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Museums and technology, part one: Cold War Modern at the Victoria and Albert Museum
We're going to be taking a look over the next few weeks at several museums and the ways in which they're using technology to enhance the visitor's experience.
First off, a prime example of how to do it well. The Victoria and Albert Museum in South Kensington, London, may not be the most forward-looking place in town, concerned as it is with historical design, architecture, art and fashion.
But linked from its website are a series of videos such as this one on the rocket-shaped Ještěd Telecommunications Tower in the Czech Republic.
In the well-shot video, curator Jane Pavitt takes the viewer in and around the remarkable communications tower, which is now a hotel. It's hosted on Vimeo (see the V&A's Vimeo channel) which means that it can be viewed full-screen in impressive quality.
There are only four videos on the Vimeo channel - they're all part of the museum's recent Cold War Modern exhibition.
There are more on the exhibition's Youtube channel, and on the main V&A site you can even view a transcript of the commentary alongside the video (presumably this has something to do with complying with the Disability Discrimination Act, which requires websites to make themselves easier to use for blind and deaf people).
Apart from the rocket tower, we're particularly taken by this film on the building of the then-secret Post Office Tower, which is now the BT Tower, in central London.
Admittedly, none of this is particularly difficult to do, but few museums or similar institutions are using technology or the internet to engage with their own visitors or web users who wouldn't necessarily visit the museum (and who may even be in a different country). Putting such videos online is a great way not only of engaging with the public but also of prolonging the exhibition after it's ended.
Picture by Sludgeulper. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic licence.
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