Museum 2.0

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A review by Heidi Brabin, written for HIST 5V71 in Fall 2011

[edit] The Toronto Museum Project Online

Launched on March 6, 2010, The Toronto Museum Project Online is an example of how the concept of Museum 2.0 is changing the way in which we engage with museums and their artifacts. In order to better understand the Toronto Museum Project, it is important to keep in mind what the goals and primary objectives of Museum 2.0 are, according to Nina Simon’s blog Museum 2.0. As we know, the internet has evolved from a place to store and share data into the interactive space that we know today. As Simon says on her blog, this change from Web 1.0 to Web 2.0 can be seen in museums as well. The concept of Web 2.0 allows the user to “generate, share, and curate the content”, which is precisely the atmosphere that Museum 2.0 fosters.[1] According to Simon, Museum 2.0 allows the viewer to become an active participant in the museum experience as they decide what is or is not relevant and important.[2] This evolution from the traditional museum to an interactive space has led museums to seek to not only provide information, but to make the participant feel engaged and included in the experience

The Toronto Museum Project Online is an online exhibit which showcases artifacts and stories that can tell us more about the City of Toronto’s culture and heritage. The project combines 100 artifacts with the related stories of 100 Torontonians in an effort to get people to see “an entirely new way of exploring Toronto’s history”.[3] According to Toronto’s museum administrator Karen Carter, the Toronto Museum Project allowed the city to display artifacts that they had collected while they waited for a physical site to develop Toronto’s own museum. Due to budget restrictions, a physical museum was not going to be an option in the immediate future, thus Carter was awarded a $305 000 federal heritage grant to develop the Toronto Museum Project Online. Museum curators worked with a design team to create the Toronto Museum Project website, and paid special attention to the way in which the material was presented online to ensure that users could have the most engaging experience with the artifacts.[4] By going to the home page, one can select a photo of a volunteer who has collaborated on the project by adding their story. A more user friendly way to peruse the material would be to select the ‘Stories’ page, and choose an artifact to examine. By clicking on an artifact, one will then see a larger image (which they can then manipulate to look in more detail) as well as the curatorial comments, and the related story of a Torontonian. The stories shared on the Toronto Museum Project provide the perspectives of children, adults, and seniors, and include people who were born in Canada as well as many individuals who have immigrated to the culturally diverse City of Toronto.

The main benefit of the Toronto Museum Project (and the concept of Museum 2.0 itself) is the fact that the people of Toronto get to decide what is most important and relevant to the city. While some artifacts may not seem as significant (such as a 1992 Blue Jays World Series Coca Cola Can), the story that goes along with the item often shows how important it is in understanding the culture of Toronto. In other cases, an incredibly significant piece can made even more powerful by providing a personal anecdote alongside the photo. An example of this would be the Chinese Head Tax Certificate that is accompanied by the story of how discriminatory immigration policies actually led those affected to band together and provided support for one another. According to the volunteer’s family story, this led to the emergence of a rich culture and identity for new immigrated Torontonians.[5] Additionally, the community section of the project’s website allows the consumer to become a participant by sharing exhibit ideas, artifact ideas, comments, and what they believe to be special about Toronto.

The primary drawback of the Toronto Museum Project is interesting in that it has the potential to be both negative and beneficial. Part of the motivation behind the Toronto Museum Project Online was to allow access to artifacts that had been intended for museum display.[6] Curators and designers had hoped that this interesting new website would create a new dialogue among Torontonians and lead them to push the city to create Toronto’s own museum (while there are clearly incredible museums in Toronto, in particular the Royal Ontario Museum, the argument is that the current museums do not focus on the city itself). A potential shortcoming of the Toronto Museum Project is that by providing access to the material online, the project may actually detract from its goal. Rather than reigniting a passion for physical museums, an online museum such as the Toronto Museum Project could lead people to question whether an expensive investment such as a museum is even necessary. In the digital age, there is the potential that people will begin to feel that looking at an artifact online is just as useful as seeing it in a museum, therefore leading the physical spaces to become obsolete.

A secondary drawback to the concept of Museum 2.0 is the issue of authority that has come up many times in discussions about the digital humanities. By giving people the power to decide what will be displayed on the website, what exhibits will be featured in the future, and which story will be paired with which item, are curators losing their place in the museum? In the case of the Toronto Museum Project Online, a curatorial comment is provided below the artifact’s image, which perhaps adds a sense of certainty and legitimacy to the description. But, in the quest to make museums more engaging, will Museum 2.0 creators remove the presence of curators and leave them in the hands of the public? While one can only speculate, the problem of authority is a major issue related to Museum 2.0 that cannot be ignored.

While we can all enjoy examples of Museum 2.0 such as the Toronto Museum Project Online, the concept of Museum 2.0 can also have enormous potential for research. Though I cannot use specific artifacts from the Toronto Museum Project Online for my research on medieval Ireland, some of the main themes from the project have major connections to my work. The Toronto Museum Project seeks to show the “many ways we come together to create community”, which ties into the theme of national or regional identity that I plan to look at in my major research paper.[7] Seeing how people describe their home and what it is to be a Torontonian leads me to believe that an Irish version of Toronto’s Museum 2.0 could show this sense of pride in identity, and help me to investigate where this identity stems from. Though the evolution of Museum 2.0 may lead some to question the importance of physical museums and the role of authority in online museums, it is important to think of it as another tool to be used in conjunction with traditional models. The Toronto Museum Project Online was created to increase access to material, allow viewers to become participants who engage in the curatorial process, and motivate people to lobby for a new museum in the City of Toronto. The Toronto Museum Project, and the concept of Museum 2.0 in general, has the potential to achieve all of these goals whilst creating a new way for participants to engage with museum material.

[edit] Notes and References

  1. Simon, Nina. Museum 2.0 Blog “What is Museum 2.0?” Accessed November 11, 2011. http://museumtwo.blogspot.com/2006/12/what-is-museum-20.html
  2. Ibid.
  3. City of Toronto. “Toronto Museum Project”. Accessed November 13, 2011. http://www.toronto.ca/tmp/
  4. Balkisoon, Denise. “Toronto Museum 2.0” The Toronto Star. Accessed November 13, 2011. http://www.thestar.com/article/775128
  5. Toronto Museum Project - Online. “Sharing Stories”. Accessed November 14, 2011.
  6. Balkisoon, Denise. “Toronto Museum 2.0” The Toronto Star. Accessed November 13, 2011. http://www.thestar.com/article/775128
  7. City of Toronto. “Toronto Museum Project”. Accessed November 13, 2011. http://www.toronto.ca/tmp/
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