The real other? Museum objects in digital contact networks

Abstract

What can museum objects do when they are placed within a digital contact network – a system made up of reciprocally linked but otherwise separate nodes in which control and ownership of content lies with each location? What new connections are enabled through the placement of objects within this contact network and what are the new understandings that result? Dynamics of access, ownership and meaning change when museum collections are transformed into digital forms, in ways that require the reconceptualization of digital objects and their relational capacities. In theory and in practice, the ‘real’ and the digital object are often framed as disconnected and oppositional entities, a separation that hinders approaches to, and uses of, digital forms. Using examples of recent projects at the University of Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, and at the British Museum, it is argued that digital contact networks enable the unique qualities of digital objects to come to the fore, providing platforms for effective engagement and digital reciprocation.