on line exhibitions – a new access to cultural heritage

By: Hatto Fischer, Athens

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Online Cultural Heritage Exhibitions ^[1] is a topic addressed byYen Ping Yeo ^[2] who is doing currently research on online cultural heritage exhibitions

Interested in all kinds of online exhibitions – she considers, for instance, HERMES InternetRadio a kind of online sound and text exhibition being created by the various contributors ^[3] – she is conducting right now for this purpose an e-survey. ^[4]

The survey aims to find out what issues cultural institutions (archives, museums, libraries, etc) face when it comes to setting up online exhibitions.  These may include technology, funding, standards, etc. She thinks that these are essential issues that support or hinder access to cultural heritage.

In her introduction to the survey she writes that:

"Online exhibitions are a relatively recent phenomenon - already I'm finding thatarchivists/curators in different parts of the world have varying notions of what it means - so the findings should be quite interesting.  The fact of its recency also means that little is known about it.” For this reason she addresses all museum experts but also now members of the HERMES project because she believes all experiences made when creating online exhibitions would be very valuable to her research.

Jennie Harré Hindmarsh, who has been leading the development of theNational Services in New Zealand supporting museum developments for the past 6.5 years and now free consultant for museums, thinks that  “museums need to be central to the region's / local community's development, relevant (socially, culturally, economically and environmentally), and provide engaging experiences (including through the use of new interactive technologies)”.  Consequently she comments that this “on-line exhibition project by the Library and Archives student at VUW looks interesting - VUW is the only university in NZ that has a Library course.”

Example 1:

Te Papa in New Zealand has launched is first on-line only exhibition in 2004 about MaoriShowbands to show how this culture evolved in New Zealand over the years. Aside from exclusion they faced numerous cultural set-backs. The exhibition documents their development by means of photos, texts, videos and audio files of recordings. Similar to the set-up of heritageradio, the design of the website has something nostalgic to it with old records spinning on the left while on the right side in the form of a flip calendar date and cultural news items related to that date pop up. Based on online streaming requiring quick time system to be able to play the audio files, the exhibition offers any visitor a personal and extensive experience of what ‘a clear blue sky’ means when a whole family is being sung about as having gone to the city in search of new opportunities.

http://www.tepapa.govt.nz/TePapa/.../MaoriShowbandsLaunch.htm

For other long term exhibitions feature on the web site of Te Papa see, for example:

http://www.tepapa.govt.nz/TePapa/.../BushCity.htm

Bush City is a living, growing exhibition that brings New Zealand's greatoutdoors into the city. Take in some of the wonders of our natural environment, from native bush to volcanic landscape. Cross a swing-bridge, visit a glow-worm cave or a wetland, climb a lava flow, dig for fossils. Or simply have a quiet time in the fresh air.

In Bush City you take a short walk through a recreated naturalworld. Examples of New Zealand's rocky landforms are extensively overplanted with native trees and shrubs. The thick growth offers a hint of the jungle-like feel of New Zealand’s rainforest. Most of these plants would have been seen on the harbour’s edge two hundred years ago.

Examples of our volcanic landscape are here for exploration - a lava flow to clamber upand layered ash falls from the central North Island volcanoes. Budding palaeontologists will love the fossil dig, where a true-to-life replica of a giant fossilised marine reptile, the mosasaur, can be uncovered.

For more adventure, there’s a crawl through the cool and damp limestone cave, inspired by theWaitomo caves. Dripping water, darkened passageways, stalactites, glow-worms, cave weta, and the bones of extinct flightless moa all add to the authenticity of this underground experience.

A large rock wall, buckled by the earth processes that formed New Zealand, acts as a backdropto the oldest exhibits at Te Papa. These colourful rocks, some dating back almost 600 million years, are there to climb on and embrace.

Bush City is a surprising opportunity to wander outdoors and be surroundedby nature in the centre of the capital city.

The online short video depicting some features of Bush City is accompanied by natural sounds ofbirds and water falls. It lets the visitor imagine that he is starting to walk through such nature in the city. One word to describe this lure towards the real and away from the virtual is that the presentation entices the visitor to follow suit the children crossing over a swing bridge.

Example 2:

Lithuanian cultural heritage exhibition – is another interesting site to visit. The mainwebsite introducing the cultural heritage of Lithuania has been created by various means and resources as indicated at: http://alka.mch.mii.lt/index.en.htm

Lithuania in Europe: a Map and Main Facts

Visitor's Guide

SPONSORS:

LITHUANIAN STATE PROGRAM:
A VIRTUAL EXHIBITION OF A MILLENNIUM OF LITHUANIAN CULTAGE

http://lms.pfi.lt/srtrf/ MEDIA SUPPORT FOUNDATION

http://www.osf.lt/ OPEN SOCIETY FUND - LITHUANIA

© Institute of Mathematics and Informatics, 1998-2000
ALKA Project group

Contact address: paveldas@ mch.mii.lt.

The open door acts like a virtual gateway. Symbols like these are very inviting especially ifthe space behind makes the visitor curious about what else can be seen behind the gate. The tree and the spaces behind the gate indicate a path towards the city. It is an outward looking picture and can be taken to symbolize what else there is to be discovered about Lithuania’s cultural heritage.

From the main website one can enter on a second page the Foyer – a virtual exhibition spaceabout various aspects of Lithuania’s cultural life in relation to the Baltics, the State, society and various categories linked to artistic and cultural activities.

Lietuviskai

Art Deco in Lithuania

A Virtual Exhibition of a Millennium of Lithuanian Cultural Heritage:
[Home] [Visitor's Guide] [Review] [Site Map] [Search]  [Information]

© Institute of Mathematics and  Informatics, 1998-2000
Contact address: paveldas@ mch.mii.lt.

By going, for instance, to Lithuanian poetry, a list of poets and a sample of their poetry can be found. All texts are in English and, of course, Lithuanian language. Still, from a virtual exhibition one could expect more live images conveyed through video and sound texts to show the poet reading or even walking through his favourite streets. Naturally as always it depends on the budget made available for such online exhibitions and quite often they have to remain humble. Nevertheless they are a significant start to give access to cultural heritage to a wider audience learning daily on how to come to terms with these web based experiences – an ongoing experimentation of museums making cultural heritage accessible online.

Photos to go online

Two of America's major photographic houses have launched a joint venture to provide one of thelargest freely available archives of pictures on the internet. The collaboration between New York's International Centre of Photography and George Eastman House is expected to include at least 200,000 images by the time it is fully set up next year (The Guardian) http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/news/story/0,11711,1535500,00.html

[1] Information about current developments in research have been received by H-MUSEUM standing for H-Net Network for Museums and Museum Studies E-Mail:

h-museum@ h-net.msu.edu

WWW: http://www.h-museum.net

[2] A short background of this project and myself: “I'm a postgrad student at the School of Library and Information Studies assisting on this research project funded by the Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand.  The principal investigator is Dr. Chernli Liew, a lecturer at the university.” For further information contact Yenping Yeo (Ms), Research Assistant at School of Library and Information Studies Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand yeoyenp@ student.vuw.ac.nz or else visit the student portal @ http://www.studentvuw.vuw.ac.nz

[3] After having taken up correspondence with her, she replied:

“I think I will be returning regularly to keep up with the HERMES developments (they're relevant to my other research interests in digital cultural heritage); CADSES is an interesting model of collaboration for cultural heritage.” (28.7.2005)

[4] http://surveys.sim.vuw.ac.nz/survey.aspx?surveyid=4&uid=[--invitationid

addressed by Yen Ping Yeo who is doing currently research on online cultural heritage exhibitions