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Bringing Authentic Museum Experiences to the WebRob Semper, Exploratorium Main
Session: Rich Experiences
Museums have embraced the World Wide Web as a natural tool for promotion,
publishing and communication but have been less swift to explore its
potential as an exhibition medium. Part of this reticence is a well
founded concern with the difficulty of providing the authenticity of
a real interaction with real objects and real activities, the hallmark
of the museum experience. And yet the Web, unlike any other mass communication
media, has the potential to support an audio-visual browsing relationship
with a subject which can be akin to some aspects of a museum visit.
Fortunately, the initial wave of "Virtual Museums", not surprisingly
developed mostly by non museum people, has passed by. The question remains
"What can happen if museum exhibit designers would focus their design
skills on creating WWW experiences?" This paper will discuss our current
thinking about the use of an exhibition mentality in the design of online
material through a presentation of some of the recent experimental Exploratorium
Web projects including live Webcasting of remote field experiences to
an onsite and online public, the creation of on-line interactive exhibits
and the development of an exhibition Website structure. |
