CHArt TWENTY-THIRD ANNUAL CONFERENCE
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Digital Archive Fever
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Tara Chittenden, the Law Society, London, UK
Virtually the ‘Real Thing’? Changing Definitions of Authenticity in the Display and Interpretation of a Virtual Artefact
The twenty-first century trend toward virtual interaction, virtual worlds and web tools that enable people to create and share their own information at an individual level is causing institutions such as museums to reconsider their position as providers of knowledge. The increase of ‘new attentional cultures’ (Lemke 2004), and a cultural revolution which challenges ‘top-down’ information provision, is leading museums to experiment with new modes of technological and virtual display. As museums are increasingly attracted by virtual reality, as a new mode of display and a novel way to draw visitors, I propose a need to examine the role of the virtual object in the museum.
In this paper I will explore the place of virtual reality in museums in relation to new web-based approaches to sharing and interacting with virtual information spaces. In so doing I call for a re-examination of the status of the ‘original’ in terms of the material artefact housed in museums. If historical objects are sanctioned and prized for their material authenticity, then what role does the virtual artefact play? This paper addresses definitions of authenticity in the museum, questioning what educational potential may emerge at the intersection of tangible and virtual forms. The technological migration from material to virtual artefact is at present gradual, with museums favouring virtual reality to create immersive environments or to augment the museum experience through a surrogate that can withstand manipulation. The potential disappearance of the material artefact from the arena of public display suggests that museums need to engage with the underlying interpretative strategies that new generations deploy in response to virtual artefacts.