The Web and the Unassailable Voice

In most existing art museum web pages, the values of the museum dominate the values of the Web. Therefore, museum web pages often electronically duplicate familiar museum products-- floor plans, collection catalogues, event calendars-- rather than transforming the idea of the museum by adapting the values of the web. This presentation will seek to show how art museums and technologists can come to understand each other and use their differences productively by:

1. Orienting museum web sites towards projects that can only be done on the web and not on paper.
2. Using the web to overcome the many limitations to understanding imposed by the physical art museum.
3. Using the interactive potentials of the web to change the one-way flow of information from art museum to visitor to a two-way flow which also moves from visitor to museum.
4. Infusing the orientation towards constant change into the art museum so that the web helps the art museum to reinvent itself.