5 Case Study 1 - Leicester Research Archive - University of Leicester

Correspondingly, Roberta Buiani posits that those pages on museums’ websites
which are devoted to collections are “equivalent of an assemblage of data, which
show no evidence of their common provenance from a certain collection or as a
works peculiar to a particular museum.” She argues that whilst museums’
homepages often “tend to recreate its original atmosphere by means of graphical
and visual devices, in the page dedicated to its collections the environment
disappears.” Moreover, she maintains that
“It’s as if a sort of neutral space were established, where any kind of
work could be displayed, without having to worry about the
strategies that would be used in a real museum environment (light,
the position as related as the other works etc.).” 86
This is exactly the focus of this thesis, namely that providing access to art via
online media is not so much a question of quantity but one of quality. Moreover,
this thesis is based on the belief that online media in general, and (as will become
much clearer in Chapter 4) new broadcasting models of publication in particular,
should be drivers for the production of new types of content rather than as a mere
channels of distributing existing content. This argument is also in line with the
claim of the Natural History Museum in London which says that
“for the museum sector as a whole, the focus should not be about
simply digitising existing content, but about using the new media to
create new types of content. The new media will then become a way
for British museums to continue evolving and to remain world-
leading institutions.” 87
Gerfried Stocker, director of the Ars Electronica Center in Linz argues along
similar lines when he says that “in any case, it is clear that communities do not
86
Roberta Buiani, ‘Virtual Museums and the Web: a dilemma of incompatibility?’ Paper
presented at a Graduate Symposium University of California (Irvine: 10-12.4.2003).
http://www.humanities.uci.edu/visualstudies/everyday/papers/Buiani.pdf (as of 12.4.2007).
87 st
Natural History Museum London in Understanding the Future: Museums and the 21 Century
– Responses to Consultation
http://www.culture.gov.uk/Reference_library/Publications/archive_2005/understanding_museum
s_21century_responses.htm (as of 26.11.2006).
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