Thirteenth International Conference on The Inclusive Museum

Abstract

From the very first museum collection attempt some 2500 years ago until today, museums have always been places for preserving and transmitting a certain group of cultural/natural materials that are significant to their respective society. In this relatively long history of museums, it is inevitable that the ways in which museums are organized, designed, and aimed for have been adjusted many times according to the needs and demands of the public and/or the decision-makers. Consequently, we still have museums in 21st-century contemporary life as irreplaceable social places. However, since today’s world is changing faster than ever before, these public institutions, museums, should discover and implement new approaches of reaching out their community as International Council of Museums (ICOM) also underlining this present challenge by choosing the theme of “Hyperconnected museums: New approaches, new publics” for the International Museum Day 2018. This article endeavours to critique the idea and the application of hyper-connectivity at museums by looking closely at an exhibition. The selected example for the study is entitled, “Mammoths - Giants of the Ice age” was displayed at the Australian Museum in Sydney between 18 November 2017 and 13 May 2018. By the help of the chosen application, this study narrates today’s museums that are being faced with enormous changes in terms of displays and audience expectations along with the other contemporaneous issues.