Featured Post-Pandemic Museum Space: Preliminary Sketches View Digital Media

Focused Discussion
Sandro Debono  

➡️Zoom link: https://universityofmalta.zoom.us/j/92040737878?pwd=Z0dxZllFWmNKSDVVSHFONU9lQ1hGZz09⬅️The COVID-19 pandemic has ushered in times of great challenges to the museum ecosystem. Museum space as we have come to know and experience it over the years has had to morph out of circumstances. The virtual was the only museum space to consider and experience albeit in a multiplicity of formats and experiences. Much of that is nevertheless informed by the way we understand museums to be and stand for. We have come to understand the museum idea as being akin to a boxed experience stuffed prevalently with objects and material culture. We can also consider that experience as existing in defined space, understood as the walls of the buildings within which these contents are kept secure and made accessible across time. What the vast majority of museums have done so far, particularly during the mishaps and setbacks brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, is to cut out digital windows through which that experience can be accessed. Those who already had these digital windows in place sought to enlarge them, oftentimes at short notice. In my paper I shall discuss and anticipate possible futures for the museum idea that moves beyond the physical space towards a new understanding of space. I shall explore the ways and means how this can also spearhead a new museum experience that is both human-centred and informed by a greater measure of customisation and predictive content experience.