Virtual museum: towards a new typology of the museum in the future

Architecture is affected by the information technology, one must consider two conditions: that the physical spaces of architecture as we have always known it (enclosure, form and permanence) will without a doubt persevere, and that it will exist alongside the virtual architecture, surfacing in the digital domain of the internet. Museums are now being constructed, navigated, experienced, comprehended, and altered in their virtual states by countless people across global networks. This new architecture of liquidity, flux and mutability is predicated on technological advances and fuelled by basic human desire to probe the unknown. The path that both types of architecture, the real and the virtual, take will be one of convergence. VR seems to be the next logical step in the path laid by CAD, but it will have a more extensive impact, since it not only transforms the way architects design and visualize, but can also be integrated into the final product of architecture itself: such as museums. The main goal of this paper is to emphasize the new typology of museums of the future in which digital technologies support all kinds of museum activities such as gathering, preserving, researching, exhibiting, and educating. Also, to introduce digital technologies for the digital museum such as media and new human interface technologies for novel exhibition styles and data processing technologies for digital archiving of cultural or historical artifacts. The paper highlights the technology used in this new typology of museums; the virtual museum. It also discusses the advantages and the disadvantages of the virtual museum.