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Cultural networking: how museums broadcast themselves
Online culture is changing the way museums and galleries communicate with the public. This week, experts from Australia and the USA will meet at Melbourne Museum to explore how Web 2.0 is impacting on the 21st century cultural institution.
The ‘Transformations in Cultural and Scientific Communication Conference 2009’, co-hosted by Swinburne University and the Australian Research Council Centre for Creative Innovation, will discuss how new technologies such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Flickr are changing the way people connect with information and how they use it.
According to Jerry Watkins, senior lecturer in the Faculty of Design at Swinburne University and one of the conference organisers, “content-sharing networks such as YouTube and Flickr are already having a dramatic impact on the way we look at pictures and watch videos.”
“Now, museums and libraries are getting in on the act by using online content sharing to communicate knowledge and information in new, more accessible ways.”
Conference co-organiser associate professor Angelina Russo, also from Swinburne, believes there has been a cultural change in the way audiences expect to engage with information.
“Libraries are perceived as being stuffy and traditional, but they hold a vast amount of very, very important content,” she said.
“Audiences now expect to be able to access this content so that they can discuss and share it online. So the sector has to think of new ways to maintain its relevance within this particular environment.
“Regardless of the media that are being used to transmit the information, the idea of curiosity is still central to the way people use these technologies.
“This conference is about how we use the curiosity that is both embedded in the use of these social networking tools, and in the museum and library sector, to transform scientific and cultural communication.”
Conference speakers include Shelley Bernstein of the Brooklyn Museum, New York, and Colin McLeod, the Australian Football League’s General Manager of Marketing and Communications.
The conference will take place at the Melbourne Museum on Thursday 5 March – Friday 6 March, full details can be found here
‘Transformations in Cultural and Scientific Communication’ is presented in collaboration with: Museums Australia (Victoria); Museum Victoria; Museums & Galleries NSW; Museum & Gallery Services Queensland; Arts Victoria. This event is supported by ARC Centre for Creative Innovation; Swinburne University; Australian Museum
ENDS
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Media Contact: Lea Kivivali (03) 9214 5428 or 0410569311
4.03.2009
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