Happily lost in the virtual space? Acces, interaction and participation in an Antwerp virtual arts museum
Abstract
Nine exhibitions that had run in the Mukha arts museum between May 2000 and February 2002, were given a slot on the "Mukha 2000 2001" cd-rom. On this cd-rom, which was self-produced (with the aid of QuickTimeVR), a simulation of the three-dimensional museum space was created.
The visitor to the cd-rom thus can move amongst one or more series (of interlinked photographic) representation(s) of the museum. This article is an evaluation of the project with regard to access, interaction and participation which the cd-rom offers (or does not offer) the visitor to the museum.
To reinforce a personal analysis of the cd-rom, interviews with four people involved in the project are included, as well as six user diaries. The analysis of the project shows a considerable number of problems, e.g., its mixed objectives and target groups, its user-unfriendliness, its inaccessibility, and its isolation of museum content from secondary meanings.