Museum International

ISSN: 1350-0775 (Print) 1468-0033 (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rmil20

Editorial

Aedín Mac Devitt (Managing Editor)

To cite this article: Aedín Mac Devitt (Managing Editor) (2018) Editorial, Museum International,
70:1-2, 3-4, DOI: 10.1111/muse.12187

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1111/muse.12187

Published online: 11 Jan 2019.

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Editorial
T
he opportunities offered by today’s digital
technology are bringing museums ever clo-
ser to their goals of accessibility, inclusion
and democratisation of culture. These technolo-
gical advances have greatly facilitated the impor-
tant role museums can play in creating connections
with and among visitors, connections that are all
the more crucial in a society where loneliness is
reaching epidemic levels in some countries.
In 2018, ICOM’s signature event, International
Museum Day, broached the theme Hyperconnected
Museums: New Approaches, New Publics, which of-
fered museums the opportunity to explore all the
connections that tie them to their communities,
cultural landscapes and natural environment.
Building on that collective reflection, which en-
gaged around 37,000 museums around the world
this year, this issue of Museum International ex-
plores and assesses how effectively museums are
adapting their practices to embrace and capita-
lise on digital technology. The authors in this issue
have offered novel perspectives on this theme from
many angles: from the digitisation of collections,
capacity building, co-creation and community en-
gagement to the development of specific digital
strategies within the museum.
The first section examines which new roles mu-
seum objects, collections, professionals and the ins-
titutions themselves are assuming in a digital wor-
ld. Werner Schweibenz looks at how the growing
availability of reproductions of artworks influence
the way visitors perceive objects in the museum,
while Helena Barranha focuses on derivative works
and the importance of stimulating different inter-
pretations of artworks online.
The need for museum practitioners of all disci-
plines to be proficient in digital technology is a
prominent theme. Focusing on the digital skills of
Portuguese museum professionals, Ana Carvalho
and Alexandre Matos call for public policies to
ensure a museum community skilled in digital
technology. Meanwhile, Mona Hess et al. call for
increased certified digital training for museum
professionals and offer a series of recommenda-
tions in this vein.
In 2014, Creative Museum, a framework pro-
gramme of the European Commission for-
med the working group Museums and Creative
Industries within Network of European Museum
Organizations (NEMO) to highlight museums as
an important support base for creative industries.1
In her article, Oonagh Murphy considers how
technology can advance a museum’s strategic and
business plan by offering space to creative entre-
preneurs. She analyses the possibility of this prac-
tice as a means to support museum professionals
and academics who seek to engage critically with
digital culture and emerging business models in
museums.
The second section discusses the digital strategies
museums are implementing to adjust to the changes
in their sector. It begins with a presentation of the
results of a survey by ICOM Italy and the Italian
Ministry of Culture (MiBAC) to assess the extent to
which Italian museums have implemented and de-
veloped new online strategies (Orlandi et al.). This
is followed by Katrin Glinka’s contribution, which
describes the objectives and methodology of mu-
seum4punkt0, a three-year project that develops
and evaluates digital communication applications
and technologies in museums in Germany.
MUSEUM international | 3
 Two case studies are then presented of museums Notes
1 The above-cited NEMO report, entitled
that have introduced new technology to increase Museums and Creative Industries in
their relevance to new visitor demographics. Progress (2017), is available here: https://
Julie Higashi explains how the Hiroshima Peace www.ne-mo.org/fileadmin/Dateien/
public/NEMo_documents/NEMO_2017_
Memorial Museum in Japan used digital technolo- Museums_Creative_Industries_progress_
gy to create a cityscape designed to evoke historical report.pdf [Accessed 14 December 2018].
empat­hy in the visitor, in the context of aging A-­
bomb survivors and shifting demographics. At the
Mutare Museum in Zimbabwe, Davison Chiwara
and Njabulo Chipangura assess the impact of in-
troducing new technology in the museum, ultima-
tely concluding that this addition was far from a
fix-all solution for the museum’s core challenges.
The final section looks at opportunities and
challenges in visitor and community engage-
ment. In Cassidy et al, the potential of emergent
3d and spherical technologies on the relationships
between communities and museums are examined
in the context of the Museums and Community:
Concepts, experiences, and sustainabi­ lity in
Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean project
(EU-LAC-­ MUSEUMS). The follow­ ing three ar-
ticles focus on three digi­tal plat­forms: izi.TRAVEL,
Trip­Advisor and YouTube. High­lighting a regio-
nal project conducted in Sicily, #iziTRAVELSicilia,
Elisa Bonancini shows the potential of co-creating
cultur­al content to provide greater visibility for a
region’s cultural heritage.
Alexander et al. discuss their study of reviews of
a sample of accredited museums in London on
Trip­Advisor, arguing that user-generated data is
an effective means of evaluating visitors. Finally,
Natalia Grincheva brings us back to 2010 with an
analysis of the then ground-breaking YouTube Play
‘Guggentube’ creative video contest, a collaboration
between Google and the Solomon R. Guggenheim
Foundation, which remains unique today in terms
of its global scope and outreach.
We hope that these contributions will give rise to
further debate on the potential that technology can
offer museums to increase their relevance and role
in society. Special thanks go to our authors, peer
reviewers, editorial board and editorial team, who
have once again ensured an insightful and varied
issue of Museum International.

Aedín Mac Devitt

Managing Editor

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