I think that both Robert Baron and Neil Bremer have made some very cogent and thought-provoking points on this discussion.

I have no disagreement with Neil's basic points about effective communication and his analogy about film is well-taken (however, almost any visual medium, including film should be able to translate into a visual storyline - independent of the spoken word).  I personally love to encounter an artwork in a silent setting where I can contemplate it and soak it in, rather than having a "story" hawked out to me all of the time. 

I think that everyone is fascinated by the new "tools" and methodologies employed by Disney in re-creating fantasy and in general in their great success.  The important distinction is that their organizational "machine" is entirely devoted to profit, and every aspect of their operation is oriented towards that end.  Every theme park will wither and die if it does not have a new, significant, and extremely expensive "attraction" to market each year.  Much of this is undoubtedly due to the fact that they must attract huge numbers of repeat visitors and new visitors every year.  That is the economy of scale of the entertainment business  (can rides on the RMS Titanic be far behind?).

The salient question for museums and educational institutions is how much of this mindset do we buy into.  The trouble that I see with a lot of these new ventures employing the latest razzle-dazzle is that what was once new and exciting ,like that new-car smell, quickly fades and looks old and outmoded.  Do museums have the capital resources to compete with the entertainment industries year-after-year?  This is where some careful thought needs to be done with the intelligent selection of new technologies but with the driving idea to be better communication, not profit.  Our best resource is that we do have "The Real Stuff" and people are still fascinated and will always continue to be fascinated by our artifacts.  We need to make these objects and sites more accessible and not simply replaceable with plastic and digital technology.

Museums also seem to be in an unprecedented era of popularity - many more millions of people are encountering art and culture in museum settings than ever before.  I would think that we must be doing something right! 

The big question is whether all kinds of scales of museums and exhibits and interpretation approaches can be sustained and whether everything we do will be consumed by the psychology of entertainment, marketing, and merchandising.  As we creep ever closer to this is it any wonder that visitors might first mistake us for theme parks and then come to expect it of us?

Cheers!
Dave

PS- As usual, my own thoughts.

David Harvey
Associate Conservator,
Metals & Arms
The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
P.O. Box 1776
Williamsburg, Virginia  23187-1776   USA
Voice:   757-220-7039
E-mail:  [log in to unmask]