Museums in the Digital age: The path to cultural democratisation

"The digital future" by Blain Canning (2022).

The notion of digital innovation jeopardising the future relevance of cultural heritage institutions, including museums, ignores the fact that museums have constantly evolved for centuries in response to technological advancement (Parry 2007:137). Indeed, the digital age is simply the latest in a long list of eras to demand change from our treasured cultural institutions. And whilst the traditional perceived role for museums over the last century has been primarily that of acting as a repository for the preservation of cultural and historical knowledge, this role is increasingly being challenged due to the advent of the digital age and the associated demands for knowledge and information to be readily accessible via the home computer (Derclaye 2010:233).

"Home computer set-up, 2016" by pmhudepo is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

This gradual transformation from preserving information instead towards providing information is also reflected in the manner in which museums also interact with their intended audiences in the digital space along with physical exhibitions. Whilst museums previously tended to provide information in a one-way top-down manner in which a controlled narrative was provided, museums have now begun the transition in response to the challenges of digitalisation by making their focus more visitor-centric and by prioritising the audience’s experiences which in turn enables visitors to interact with the museum directly in a more participatory manner (Parry 2007:140; Noy 2017:280). Due to information and knowledge essentially being democratised in the digital age, as a result of greater accessibility in addition to people being able to take ownership of and shape narratives directly by adding their own perspectives, it stands to reason that museums themselves will have to take a more democratic approach and abandon previously embedded systems of power relations (Winesmith and Anderson 2020:223).

"Democratisation of museums spaces" by Blain Canning (2022).

Such a transformation in response to the requirements of the digital age does not stand in opposition to the guiding principles of most cultural institutions, indeed the International Council of Museums itself supports the notion of museums as existing ‘for the benefit of society and its development’ (Bonnefoit and Rerat 2017:65). Such a focus on societal development instead of merely providing an uncontested narrative also finds much in common with Stephen E. Weil’s assertion that museums in a digital 21st century will need to transform from ‘being about something to being for somebody’ (Winesmith and Anderson 2020:219).

"Fitzroy, the Melbourne Museum. #melbourne" by transcendancing is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Such a focus upon society as a whole in response to the advent of the digital age’s challenges also leaves open an opportunity for the adoption of a more inclusive approach towards marginalised groups who were previously left out of narratives traditionally more favourable to historically dominant cultures within a society (Winesmith and Anderson 2020:221). Within an Australian perspective, such a notion assumes particular importance when we consider the possible benefits of digitalisation in being able to preserve and safeguard the cultural heritage of Australia’s First Nations at a time when this same cultural identity is under threat due to a variety of factors including climate change, forced cultural assimilation and economic inequality (Prazmowska 2020:120). And although significant care does need to be taken in regards to the digitalisation of the cultural heritage of First Nations peoples, both here in Australia and globally, it is an area in which museums and other cultural institutions can retain great relevance within moving forwards into the new digital world. Melbourne Museum’s efforts in this area, and its creation of the Bunjilaka Aboriginal Cultural Centre, exemplify the prominent role museums can retain moving forward along with the societal and community benefits to be gained by sharing alternative community and societal perspectives.

For more information on this topic, please watch the following video blog entry below.

It is readily evident that the dawning of the digital age is going to bring great changes to the roles of museums and other cultural institutions. Those changes, however, do not render museums as redundant. They instead present ample opportunity for cultural institutions to adopt new roles of potential relevance and prominence moving forward. Museums particularly will have to give up their previous role as being the cornerstones of authority, and instead will have to transition into a public space whose primary role is that of providing access to information accessible in the digital realm, and which also encompasses multiple perspectives reflective of different viewpoints found across a given society (Moreno 2018:92).

"EOS 650D5891" by OZinOH is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0

The usage of digital media by museums in this sense will reflect the ongoing trend of cultural heritage institutions becoming organisations which are primarily influenced by their associated communities, but by doing so will also strengthen and empower those same communities by providing a space in which alternative perspectives can be voiced (Winesmith and Anderson 2020:220). Such a notion will potentially usher in a new era previously unheard of, an era in which both knowledge and culture is essentially democratised and which also allows ordinary citizens to achieve prominence by assisting the development of society itself (Barbuti 2021:309).

"The advent of digital democratisation" by Blain Canning (2022).

The role of museum in willingly embracing digital technology and participating within such a revolutionary reclamation of cultural and historical knowledge will render them far from being redundant and obsolete. Indeed, it achieves quite the opposite. Museums particularly will not only possess the role of preserving and safeguarding much of any given society’s cultural history, a feat made considerably easier given the ability to store information electronically, they will also assume the crucial responsibility of providing this same information to society as a whole (Derclaye 2010:236; Prazmowska 2020:129). Indeed, museums along with other cultural heritage institutions via their usage of digital media will embody the notion that for the first time in human history, a new narrative has been achieved which is both decentralised and democratised in addition to being free from societal elites seeking to impose a singular perspective upon human history (Moreno 2018:92).

Reference list

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Black G (2012) Transforming museums in the twenty-first century, Taylor & Francis Group, Third Avenue, New York.

Bonnefoit R and Rerat M (2017) The museum in the digital age: new media and novel methods of mediation, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom.

Derclaye E (ed) (2010) Copyright and cultural heritage: preservation and access to works in a digital world, Edward Elgar Publishing Limited, Cheltenham, United Kingdom.

Melbourne Museum (n.d) Bunjilaka Aboriginal Cultural Centre, Museums Victoria, accessed 18 January 2021.

Melbourne Museum (n.d) Melbourne Museum, Museums Victoria, accessed 18 January 2021.

Melbourne Museum (n.d) Museums Victoria Collections, Museums Victoria, acceseed 18 January 2021.

Moreno LDR (2018) ‘Museums and digital era: preserving art through databases’, Collection and Curation, 38(4):89-93, accessed 16 January 2022.

Noy C (2017) ‘Participatory media and discourse in heritage museums: co-constructing the public sphere?’, Communication, Culture & Critique, 10(2):280-301, accessed 17 January 2022.

Parry R (2007) Recoding the museum; digital heritage and the technologies of change, Routledge, Abingdon, Oxon.

Prazmowska K (2020) ‘Misappropriation of indigenous cultural heritage – intellectual property rights in the digital era’, Santander Art and Cultural Law Review, 2020(2):119-150, accessed 16 January 2022.

Wemigwans J (2018) A digital bundle: protecting and promoting Indigenous knowledge online, University of Regina Press, Saskatchewan.

Winesmith K and Anderson S (2020) The digital future of museums: conversations and provocations, Routledge, New York.

Witcomb A (2014) ‘Look, listen and feel: the First Peoples exhibition at the Bunjilaka Gallery, Melbourne Museum’, Thema La revue Musees de la civilistion, (1):49-62, accessed 18 January 2021.