Diverse Knowledges and Contact Zones within the Digital Museum

Abstract

As museums begin to revisit their definition of ‘‘expert’’ in light of theories about the local character of knowledge, questions emerge about how museums can reconsider their documentation of knowledge about objects. How can a museum present different and possibly conflicting perspectives in such a way that the tension between them is preserved? This article expands upon a collaborative research project between the Museum of Anthropology and Archaeology at Cambridge University, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and the A:shiwi A:wan Museum and Heritage Center to compare descriptions of museum objects by multiple expert communities. We found that narratives and objects in use are key omissions in traditional museum documentation, offering us several possibilities to expand our concept of digital objects. Digital objects will allow members of indigenous source communities to contribute descriptive information about objects to support local cultural revitalization efforts and also to influence how objects are represented in distant cultural institutions.

Exploration as Knowledge Transfer: Exhibiting Hidden Histories

“…11 In the process, however, meanings do not merely "transfer" or diffuse outwards, as if they were little parcels of data disseminated from the hub of knowledgegenerating machines like the Pitt Rivers Museum or the Royal Geographical Society; rather, they multiply and diversify, being reworked in new contexts. This is another way of saying that making an exhibition is a process, not an event; and especially in the context of the mobility of knowledge through the web, there is little that is immutable (Srinivasan et al, 2013).…”

Designing Cultural Values into Interaction

“…[11]), and we see our work as extending these ideas of creating technologies that communicate traditional cultural knowledge and allow for multiple ontologies and worldviews (e.g. [13,48,60]). The collaborative models displayed by museums and Indigenous communities (often in developing databases for cultural heritage) (e.g.…”

Indigenous Media From U-Matic to Youtube: Media Sovereignty in the Digital Age

“…Renewing permissions and relationships, and making a wide range of indigenous Let me offer another example of creative solutions to indigenous media archiving. Ara Irititja -which translates from the Pitjantjatjara language as "stories from long ago" -was created by indigenous producers from the Ngaanyatjarra, Pitjantjara and Yankunytjatjara peoples of central Australia, known collectively as Anangu, along with their non-indigenous supporters (Srinivasan et al, 2010). Inaugurated in 1994, the project has been dedicated to repatriating 'lost' material -artifacts, photographs, film footage and sound records -shot and recorded by visitors to these lands, including missionaries, school teachers, anthropologists and government workers, and then taken away.…”