Reading Mary Burkes response reminded me of my visit to Jorvik [also as
part of a British Council trip] in 1996. As I recall thge lab and its
people were also models. The ride was well done and the shop very large
but for me the real learning took place round the corner at a very small
"museum" called The ARC, Archaeological Resource Centre. Set up inb an
old church this was entirely self-funding, with none of the hoopla of
Jorvik but very well done and lots of stuff to explore and research. I
recall a very good interactive involving a computer and a a collection
of objects [simulated dig finds]. The idea was to select one and enter
details about it onto a database. You could explore how other people had
described the object which caused a lot of discussions.

Peter Millward
Manager, Education & Visitor Services
Melbourne Museum
PO Box 666E,   Melbourne,   VIC  3000
ph 61 3 9651 8162      fax 61 3 9651 6378
mobile 61 418 326 667
email [log in to unmask]


> ----------
> From:         [log in to unmask][SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
> Reply To:     Museum discussion list
> Sent:         Sunday, 15 March 1998 11:56 AM
> To:   [log in to unmask]
> Subject:      Re: Disney & Jorvik...long post....
>
> 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
>