Hipermedia

Una herramienta para la función educativa de los museos de arte

Abstract

The objective of this article is to reflect on the binomial new technologies-artistic education. To this end, an analysis is made of the capacity of the hypermedia as a tool for artistic education, on the basis of the educating function of art museums. This is to be understood as follows: The presence of new technologies in art museums allows us to perceive the symptoms of a necessary cultural reconfiguration. Museums – once sanctuaries – are becoming familiarised with technological advances and have begun to study the potential of these new technologies and also to experiment in order to discover how these may support their educating function. The eruption of new technologies into art museums in countries of Europe, Japan, and the United States must to a certain extent lead museum professionals in the rest of the world to become aware of this cultural phenomenon. This fact suggests one should change the conception of museums, from a dialogue between museographers to one which also includes communicators, artists, designers, experts in education, architects, sociologists, etc. With the intense multimedia revolution, the educating function of art museums – analysis, interpretation and comprehension of the works of art – will be reformed, and also its objectives, strategies and evaluations. More than a simple appropriation of the new communication technologies for traditional practices, art museums should start from the redefinition of their didactic function and consequently experiment with new museographic and educational resources. The new museographic challenges and unknown terrain in the field of artistic education are approached from this perspective.