While this thread has polarized the debate over new tools and museums
around Disneyesque theme parks on the one hand and contemplative
traditional museums on the other, I don't really think that such a
dichotomy will be what describes museums and their use of technology in the
future.

Museums will, as many other institutions have already, eagerly absorb new
technologies once they recognize that these tools can further their mission
without sacrificing their standards of quality and scholarship.  It will
happen because intelligent people (for the most part!) run museums and will
see that ignoring these opportunities would just be foolish.  IP (internet
protocol) intra, extra, and inter - net's can redefine how the information
presently invested in catalogues and wall labels reaches the viewer, and
allow the museum experience to resonate with other pieces of our cultural
mosaic.  In the process, the museum will become a somewhat differently
shaped place than it is now.

The silent and powerful painting by itself on a wall will never, I predict,
be displaced.  But visitors will leave the museum knowing a lot more about
it than they do now.  Just what shape this will take I'm not sure, but it
will happen -- just a surely as these words are going to squeeze themselves
instantly through thousands of miles of tiny hair-like fibers into 1500
colleague's virtual mailboxes.  Just as soon as I click the Send butto...



Stephen Nowlin
Vice President
Director, Williamson Gallery
Producer, Art Center Online
Art Center College of Design
http://www.artcenter.edu