The following two reports are quoted from the on-line journal Culture in
Cyberspace. The contents might be of interest to museum-l readers.
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CULTURE IN CYBERSPACE
February 18, 1996/Volume 01, Issue 02
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The editor a asked me to include the following note with the excerpts I'm
fowarding to museum-l:
"CinC is issued weekly. To subscribe, please send an e-mail
to [log in to unmask] with your own e-mail address."
>----- Forwarded message (Bill LeFurgy <[log in to unmask]>) -----<
NEWS
DECENCY DEBATED
A U.S. Federal judge this past week temporarily blocked enforcement of the
Communications Decency Act, which calls for fines or jail for anyone
transmitting indecent material over the Internet. The judge issued the
order in
response to language in the law that is "unconstitutionally vague." In an
attempt to demonstrate their interpretation of how vague the law is, the
Electronic Frontier Foundation assembled a list of web sites that could, in
EFF's opinion, face prosecution because of images or text that are
potentially
"indecent." The links point to, among other things, Venus de Milo, The
Sistine Chapel, Michele Tosini's Madonna and Child with Saint John the
Baptist,
Botticelli's The Birth of Venus, The Library of Congress Card Catalog, and
Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter.
EFF: <http://www.eff.org/BlueRibbon/sites.html>
IS AN EXHIBIT EVER JUST AN EXHIBIT?
The New York Times had an article on February 11 entitled: "Historical
Shows on
Trial: Who Judges?" Author Paul Goldenberger runs through the recent
controversies involving actual and planned exhibits involving Sigmund
Freud,
slave life in the Southern U.S., use of the atomic bomb, and settlement of
the
Western U.S. He asks: "does every exhibit have to pass a test,
guaranteeing
that it will not bother anyone?" He worries about the chilling effects on
freedom of expression in museums from political pressure, and provides
details
to back up the concern. But Goldenberger also discusses related trends
within
museums themselves. "In a society saturated by
entertainment," he writes, "museums are increasingly fearful of presenting
objects by themselves, worried that they have insufficient allure.
Multimedia
are believed necessary to keep younger audiences engaged." The text, along
with a nifty image of Freud's couch, is available at the Times's web site.
<http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/artleisure/11gold.html>
--
Robert A. Baron
Museum Computer Consultant
P.O. Box 93, Larchmont N.Y. 10538
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