Digital Museum? Virtual Museum? -Part 2
In my last post,
I talked about the difference between the digital museum and virtual museum. I
can see there is a interests raised in this area, since the digital technology
has increasingly shifted our life and the society. In this post, I would share
some further research on this topic.
First, I have
checked the website of the International Museum Association, which defines the
virtual museum. Then the three versions
of Chinese, English and French on the wiki are different.
Chinese
version (I translated): The Virtual Museum or the Digital Museum is a
museum-themed platform that combines the use of computer multimedia technology.
The virtual museum has the advantage of the free browsing and easy interaction.
It can collect any things that can be digitized, and the information can be
continuously updated and provided on the network. The information technology
design is similar to the traditional museum type and provides a new display,
whys and experience of visiting.
According to
the "Digital Dictionary" and Digital Learning National Science and
Technology Plan "Technical Compilation" This is defined as
"digitization", digitization and storage of various artifacts,
specimens and documents, such as high-resolution scanning, digital shooting,
and three dimensional space model virtual production, and complete through the network.
Presenting the functions of display, collection, education and research that
the physical museum should have.
Virtual
Museum
English
version: A virtual Museum is a Museum that EXISTS only online. A Virtual Museum
also known is as an Online Museum, Electronic Museum, hypermuseum, Digital
Museum, Cybermuseum or Web Museum.
The term used
depends upon the backgrounds of the practitioners and researches working in
this field. As with a traditional museum, a virtual museum can be designed
around the specific objects (such as an art museum, natural history museum or
archive), or can consist of new exhibitions created from scratch (such as the exhibition
at science museum, Planetarium). A virtual museum can refer to the mobile or World
Wide Web offerings of traditional museums (such as displaying digital
representations of its collections or exhibition); or can be born digital content such as Net art, Virtual Reality, and
Digital Art.
The Virtual
Museum is a museum that exists only in the Internet. Virtual museums are also
known as online museums, electronic museums, ultra-museum, digital museums.
Well,
according to these definitions, I personally think, we don't have to concern
about the difference between the virtual museum and the digital museum. It is
the same kind, only has different name. However, those online museums that rely
on physical museum can no longer be called virtual museums, but only branches
belonging to this physical museum. Just like Louvre Museum online.
Now let's see
the French definition: (Translation to English)
Virtual
Museum is an exhibition hall, mainly on the Internet.(err… I feel there is too
much information to feed.)
The birth of
new technologies enabled museum to protect and preserve
cultural heritage by developing them. The virtual museum is a publicly accessible,
non-material institution. It is physical evidence of human beings and the
environment in which they live, (I have not sure how to translate this word,
les temoins materiels, literally means the testimony of matter, the proof of
matter, a physical evidence) research, preservation (especially using the digitization of the collection, archive), communication, display (through
virtual exhibitions), especially for the purpose of education, research and emotional
dialogue. According to Genevieve Vidal, virtual museums are a reference for
physical museums. "They (virtual museum) carry out some online exhibitions
based on physical exhibition, or virtual exhibitions specially designed for
online and CD-ROM, and how information about museum events, articles, readings
and works" It can be managed by the traditional staff, but is can also be
managed by the city tourism director who wishes to display the cultural
heritage or by individual enthusiasts. This relatively old definition is too
limited to virtual museums that are just pale projections of physical museums. Today,
with social networks and other new media, virtual museums can revived without
the previous mentioned ideas. A virtual museum can supplement the physical
museum from the content and propose another way to observe artifacts, things.
And a virtual exhibition should be treated as complete exhibition.
Obviously, the definition of virtual museum has been constantly changing and updating. Because the VM depends on new
technologies, and the new technologies are changing and updating every day.
Today's virtual museum and ten year later the virtual museum would be a totally
different thing.
Thank you for reading, and feel free to share what is definition on virtual museum from your perspective!
Reference:
Yang,
ReplyDeleteGreat follow up to your previous post. I am very interested in VR, AR, and mixed reality technology and their uses and a museum is great place to use any or all of these technologies. At this point almost anyone can put together an AR site using an app called Google Street view. With this app on your phone you can take true 360-degree photos and post them to the maps function in the app. You can also export the photos to your library but you lose the true 360 function, you get a flat image, but in the app you get 360 and by swiping left or right you can move around or up and down in a room. You can view other peoples posts in the app simply by clicking on the icons that appear as you scroll over the map. I’m sure the Louvre used some other program, probably more powerful to create their VR site but Street View is free and allows anyone to share 360 photos with the world, I actually used in recently and I was amazed, not only did I take a 360 photo but I got the ceiling and the floor of the cathedral we were in, a true 360 photo. The way it works is interesting, it's not like a panoramic photo but with Street View you open the app and then take a series of photos as you rotate around the room, the program then more or less seamlessly edits all the photos together to give you a 360 image, very cool! Looking forward to reading your next post.
Craig
Yang,
ReplyDeleteInteresting topic and great post. I have never experienced a virtual museum before but the idea of a museum being able to display digital representations of its displays and exhibits is intriguing. I like the idea of being able to explore, learn, or tour something from afar, especially if you don't have the ability to make it to the site itself. I think this ability to explore museums through virtual means could be used not just to educate others but also help drive people to visit the museum itself. As an example, just doing a quick search I found how I can experience the Renwick Gallery Exhibition through virtual reality. Fun and makes me want to see it in person. Thanks for sharing.
Erric
Yang,
ReplyDeleteVery well articulated and interesting topic you chose. I find it fascinating to be able to access a virtual or digital museum for learning, perusing, or simple pleasure. I love history and museum type exhibits- with your topic- I think there is a ton of appealing information for not just teachers and students, but for all- to include us in the instructional design field. I think you may have uncovered a previously forgotten treasure that all societies have around the world. Do you think digital or virtual museums are the way of the future? I think this could be a good method of instructing students- Especially, when learning about others' culture, society, and history. I'm very interested in your topic. What do museums use in order to digitize their information and content? I would love to know as I'm focusing on Content Management System- in other words it's software that allows the owner to digitize and managme content input and output for websites or any type of database.
~Nick Arambula
Nick,
DeleteThank you for your encouragement. Absolutely , I think digital museum could be the way of the future. My next post will answer your questions. Actually I wrote an article several months ago is about the what is digital cultural heritage which addressed the digital technology for heritage conservation. This article has published on online (https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/EQcdjYkVIK1CzfDXh2AFWg) but is in Chinese. I will translate some parts in English and post for my next blog.