Museums and Digital Culture

This book explores how digital culture is transforming museums in the 21st century. Offering a corpus of new evidence for readers to explore, the authors trace the digital evolution of the museum and that of their audiences, now fully immersed in digital life, from the Internet to home and work. In a world where life in code and digits has redefined human information behavior and dominates daily activity and communication, ubiquitous use of digital tools and technology is radically changing the social contexts and purposes of museum exhibitions and collections, the work of museum professionals and the expectations of visitors, real and virtual.

Moving beyond their walls, with local and global communities, museums are evolving into highly dynamic, socially aware and relevant institutions as their connections to the global digital ecosystem are strengthened. As they adopt a visitor-centered model and design visitor experiences, their priorities shift to engage audiences, convey digital collections, and tell stories through exhibitions. This is all part of crafting a dynamic and innovative museum identity of the future, made whole by seamless integration with digital culture, digital thinking, aesthetics, seeing and hearing, where visitors are welcomed participants.

The international and interdisciplinary chapter contributors include digital artists, academics, and museum professionals. In themed parts the chapters present varied evidence-based research and case studies on museum theory, philosophy, collections, exhibitions, libraries, digital art and digital future, to bring new insights and perspectives, designed to inspire readers. Enjoy the journey!

Inhalt
Introduction.- Digital Culture.- Museums and Digitalism.- Philosophy and Theory.- Historical Questions on Being and Digital Culture.- Contested Space: Activism and protest.- Exhibitions.- Past the Museum Floor: Criteria for curating experience.- Digital Road Trips: The shifting landscape of digital art shows.- Collections.- Collecting, Documenting, and Exhibiting the Histories of Digital Art: A V&A perspective.- Conserving Digital Art.- Audiences.- How Museums Made (and Re-made) their Digital User.- The Digital Layer in the Museum Experience.- Digital Artists.- Morphogenetic Creations: Exhibiting and collecting digital art.- Evolving Installations: Shaping Space.- Art, Life, and Technology, through Time and Space.- Education.- The Education of a Digital Fine Artist.- Libraries and Archives.- Museum Libraries and Archives in the Digital 21st Century.- Democratizing Discovery: The impact of digital culture on the research library.- Digital Future.- Digital Culture Leaders Visioning the Postdigital Museum.