Traditional art appreciation has been elusive and exclusive and often expensive. It requires some planning and organizational efforts and often involves travel. The same can be said about visiting a major natural history or science museum. Afterwards museum goers would often encounter long queues, crowded alley and rooms and unsympathetic guides. Too often they may have a few seconds per exhibit and even fail to see what they had anticipated most. Besides these difficulties for the public, this model actually contradicts the museums aims to disseminate knowledge and art to as many people as possible.
Virtual realities can eliminate these problems and take museum mission to a new level. The medium is praised for its ability to recreate spaces, remote destinations or places that no longer exit and to transport viewers by just strapping or a V. R (Virtues Reality) headset. This is why even people with mobility issues can nowadays access the world's best collection without leaving home.
It is therefore important that we understand what it means by virtual reality (and virtual museum or exhibition). They will help us to appreciate the importance of its evolution in the promotion of museum and its activities and they need to adopt such trend in our country (Nigerian). Virtual Reality (V. R) is a computer generated environment with scenes and objects that appear to be real, making the users feel they are intended in their surroundings. On the other hand virtual museum is a digitally recorded image, sound files, text documents and other data historical, scientific or cultural interest that are accessed through electronic media. In the same view virtual exhibition is an online event that is organized on a Web based comprehensive virtual exhibition platform.
Consequently the four elements of virtual realities are virtual world, immersion, sending feedback and interacting while it's goals in a simulated 3D environment that enables users to explore and interact with a virtual surrounding in a way that appreciate reality as it is perceived through the users sense.
Information technology has evolved and expanded rapidly in the 21st century, offering many possibilities and numerous advantages. Our world today has been referred to as a global village thanks in no small way to the roles ICT has played and is playing in bringing about this global village of distant communities together.
Virtual platform have been of recent the most effective ICT platform for information dissemination and awareness creation. Virtual Reality (VR) collects real world information to compose synthetic tridimensional contexts in which the public can better understand and experience what some times can be hard to interpret merely with the use of conventional presentation, information display or their own imagination (Digi Cult, 2003, Itirose 2006). Augmented Reality (AR) in turn, is a combination of virtual reality (synthetic) and original (real) imagery and elements put together to complement each other for a full experience.
Virtual exhibition platform are online platform that allows replacing the physical gallery exhibition process from physical to online. The integration of the new technology in the exhibition process of museum had become the vogue and preferred mode of enjoying museum or art exhibition from a safe and distant place.
The ICT department or units of the National museum in which of course should be an integral unit with the documentation or gallery exhibition units should play a significant role in the successful implementation of the virtual exhibition process. It is therefore necessary for ICT units of the museum to be updated with the supporting tools and techniques for virtual Reality exhibition.
This technology is used commonly to reconstruct contexts and simulate realities of, for example, the past and the future. They can interact with the public through many forms ranging from the simple visualization to the manipulation of wearable devices. Likewise, these technologies also can be accessed from personal equipment like mobile devices or home computer.
In an era where technology and new media seems to evolve faster than we can keep up, it is important to ask what ‘is the future of the virtual exhibition in our museums? We are already living in the era of the virtual event platforms were corporate organizations and government deploy the use of virtual platform for conferences and meetings.Museum especially in the developed world with a thirst for immerse technology and deeper pocket have invested in virtual reality (V.R) and Artificial Reality (AR) programming and exhibitions. In the realms of virtual reality, Museums such as the Smithsonian American Art Museum have made parts of their collection available through a project called "Beyond The Walls" while the Louvre has brought the world famous Mona Lisa to the masses with “Beyond the Glass" Taking inspiration from small private collections, the DSL collection and Krener Collection also show the power of Virtual reality as a means to expose art and culture materials (collections) to as many viewers as possible. In fact in today’s Nigeria many meetings from government to religious bodies are heed using virtual platform with services and safety delivery ensured.
As museum think about how they can engage the public in the era of virtual realities the various units or department in the National Commission for Museum and Monument cannot afford to fold her hands as ICT has solution to limitation posed by various health protocols such as covid-19, Ebola, Monkey pox and so many other communicable diseases and health challenge as well as various security challenges bedeviling our country. The use of virtual reties will no doubt help the museum retain its relevance and become positive partners in The development of our societies, it should use it unique resources and potential to become more responsive to the dynamics of modern society and urban change. As an institution possessing such cultural resources in society, it can use the emerging technology to promote its service for maximum enjoyment of the public especially considering the Vagaries and the Challenges of our time. Using virtual realities the museum can reach a wider audience and within this audience touch a segment of people who have not traditionally been museum givers. Thus means of digital capturing would enable preservation of exhibition and visitors. Even the museum visitors could be transformed to participant’s learners or investors.
There is no doubt that the challenges of paucity of funds will in no small way strain the maximum deployment Virtual Realities in museums for optimum maximization of museum exhibitions by museum visitors or goers. Funds are needed to provide virtual platforms devices such as multimedia equipment and data bundles for transmission from host (museum) and the public. The lost of subscription from network providers often poses a big trick.
However, these challenges can be surmounted by passing the charges to the museum exhibition consumers albeit at a subsidized rate.
Another challenge likely to be faced by the museum body in Nigeria are that of adequate and qualified personnel. At the moments there are insufficient and lack of technical knowhow and skills about the use of virtual platforms. There are no sufficient and competent personnel in virtual technology to handle the transmission and exhibition of museum collection programs to the public.
Notwithstanding the challenges the museum can benefit from virtual reality exhibitions as it offers the following advantages
- Accelerates speed to proficiency
- Improves work place safety
- Improves customers service
- Decreases turnover and reduces on boarding time
- Decreases incident cost.
Chinwe Ifitezue
No comments:
Post a Comment