Much of the discussion of the impact of electronic technologies on museums suggests that electronic technologies have been important in displacing the traditional metaphor of museums as mausoleums. This paper supports the move away from this metaphor, but suggests that this is not a recent phenomenon or entirely attributable to the impact of electronic technologies. The rhetorics currently associated with electronic technologies in museums can be better understood as part of a longer history of the relation between museums and the media. This is a history which points to the role of the media in producing a public sphere in which more democratic social relations are possible.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AdornoTheodor1967, ‘Valéry Proust Museum in Memory of Hermann von Grab’, in AdornoT. (ed.), Prisms, Garden City Press, London, pp. 175–85
2.
BenjaminWalter1973, ‘The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction’, in ArendtH. (ed.), Illuminations, Schocken Books, New York, pp. 217–52
3.
BennettTony1988, ‘The Exhibitionary Complex’, New Formations, vol. 4, pp. 73–102
4.
BohrerFrederick N.1994, ‘The Times and Spaces of History: Representation, Assyria, and the British Museum’ in ShermanD.J.RogoffI. (eds), Museum Culture: Histories, Discourses, Spectacles, University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, pp. 197–222
5.
ChesherChris1994, ‘Colonizing virtual Reality: Constructions of the Discourse of Virtual Reality’, Cultronix, vol. 1 (Fall), http://eng.hss.cmu.edu/cultronix/chesher
6.
GeorgelChantal1994, ‘The Museum as Metaphor in Nineteenth-century France’ in ShermanD.J.RogoffI. (eds), Museum Culture: Histories, Discourses, Spectacles, University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, pp. 113–22
7.
HartleyJohn1992, The Politics of Pictures: The Creation of the Public in the Age of Popular Media, Routledge, London
8.
HartleyJohn1995, ‘Journalism and Modernity’, Australian Journal of Communication, vol. 22, no. 2, pp. 20–30
9.
HuyssenAndreas1995, Twilight Memories: Marking Time in a Culture of Amnesia, Routledge, London
10.
InnisHarold A.1973, The Bias of Communication, University of Toronto Press, Toronto
11.
JordanovaLudmilla1989, ‘Objects of Knowledge: A Historical Perspective on Museums’, in VergoP. (ed.), The New Museology, Reaktion Books, London, pp. 22–40
12.
Kirschenblatt-GimblettBarbara1991, ‘Objects of Ethnography’, in KarpI.LavineS.D. (eds), Exhibiting Cultures: The Poetics and Politics of Museum Display, Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, pp. 386–443
13.
MacDonaldGeorge F.1992, ‘Change and Challenge: Museums in the Information Society’, in KarpI.KreamerC.M.LavineS.D. (eds), Museums and Communities — The Politics of Public Culture, Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, pp. 158–81
14.
MalrauxAndré1967, Museum Without Walls, Secker & Warburg, London
15.
McLuhanMarshall1967, Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man, Sphere Books, London
ShermanDaniel J.1994, ‘Quatremere/Benjamin/Marx: Art Museums, Aura, and Commodity Fetishism’, in ShermanD.J.RogoffI. (eds), Museum Culture: Histories Discourses, Spectacles, University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, pp. 123–43
18.
Sumarez-SmithCharles1989, ‘Museums, Artefacts, and Meanings’, in VergoP. (ed.), The New Museology, Reaktion Books, London, pp. 6–21
