing special collections. It seems at this point, more museums are trying to incorporate technology to allow more access, more customization and more visitor engagement.

Now in 2011, I found an article about Google's new Art Project. It is a website that displays more than 1,000 works of art, view 360-degree virtual tours of selected galleries, and zoom-in on brush-stroke level detail of some of the artwork. The majority of the 17 participating museums are in Europe. So, there is very little chance that the online availability will detract from physical museum visits. In fact, one of the hopes is that the Website will engage visitors more and encourage physical visits to the museums.



It seems that in the span of a dozen years, the skepticism that surrounded museums' use of technology has changed. Fears about driving visitors away have developed into the realization that more access online could encourage visits. Then, once visitors are in the museums, new media and technology can engage and inspire them all the more.