Ssebanakitta abstract 2008
The concept of the Museum in the Information Age
What will, might, should the museum be? These questions should be engaging the mind of all of us as we re-invent the museum for the new environment in which information flow is paramount.
Museums have often been looked at as mausoleums, as centers of accumulation of objects which no longer have a living relationship with the present. This is an image has always made some think of a museum as anything but a place that plays a leading role in information flow in this age of information.However, the end of the museum as a mausoleum has come.No more is it to be viewed as a temple or treasure house - an image which always reinforced the idea of museums as having no connection to the present.The museum is now deeply involved in information flow, making it an important source of information in today’s 'information society'. There is a new relationship between electronic technologies and museums which has led to a need to re examine the traditional museum's orientation to objects, an orientation which contributed to museums being viewed as mausoleums in the first place. Since museums are no longer disconnected from the social or technological worlds, there is a need to re-evaluate their roles and the roles of curators, taking into account their increasingly growing role in information flow.George MacDonald, said that "all museums are, at the most fundamental level, concerned with information: its generation, its perpetuation, its organisation, and its dissemination" (1992:161). This observation means that artifacts and other documentary material found in museums are important not for any other reason, but for their information value. So an artifact, a photograph or an audio recording about the same item have no difference since they all represent information.We can also firmly state that museums are about information rather than objects. In an article entitled "The intelligent museum", by Eiji Mizushima, a Japanese systems engineer involved in the construction of new museums, Mizushima defined the contemporary museum in terms of information, a concept which he places in opposition to old fashioned museums which he called temples. Mizushima said and I quote: “In speaking of modern museum architecture, I believe that the museums should no longer be seen passively as receptacles for collections and visitors but, actively, as devices that receive and transmit information and support various museum activities dynamically (Mizushima 1989:242). For Mizushima, an 'intelligent museum' is "in essence one that highlights information, and therefore makes structural provision for information circulation and management" (Mizushima 1989:241). An intelligent museum is one that (a) can control automatically museum operation and management and exhibit management; (b) can control the museum environment (exhibit environment and conservation environment); (c) is structurally equipped, both within and without, with information/communication capabilities; and (d) can control with computers and 'new media' equipment a visitor information service (Mizushima 1989:242). For Mizushima, a museum should be designed with information flow as its core activity , keeping in mind the idea that information is dynamic and interactive rather than static and authoritative. Such a museum is, for Mizushima, contemporary in orientation. The technology needed to establish the information flows is one which breaks the association of the museum with a mausoleum, with the dead past. To ensure information flow in a museum therefore, the museum should have an integrated system which makes it possible to identify, record and disseminate information in line with the organisation’s existing policy on information.