Technology: The Modern Museum

The use of technology in museums today is imperative to the success and relativity of the organization. To bring a museum into the 21st century, it needs interactive entertainment as well as include great online resources for patrons and visitors.
   
Data Bases are a great resource for researchers and students. Museums who include an easily accessible online archive open themselves up to exposure from Internet researchers all over the world. When I was in London this past summer I attended an exhibit at the National Portrait Gallery. When I returned to the States the Museum's online archive  helped me complete the final project for the class I took while in the city. The data base allowed me to access the portraits and information  I needed from the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. Without that archive I would have had to recall almost 50 portraits from memory.

Interactive exhibits are so much more entertaining to audiences and museum goers. By including social media outlets such as, Twitter, Facebook, Texting and even FourSquare, throughout exhibits allows for the promotion of not only the exhibit but for the museum itself.  Interactive technologies engage the museum visitor in a completely different way than just staring at an object, reading its information and moving on. Instead the patron can take time to use up to all five senses to really understand the information they are being given through the object or exhibit.

However it is up the museum to decided how to incorporate that technology into either permanent collections or in changing exhibits. Technology in museums may also be a turn off for some museum patrons. Many go to museums to be transported to a place of history, art and culture. The museum must find the balance between technology advancements and retaining the peacefulness often associated with  it.


Works Cited

Rosenberg, Karen. "ART REVIEW; Art That Interacts If You Interface." The New York Times. The  New York Times, 29 July 2011. Web. 23 Oct. 2012.  <http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/29/arts/design/momas-talk-to-me-focuses-on-interface-review.html?_r=0>.

21st Century Skills For The Modern Museum

With the dawn of the 21^st century technology and information has boomed. No longer is there real need to step outside your own home to access knowledge and information. But how is this relevant to Museums? Due to immense amount of information that is out there now Museums need to be able to compete with Websites and Web Archives. To keep up the business end of the Museum, the institution must adapt to stay relevant in this day and age. With that being said the only way to improve the Museum is to improve the staff working there and bring fresh interactive ideas to the forefront of the Modern Museum. Now when I refer to the “Modern Museum” I do not mean that the museum is one of modern art or modern history, no I simply mean that the museum is one that has adapted to fit the current time period and maintain its attraction to visitors. There are a few simple ways to make sure that this can happen within all museums and their staff.

1. Technology Knowledge
   1. the use of technology in the 21^st century is critical. Interactive and out of the box exhibits are the best way to grab a visitors attention and keep them coming back for more.
2. Critical Thinking
   1. Staff should be able to analyze and quickly come up with solutions to problems. Also they should be able to take in as many fresh ideas as possible and consider all aspects of the museum and its patrons.
3. Environmental Literacy
   1. Living in this world today, we understand that what we do can have a large impact on the environment and community at large. Museums and staff should know and be aware of how the museum fits into the community environment and play a part in maintaining and protecting it.
4. Global Literacy
   1. The world is no longer full of isolated pockets of space. Today there lives a global community in which all cultures have the ability to be included. Museums and staff should be aware of this and take this into account when planning events and exhibitions. They should be encouragers of this global society and be accessible to all its peoples
5. Evaluation from visitors and patrons
   1. The only way a museum can grow and prosper to learn from not only it's mistakes but also it's successes. The Museum should take notes and criticisms from it's patrons and use them in future exhibitions and events. The only way it can reach its public is through the engagement of the said public.
      

6.  Multifaceted Institution

      1."Every museum today  has had to come to grips with this transformation from temple of art to    culture mall. In order to survive, museums today must be many things to many people: centers of scholarship, places of entertainment, temples of beauty, social service agencies, marketplaces, meeting places, places of diversity, places of calm, and, above all, places of socio-political controversy"

       I love this line from Susanna Torruella Leval about the nature of the "Modern Museum"and the different things it must be to different people. 

Works Cited

Eberbach, Cathrine. "InformalScience | Randi Korn - Interview from the Field."InformalScience | Randi Korn - Interview from the Field. Informal Science, 2008. Web. 18 Sept. 2012. <http://informalscience.org/member/interview/rkorn>.

"Podcast Audio." Podcast Audio. IMLS, n.d. Web. 18 Sept. 2012. <http://www.imls.gov/resources/podcast.aspx>.

Torruella Leval, Susanna. "ARTS, CULTURE, AND SOCIETY." The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts -. N.p., 1995. Web. 18 Sept. 2012. <http://www.warholfoundation.org/grant/paper5/paper.html>.