I never understood the benefit of public museums, especially in the internet age.
If you want to look at some artifacts without touching it, you could google it and see it.
Also in public museums a lot of artifacts get damaged due to visitors behaviors.
Wouldn’t it make more sense to keep the old artifacts at storage facility and release a high quality pictures of it instead of putting it in a museum?
Is there is a benefit for public museums?
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No.
It doesn’t matter how hi-res photos are. Seeing the real thing is a different and essential experience.
For instance, I was in the Met in NYC last year, and just happened to walk into a room that contains one of Henry VIII’s suits of battle armor. This is as close as I can ever be to meeting that historical figure, and I get to see in real dimensions how big and tall he was, and appreciate the worksmanship of his smiths.
The met also has some rebuilt rooms from historical places, such as Roman temples, and a photo can’t replace those things. A photo cannot give you the experience of standing in a Roman temple.
Definitely agree. I had zero interest in sculpture until I walked into the Louvre and d’Orsay museums in Paris. I was transfixed by the sculptures there. Specifically the Winged Victory of Samothrace, the Rape of Persephone, and the Venus de Milo.
As in staring at each piece for nearly an hour, unable to imagine how the artist got that out of stone. It blew my mind, and the memory of it still does.
I don’t care how good your photos are, or whatever visualisation technology you’re using, nothing - absolutely nothing - compares to standing in the same room as the real thing.
Conversely, being in the same room as the Mona Lisa was unexpectedly disappointing. It’s so small and hard to see with 800 fellow tourists crammed into the viewing room. That probably is better examined online, though seeing it in person is an experience.
The Sistine Chapel is also something worth seeing in person. You can’t judge the scale from photos.
The same applies to pictures of hikes. Sure you can take a nice panorama but that doesn’t do justice to actually being there.
Absolutely. If you haven’t seen Washington Crossing the Deleware in person, you simply haven’t experienced it properly. You don’t get the sense of scale on the internet. Same with the Louvre, d’Orsay or any other world-class museum. Even local museums like the Columbia Maritime Museum in Astoria OR has exhibits and stories that really require that intimate exposure to be engrossed in the information. It transforms your reception to the exhibits and cannot be replicated virtually.
Also in public museums a lot of artifacts get damaged due to visitors behaviors.
This isn’t a thing.
Um, what’s the point of sex, when you have porn? What’s the point of concerts, when you have recorded music?
Ok, sorry that was snarky.
Recordings and pictures are important, but they are not the real thing. Public museums let people see, with their own eyes, art, in person. Is it essential? I don’t know. But it is a public good
I live just a few miles from Crystal Bridges, which is world class art museum founded by Alice Walton. They don’t charge any admission since they’re funded by a pretty hefty endowment. It’s a really cool place.
Seeing a photograph of a painting is a far cry from seeing the actual painting. If for no other reason than a photograph is two dimensional. It’s a little harder to appreciate art that someone made with their own hands two centuries ago when you can’t see the texture or the defects. Not even in a really high quality photo. It’s just not the same.
And you don’t touch the paintings because there are security guards everywhere who have no problem reminding you to not touch the paintings.
I wondered and have asked about this as well.
There are some things you have to be there to understand though.
Sense of scale
What’s the benefit of leaving your house?
I am a huge fan of Salvador Dalí. While visiting Florida I went to the Dali museum. I saw paintings I never knew existed. Saw paintings I had seen in print and digitally multiple times, and they looked so different in person. Sometimes you cannot comprehend how large or how small a painting is unless you see it in person. Melting clocks & Gala’s bare breast/10 would visit again.
A place for teenagers to go on dates.
Have you ever been to Disney World, at Ripley’s Believe It Or Not, and had your photo taken next to a real shrunken human head at age 5?
I have. I still have the photo around somewhere too.
Creepy shit yo, and I’m almost 1000% certain it was the real deal. You better bet your ass nobody was about to touch that thing.
At Disney World no less…
