I would like to share some of my thoughts concerning the discussion on "Real
Objects" verses "The Web".

There is no question that the experience of an object or assembledge of
objects through an exhibition catalogue or publication is very analogous to
the type of presentation which one encounters on the Web.  I am always
surprised and feel a jolt when I encounter real objects in museums which I
had only previously seen in publications.  No matter how good the
photography, the scale, proportions, texture, and depth is always altered.

Addtionally, as a museum conservator, I have the rare opportunity to handle
and work on objects intimately.  With the exception of freshly excavated
archaeological objects I have almost never encountered one which has not been
altered in some way through cleaning and previous restoration attempts - and
this is doubly true with museum objects, even those of modern art.  There is
an active aesthetic in practice here and we shouldn't see the objects in out
exhibition cases as  pure or pristine or even in context (how many funerary
objects are exhibited in their full context?).  So, it is my belief that we
shape and alter objects  in their appearence, presentation, and context to
suit our own beliefs and cultural and intellectual concepts.

Web pages are simply another way of organizing our ideas about objects, or
more significantly, allowing our visitors to explore their own meanings of
our objects.  The unique and significant potential of the Web is that
linkages and associations can be constructed (or deconstructed!) which would
be impossible to achieve in exhibitions or even on the printed page.  In this
I am in complete agreement with Jim Angus and others in their eloquent
arguments that the Web is unique and has it's place in our array of
educational media.

It is great if the Web helps bring our institutions more visitors through the
basic marketing mantra:  Who am I?  Where am I? How much do I cost?  But
there is so much more potential in this media than that!  We are just now
beginning to see what creative, well-conceived, Web ideas are out there and
to learn about the potential of virtual exhibitions.

I see the Web as a new and exciting form of outreach which can combine
marketing, publications, and travelling exhibitions via  an  simple URL
address.   In the Web we are participating in the globalization of knowledge
and we are cultivating vast new audiences which hitherto may not have even
known of our existence.

If even 1% of that audience which hits our URL's decides to visit us to see
"The Real Thing" we will have benefited from a presence on the Web.  I find
it even more interesting to do the reverse - to have seen the "Real Thing"
and then to see what that insititution is doing with the Web...

Dave

David Harvey
Conservator of Metals & Arms
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
P.O. Box 1776
Williamsburg, VA 23187-1776  USA
voice:    804-220-7039
e-mail: [log in to unmask]