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Date: | Fri, 1 Dec 1995 09:03:00 -0600 |
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Is a web site a museum?
I agree that a web site is not a museum (except perhaps if it preserves and
presents electronic art and artifacts that do not exist otherwise). But
neither is a museum "really" what it has on display. Take the recent
example of a mummy and a dinosaur skeleton -- when presented in a museum,
they are so out of context of the natural state of the remains, not to
mention the natural state of the living precursor, that (to me) there is
not a great difference between seeing the object and a good multi-media
presentation of it. Compound this with the necessity to isolate objects
behind walls and glass cases so that the visitor can neither touch or smell
them, and you are left with an experience that is none too "real" to begin
with.
To me, the question boils down to thermodynamics. What is the price of
sending everyone on earth to gaze at Gaza? The price not only in airline
fares but the unavoidable pollution associated with all forms of
transportation. What is the price of distributing a few megabytes of
information?
Sure, everyone would like to riddle the Sphynx directly, but this is an
option available to a fraction of a percent of humanity.
Jim Swanson <[log in to unmask]>
Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies -- Banff,Alberta
www.cadvision.com/db
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