Barry Dressel wrote, in part:....., but a more germane compare and
>contrast might be the Jorvik Viking Centre in York, which is an actual
>museum experience which directly borrows an amusement/theme park staple
>experience called the "dark ride".  In this case one rides down a tunnel of
>time to return to Jorvik, ca 900 (or something) AD.  I missed seeing it
>while I was last in York, and I've always regretted it, because it is
>apparently impeccable scholarship married to what are usually theme park
>methods, and it apparently works quite well.  The people I met subsequently
>who'd been thought it was terrific. I've read about it subsequently in
>museum journals since, and been quite impressed. >
>
Hi all:
I visited Jorvik in 1987 (it was probably quite new then) as part of a
British Council course on Education in Museums. We did the ride on the
train, saw the sights, smelt the smells, heard the noises, and then went to
a talk by the man who was running the place (sorry, I can't remember his
name but if you need it I still have my notes quite handy). He was quite
emphatic about Jorvik NOT being a museum - spent a good deal of time on how
"the museum was dead"  and this was the wave of the future, etc.

We discussed this (all us castigated "real museum" folk) quite thoroughly
afterward. The "ride" itself is through a recreated Viking village of Jorvik
and is created and peopled with models made of fibreglas or something. They
didn't move or do anything. The ride was so fast that it was difficult to
examine anything closely (we were told that the speed of the train can be
adjusted to the numbers of visitors, and I believe it, it is the only
"museum-like" place I've been where people queued - some for more than a day
- to get in).

The most significant part of the experience, for me, was that the train took
us through a model of the archaeological dig which had taken place on the
site and had led to the discovery of the Viking city, and the lab which we
could see through a large window where people in white coats
(archaeologists? I don't know - we weren't allowed to talk to, or ask about,
them) were working on the finds from the site. I don't know if any of the
real objects were used in creating the village, though I doubt it, probably
for secutity reasons, in case anyone hopped off the train.

Our train journey ended at the shop, which seemed to be at least the size of
the exhibit area. The York Archaeological Trust raises money for more
archeological work in York with the Jorvik site, which I think is the only
saving grace about the place. In their money-making capabilities they seem
to have much in common with the Disney empire.

I guess my feeling was that I was not seeing anything "real" - the
scholarship may well have been impeccable, but I was just looking at models.
I felt the way I felt at the Museum of Civilization in Hull when I read the
labels in the early fishery section and discovered that all the *real*
things are in Newfoundland, and I was looking - and, until I read the
labels, looking with no little awe - at reproductions. In what is supposed
to be Canada's national museum.

I may have an outdated view - my visit was more than 10 years ago. Things
may have changed.  But do see it for yourself before you decide to go down
the "dark ride" (sorry! joke!).

Mary Burke
CMA PEI