irre para ble da m a g e to the mummie s th e mselv e s. A s a fre qu e nt mus e um visitor, I found this
multi-m edia a ppro ach fa scin ating— a fre sh, intere sting w a y to exp erie nc e a fa miliar topic.
Catalog for the current British MMuseum Ancient Lives exhibit.
Virtual Visits
A noth er are a in which som e muse ums chose to expand is the virtual tour world. W hile
th e ide a o f a “virtual tour” se e ms fairly obvious, in fa ct versions of this option vary wid ely in
terms of wh at mus e um material the y include, how th e vie w er can move around the mus e um
virtually, and so on. If on e google s “ P erg amon Virtual Tour," for exa mple, do z e ns of pa ge s of
tours pop up from differe nt, unofficial tour comp a nie s and sites. T h ere are onlin e re positorie s
of third-p arty virtual tours for most m ajor muse ums be yond wh at e a ch institution de signs and
offers itself—and intere stingly, th e s e are larg ely fre e. Y et the bro ad c ate gories here are quite
differe nt. S om e sites allow visitors to re plic ate a physica l visit by dra gging the vie w of the room
in a 360-d e gre e manner, with th e adde d b e n efit of zooming in to artworks for more d etail tha n
a physical visit could offer (se e im a ge s below). Virtual curation, or the progra mm atic w a y of
conve ying inform ation a bout obje cts including dates, country/culture of origin, d ate of
acquisition, is fairly sta ndard. O bje cts in colle ctions a v aila ble via virtual re ality are
a ccompa nie d by inform ation identical to th e physical arra ng e m e nt.
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