Virtual museum a door to ASEAN collections<\/p>\n
By Amir Sidharta<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): Those familiar with \"the corridor\" in Michael
\nCrichton's Disclosure will be able to imagine the ultimate
\nexperience of accessing museum exhibits through a computer. Some
\ntime in the future, as virtual reality technology progresses, it
\nwill be possible to walk through a museum and see simulated
\nexhibits from a virtual reality station in your own room.<\/p>\n
Director of the Asian Cultural History Program at the
\nSmithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History, Dr.
\nPaul Taylor, delivered his Virtual Museum of ASEAN at the Museum
\nof Conception of the Proclamation of Independence in Central
\nJakarta, on Tuesday, March 28. Taylor was accompanied by physical
\nanthropologist and statistician of the Museum of Natural
\nHistory's Department of Anthropology Dr. Bruno Frolich. He is
\nTaylor's colleague and has been instrumental in organizing the
\nproject.<\/p>\n
A virtual museum would consist of images, essays, narrations
\nand data found in museums which could be accessed on CD-ROM and
\nother information-storage devices. It would allow scholars and
\nnovices to browse through thousands of images and associated
\ninformation from collections in Southeast Asia, or anywhere else,
\nincluding photographs, films, interactive maps, time lines,
\nessays and glossaries from a PC.<\/p>\n
The collection would be compiled by scanning photographic
\nimages of the museum objects and entering related data into a
\ndatabase system which would be able to handle both text and
\nimages. A sophisticated high-resolution scanner is currently
\nbeing developed at IBM's Thomas J. Watson Research Center in the
\nAmerican state of New York. The scanner is able to scan anything
\nfrom a small 35mm slide to three-dimensional large objects.<\/p>\n
Not new<\/p>\n
The idea of a virtual museum is by no means new. While
\nreverting to America Online through my modem via Macintosh
\ncomputer during cold winter days in Washington D.C., I came
\nacross their virtual version of the Smithsonian museums. Through
\nthe interface that was available at the time, one could wander
\ninto certain departments and obtain information about the
\nexhibits at the Smithsonian.<\/p>\n
In one of the classes I attended while receiving my museum
\ntraining at the George Washington University, William Lynch from
\nthe university's Education Computer Lab presented The Virtual
\nHistoric House interactive computer program that would allow
\nelderly visitors and visitors with disabilities complete access
\nto museums -- particularly small museums -- that were not yet
\nable to provide adequate facilities to accommodate them.<\/p>\n
He had created a virtual model of the museum and placed images
\nof artifacts within the computer generated space. People could
\nview and wander through each room and encounter the objects via a
\ncomputer monitor.<\/p>\n
Not all museums are financially able to comply with the
\nrequirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act to provide
\nevery visitor equal access to exhibits. Many historical house
\nmuseums can't afford or justify providing costly facilities, like
\nelevators, for the small number of disabled visitors because they
\ndesperately need funds just to keep their museums running.<\/p>\n
Such a computer program -- although a poor substitute --
\noffers the best alternative to the real museum experience.<\/p>\n
Many museums in the United States have started to offer
\nInternet users access to their collections. Reproductions of the
\nrare historical documents of the Library of Congress can be
\nviewed on the Internet. In addition, the library has also made
\navailable sets of images and related information from actual
\nexhibits held at the library, including reproductions from the
\nVatican Library and sections of the 2,000 year old Dead Sea
\nScrolls. The Smithsonian has several online locations, like the
\ninstitution itself, which also consists of several museums
\nscattered around several different locations. The National
\nGallery of Art in Washington, D.C. offers Internet users to
\nsearch through a database of basic information about its vast
\ncollection of 1,600 works of art.<\/p>\n
Other smaller museums, like the University of California at
\nBerkeley's Museum of Paleontology, Jane Adam's Hull House Museum
\nin Chicago, the California Museum of Photography, The Bishop
\nMuseum in Honolulu, have also started to provide online services
\nthrough the Internet.<\/p>\n
Tremendous<\/p>\n
Computers offer tremendous possibilities for the museum world.
\nObjects can be photographed or video recorded and then converted
\ninto still or moving digital images. Digital recordings of museum
\ncollections have been done at certain museums as part of their
\ncataloging efforts. Advances in computer aided design and
\nmodeling enable objects and spaces to be recreated.<\/p>\n
Interactive interfaces such as those offered by online
\nservices, allow progressive selection on the part of the user to
\nthe available options. For example, a virtual museum could offer
\na choice of sections into which visitors could enter. At a touch
\nof a button one would enter the Natural History department of the
\nmuseum. Then the user could select the Insect Room out of the
\nlist of available exhibition rooms. Once in the Insect Room, one
\ncould choose from a selection of cases including butterflies,
\nants, bees and so forth. The user could consult the genealogical
\nchart of the order or retrieve information about individual
\nspecies.<\/p>\n
The novelty of an interactive computer program will make it
\nmore user friendly than daunting museums. Indonesian children
\nhate the word \"don't\", and Indonesian museums are filled with
\n\"don'ts\". \"Don't touch\", we are constantly reminded. In the
\nvirtual museum touching is a major requirement. You actively
\nsearch for information by selecting items in the directories or
\nmenus.<\/p>\n
The virtual museum also eliminates all the problems
\nIndonesians expect when visiting a museum, such as having to
\ndrive through chaotic traffic, having to buy the entrance ticket,
\nhaving to make sure that you keep the ticket just in case they
\ncheck, having to hand your belongings to the coat room clerk,
\nhaving to face up to security guards who tell you not to run, not
\nto eat and to be quiet.<\/p>\n
At the virtual museum you can't run. You have to sit and
\nrelax, with your hands fixed on the keyboard of your computer,
\nwaiting to respond to the choices that appear on the next menu.
