Digital Futures II: Museum Collections, Documentation, and Shifting Knowledge Paradigms (original) (raw)
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Digital technologies and their uses within museum collections have until recently been explored primarily from a technical viewpoint. Increasingly, museum professionals are moving beyond technologically-driven reasoning to entertain new ways of conceptualizing both collections and information. This is leading to knowledge models beyond those already imagined. This paper considers the synergy between theoretical ideas in the academy and the computer ontologies that have been brought to bear on collections information. Drawing on user research findings from the Themescaping Virtual Collections project and the work of leading literary and media theorists, the paper examines how user needs and digital technologies are reformulating our understanding of museum collections and the relationships between museums and audiences. The knowledge connection—Media theorist Marshall McLuhan (1964, xi) challenged technologically deterministic arguments to account for the emergence of new technologies (notably print, and, more recently, television). McLuhan stated: " We become what we behold that we shape our tools and thereafter our tools shape us. " Viewing the world in terms of embedded knowledge structures, he argued, enables the development of tools that emulate new social and theoretical ideas. New ways of perceiving encourage social transformation. These tools—and the technological innovations they reflect—offer possibilities beyond those originally imagined. In the current technological context, poststructuralism and postmodernism are the theoretical structures that enabled multimedia and the Internet to emerge as forms of information architecture. Multimedia, hypertext, hypermedia and the Internet might be described as the ultimate postmodern media set. The intellectual characteristics of post-325 Fiona Cameron (fiona.cameron@arts.usyd.edu.au) is a research fellow in history in the
This paper/poster introduces the threefold dimension of collections documentation as activity, means and product. After an examination of current documentation practices through well-established documentation standards, we argue that in current practices, documentation functions as means for preservation and care of museum objects. However the function of documentation as a means that improves understanding, interpretation and engagement with collections is not supported, because of the current structure, the scope and purpose of documentation. Finally, a new approach that invites users' perspectives in documentation is proposed.
Digital Futures I: Museum Collections, Digital Technologies, and the Cultural Construction of Knowledge, Curator , 46, 3, July 2003, 2003
Digital technologies and their uses within museum collections have until recently been explored primarily from a technical viewpoint. Increasingly, museum professionals are moving beyond technologically-driven reasoning to entertain new ways of conceptualizing both collections and information. This is leading to knowledge models beyond those already imagined. This paper considers the synergy between theoretical ideas in the academy and the computer ontologies that have been brought to bear on collections information. Drawing on user research findings from the Themescaping Virtual Collections project and the work of leading literary and media theorists, the paper examines how user needs and digital technologies are reformulating our understanding of museum collections and the relationships between museums and audiences. DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES AND NEW STYLES OF INFORMATION The knowledge connection-Media theorist Marshall McLuhan (1964, xi) challenged technologically deterministic arguments to account for the emergence of new technologies (notably print, and, more recently, television). McLuhan stated: "We become what we behold that we shape our tools and thereafter our tools shape us." Viewing the world in terms of embedded knowledge structures, he argued, enables the development of tools that emulate new social and theoretical ideas. New ways of perceiving encourage social transformation. These tools-and the technological innovations they reflect-offer possibilities beyond those originally imagined. In the current technological context, poststructuralism and postmodernism are the theoretical structures that enabled multimedia and the Internet to emerge as forms of information architecture. Multimedia, hypertext, hypermedia and the Internet might be described as the ultimate postmodern media set. The intellectual characteristics of post-325 Fiona Cameron (fiona.cameron@arts.usyd.edu.au) is a research fellow in history in the
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