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Week Two: Digital Culture 10 February, 2008

Posted by littlechops in Week 2, art, mobile media.
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Salutations,

Week 2 is coming to an end and there’s no better time than the present to reflect upon our second class together. The most memorable part of the class for me was everyone’s presentations on the Digitcult report. Taking into account Moore’s Law: that technological capabilities are increasing exponentially, roughly doubling every 2 years, it is amazing that there is such a far reaching report available to comment on the present and future of digital culture. This thought actually derives from Alex Leese’s presentation. Thanks Alex, your explanation of Moore’s law and the general instability of digital objects is an interesting topic to consider on a Macro level. In general, I found the Digicult report to be very useful on a Micro level and since everyone did such a great job explaining their particular topic I feel compelled (in my first blog entry ever!) to try to put in words my thoughts on digital culture- on the Macro level.


It sometimes seems hard to put a frame to discussions on what technology means in the Museum or Gallery. What is it’s nature? What are it’s limitations? So far I’ve gathered that technology rapidly changes and that it can often seem to provide a utopian promise for the future- one which I look forward to and at the same time am skeptical of. For example why should I spending loads to purchase the ‘latest’ thing- like the I-phone? It is only going to be out of date in a couple months time. On the other hand- it is really cool, isn’t it? My point is that one some level I am confused on how I am supposed to feel about technology and therefore feel ill-equipped to answer some of the deeper epistemological questions in this area.


In our reading “The Shape of Things To Come” Simon Knell basically gets around epistemolgoical questions by saying: does it really matter what the myriad implications technology makes when all most people use it for is to check email? I can see his point (it certainly gets me out of the hole I am digging myself into here).

In sum, it seems that technology has added yet another layer of complexity to the context and content of objects- sigh. However, I am ‘looking forward’ to discussions about our post modern world and its increasing hybridness (just think of the I-phone!). It is a hybridness that stems not just from technology but from the compounding force it adds to our lives and by extension- the Museum and Gallery.

ICT: Generating power of museums? 10 February, 2007

Posted by Kostas in Week 2, digital strategies.
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Right. The remained administration issues with the blog were sorted out and it’s time for our second blog reflection; on week’s 2 discussion on Digital Heritage and its emergence.

On Week 2 we looked at the various developments, both nationally and internationally, that have emphasized the roles of digital technologies in museums and galleries. We saw those initiatives firstly in the framework of Manuel Castell’s notion of ‘informational society’, in which information generation, processing, and transmission become the fundamental sources of productivity and power’; and secondly, in the context of recent and current museological thinking, expressed in publications such as

Wilcomb Washburn, 1984: ‘Collecting information, not objects’, Museum News, 62, 5-15
George MacDonald and Stephen Alsford, 1991 ‘The Museum as Information Utility’ Museum Management and Curatorship, 10: 305-311.
Leonard Will, 1994: ‘Museums as Information Centres’, Museum international, 46(1), 20-25

In this context, we attempted to rephrase Castells and argue that ‘the ability to collect, manage and produce information and interpretations come to be the generating power for museums’.

We also referred to Simon Knell’s paper ‘The shape of things to come: museums in the technological landscape‘ and a section of the European Commission’s Digicult Report, ‘Technological Landscapes for tomorrow’s cultural economy‘, to map out the most significant aspects of the use of new media in museums. We particularly focused on Knell’s idea of ‘technologically mutated museums’ and as one of the groups argued, it is not about ‘revolution’ but ‘evolution’ in museums.

This session has a mirror, which is Week 11, when Dr. Ross Parry from the University of Leicester will be giving a seminar in our course and reflecting on relevant ideas. It would be interesting to see how our thinking about Digital Heritage will have altered (or not) by the end of the course.

***

To add on the discussion about digital policies and strategies in museums, have a look at the Knolwedge Web initiative of the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA).

I found particularly interesting the following statements and aims:

- museums are considered to be a ’source that will fuel the knowledge creation of the future’
- museums, galleries and archives are ‘at the forefront of new technology’
- ‘close links with the broadcast media’ will be sought
- ‘build an innovative new information gateway, tailored to users’ needs’
- ‘the Knowledge Web will promote co-operation in the creation, integration and management of digital content’

They definitely offer much food for thought for the next sessions…