\nYou might even be able to eat as long as no one tells on you. You
\ncan scream all you like, if it gets that exciting.<\/p>\n
The virtual museum is most likely to contain a selected
\ncollection, so it wouldn't be as boring as going to Indonesian
\nmuseums which tend to be crammed with all sorts of objects. If
\nyou don't like a room, you are immediately taken to another room
\nwith the punch of a few buttons.<\/p>\n
Entering the virtual museum is a fun. You won't get scared in
\nthe virtual museum. No need to worry about the ghosts that
\nIndonesians claim haunt most of Jakarta's museums. No need to
\nworry about any mess apart from your own. The virtual museum is
\nalways as clean as your computer.<\/p>\n
Paul Taylor asked what museum projects IBM could help support
\nhere, I proposed the idea of a virtual museum of Indonesia. It
\ncould be compiled from a network of museum collections from the
\nentire archipelago linked through the Internet. Virtual museums,
\nby virtue of their novelty, would no doubt be attractive.
\nIndonesians would be geared to explore what the museum has to
\noffer.<\/p>\n
Research potential<\/p>\n
The possibilities of a virtual museum of Indonesia are mind-
\nboggling. Imagine yourself roaming through museums in Kalimantan
\nor Irian Jaya from your desk in Jakarta or even Washington.<\/p>\n
It is hard for Indonesian museum staff to keep track of their
\ncollections. A database including every object in the collection
\navailable through the Internet or on CD-ROM would be beneficial
\nto Indonesian museums. The virtual museum offers an excellent
\ntool for collection management.<\/p>\n
It also enables an open exchange of information among museums
\nand institutions. Instead of having to visit museums scattered
\nall around Indonesia, anyone could easily access any museum
\ncollection. The system also makes it easier to conduct
\ncomparative studies among similar objects scattered around the
\nworld.<\/p>\n
\"The system would allow a small museum to obtain images and
\ninformation on an object which is in a museum in another province
\nor another country without having to physically move the object,\"
\nsaid Taylor. From his office in Washington, he would be able to
\nstudy an object kept in a museum in Ambon.<\/p>\n
Before the Virtual Museum of ASEAN project began, Paul Taylor
\nwas already entering the Philippine collection at the Smithsonian
\nonto compact disks, as part of a project instigated by researcher
\nPatricia Afable from the National Museum of Natural History. The
\nPhilippines was interested in making more use of the little-known
\ncollection, and is working on producing a CD-ROM called The
\nPhilippine Heritage Collection: a Smithsonian Resource Guide.<\/p>\n
Taylor expanded the project to include museums in the ASEAN
\nregion, but has limited the scope to the best collections as a
\nstart. He started the project by managing the Smithsonian's
\ncollection from the ASEAN region.<\/p>\n
A portion of the William L. Abbott collection at the National
\nMuseum of Natural History has been processed. Abbott was a doctor
\nfrom Philadelphia who explored Africa, the Middle East and
\nSoutheast Asia between 1887 to 1909. At the end of the
\nexpedition he was active in Nias, North Sumatra, Kalimantan, and
\nIrian Jaya, collecting ethnographic objects and taking
\nphotographs for the Smithsonian. Half of the 1,800 photographs he
\ntook have been scanned, stored in the project's computer system
\nand transferred onto CD-ROM.<\/p>\n
Next on the list is the collection of Matthew Stirling.
\nStirling led an important expedition along the Mamberamo River in
\nIrian Jaya in 1926. \"Our studies of his collections would include
\ncooperating with museum in Irian Jaya in an effort to obtain new
\ndocumentation about the collection of tribes in Irian Jaya
\nvisited by Stirling,\" Taylor explained.<\/p>\n
The Virtual Museum of ASEAN would not end with the collections
\nof Abbott and Stirling. \"We plan to enter all the materials in
\ncollections from ASEAN countries at the Smithsonian Institution
\nand make them available via the Internet or compact disks. To
\nmake this happen, of course, sound cooperation among our museums
\nand institutions is needed,\" Taylor said. Artifacts from a Thai
\nexhibit being prepared by Taylor's wife, Lisa McQuail, will soon
\nbe entered into the system.<\/p>\n
\"If virtual museums are so much fun, won't they make real
\nmuseums obsolete?\" a question was raised after the presentation.
\nIn his answer, Taylor compared the museum to a novel. \"When they
\nmake movies out of books, the number of the readers of the book
\nincreases rather than decreases,\" he explained.<\/p>\n
Once available through the Internet, the Virtual Museum of
\nASEAN would indeed be a great marketing device. It would
\nintroduce Internet users to the number of museums that exist in
\nthe region and also attract them to visit museums with
\ninteresting collections.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/virtual-museum-a-door-to-asean-collections-1447893297",
"image": ""
},
"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
}