Lily Diaz -Kommonen, Finland | ISBN: | Submitted: Jul 8, 1998

Can the Muses be Revived?

Recent scholarly research argues that the conceptual origins of the museum are to be found back in the third century B.C. E. in the celebrated Museum of Alexandria. Under the patronage of the Ptolomies, this institution offered literary and scientific scholars with palatial housing, and the now legendary library. [1]

Of significance to my thesis is this ancient, but resonant, idea of a civic institution. I am interested in how the transformation of the museum, from the dynamic body of research scholars and the institution that housed them into the place where objects are kept and collected, occurred. This is because I wonder if there something here to be learned and applied to the design and use of digital information environments. In other words can we design digital realms that incorporate the richness of this concept? Would this in turn have an impact on our concept of cultural heritage?

Within this framework, and with these questions in mind, in my essay I propose to demonstrate ways in which multimedia, and digital information environments, can contribute to UNESCO's World Heritage program.

The first way is related to the notion of the power of multimedia to reconfigure both the form and function of institutions such as the archive, the library and the museum. In allowing for new forms of representation of knowledge, and for items from disparate sources to be linked, multimedia can extend and augment our knowledge and understanding of the historical discourse. I will illustrate this point by presenting materials from the project "Illuminating History: Through the Eyes of Media." This project uses materials from archeological excavations in the Ihala Mulli site in southwestern Finland, archives and museums throughout the country to depict aspects of everyday life, from the late Iron Age to early 1700's. The work includes the creation of a web site that features the use of Virtual Reality Modeling Language and QuickTime Virtual Reality technology for visualization of the landscape and objects through time. The project is a collaborative effort between the Media Laboratory of the University of Art and Design Helsinki, the Department of Archeology of the University of Turku, the municipality of Raisio and the Academy of Finland.

The widely held notion that digital technology can provide democratic access to information is another point I will develop. Especially in relation to a potential re-distribution of cultural heritage artefacts. For it is no secret that a vast majority of objects and manuscripts from developing countries have been relocated to the libraries, archives and museums in Europe and North America. Yet the power of transmission and replication of digital media can allow for citizens from all over the world to study and enjoy cultural heritage artefacts without having to travel to distant countries. How this idea can be made into a reality will be illustrated by presenting sections of the project "Map of Mexico 1554, the Creation of A Digital Facsimile." This project is about the transference into digital media of the Sixteenth Century map in parchment of the city of Mexico/Tenochtitlan. The work involves reconstruction and rendering of the radiometric and volumetric data of the artefact. The final objective is to create a fully three dimensional replica of the item. This work is a collaborative effort between the Media Laboratory of the University of Art and Design Helsinki, the Library of the University of Uppsala in Uppsala Sweden, and the Department of Photogrammetry of the Helsinki University of Technology.

Lastly, I would like to touch on an area that is closely related to the question of how we decide what belongs in the cultural heritage of humanity? That is, should intangible and non-recorded materials, such as rituals from rapidly disappearing cultures be included in this category? And if so, how can multimedia and digital information environments help preserve the elusive and ephemeral aspects of human nature?

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[keywords]
Archeology,Archive, Artefact, Information, Design Environment,Quicktime Virtual Reality, Reconstruction, Virtual Reality Modeling Language, Visualization