Interpretation design in virtual museums –
Reviving an endangered culture industry through the Taiwanese Lacquerware Virtual Museum
Chung-Wen Yang
Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the
Degree of Professional Doctorate in Design
Faculty of Design
Swinburne University of Technology
December 2012
Abstract
This study investigates the theory and practice of interpretation design for the
virtual museum through a case study based on design of the Taiwanese
Lacquerware Virtual Museum. The application of the internet has dramatically
changed the model of information dissemination and communication since
1993, as well as transformed business models in the real world. This study
takes one of the most influential internet applications – the blog – and makes it
the centrepiece of a community-based virtual museum. The blog, as focus of
online users’ interaction with each other and with the museum’s materials,
becomes the vehicle for interpretation in accordance with the six principles set
forth by foundational interpretive theorist Freeman Tilden in his seminal 1957
book Interpreting Our Heritage. The blog further brings the museum into the
domain of ‘Web 2.0’ connectedness, with users’ shared communication
enabling a dynamic, practical solution for the non-profit organisation
constructing a community-based virtual museum. Thanks to the blog, a potential shortcoming of the virtual museum format – lack of, or weakness in, the interpretive function emphasized by Tilden – gives way, instead, to exceptional strength in that very same function. Every visitor can interact with the ‘guide’ – blog author – and with every other visitor. The richness of shared
thought and experience finally attained will transcend that achievable in
museums confined by walls. Thus, Tilden’s approach finds, not a stumbling
block, but a new way forward, in the world of Web 2.0, the new interactive way
of using the internet.
I
Successful implementation of the blog-centered virtual museum design entails
use of an appropriate content management system (CMS). The present study
employs a free, open-source content management system selected for its
flexibility, ease in use, and other criteria recommending it to the project.
Online museums, whether websites of traditional, ‘brick-and-mortar’ museums, or standalone virtual museums, have rapidly grown and proliferated. The virtual museum offers the smaller, not-for-profit institution an unprecedented opportunity to build and expand a supportive community. This fits it admirably to present, and preserve, Taiwanese Lacquerware, a craft art as refined and distinctive as Taiwan’s uniquely nuanced history itself.
II
Acknowledgements
Many people have contributed to this research. I wish to express my gratitude to my principal supervisor, Keith Robertson, for his brilliant inspiration, enthusiasm, valuable comments and criticisms. It is wonderful to find a supervisor who encourages interdisciplinary study in the design area. His critical questions and challenges to my assumptions have allowed me to strengthen my arguments. My associate supervisor Margaret Woodward has provided useful insights at crucial stages in the development of the research.
My special thanks go to Carolyn Barnes for providing valuable insights and guidance in regard to my research method. I would also like to acknowledge
Mr. Timothy C. Gallavan, the professional editor, not only for his superior editing skills, but also for his encouragement.
My special thanks are due to professor of professional technique, Huang,
Li-shu, for her assistance in collecting the material for the research. I am particularly indebted for her patient assistance through detailed interviews. I am also indebted to many lacquerware craft artists and collectors for sharing their experiences and helpful suggestions. Without them, I would not have had the chance to discover the untold craft history of Taiwanese lacquerware from its very beginning.
Most importantly I gratefully acknowledge the support of my wife, parents and two little daughters. Your continuing love and encouragement is what makes life meaningful.
III
Preface
This design research project consists of a written document and a body of design work presented on the internet in the form of the Taiwanese
Lacquerware Virtual Museum. The design prototype for the virtual museum explores the issues raised in the text through design practice. Please read the written document first and then view the online Taiwanese Lacquerware Virtual
Museum website at the address below:
http://www.lacquer.com.tw
IV
Candidature declaration
I certify that this thesis entitled ‘Interpretation design in virtual museums –
Reviving an endangered culture industry through the Taiwanese Lacquerware
Virtual Museum’ is submitted for the degree of Professional Doctorate in
Design and is the result of my own research, except where otherwise acknowledged; and that this thesis in whole or in part has not been submitted for an award, including a higher degree, to any other university or institution.
Full Name: Chung-Wen Yang
Signed Date 2012.12.3
V
Contents
Abstract…………………………………………………………………………….I
Acknowledgements………………………………………………………………..III
Preface…………………………………………………………………………….IV
Candidature declaration…………………………………………………………V
Contents…………………………………………………………………………..VI
List of Figures……………………………………………………………………VIII
List of Tables…………………………………………………………………….IX
Introduction…………………………………………………………………………1
Background…………………………………………………………5
Chapter 1 Globalisation and cultural identity of Taiwan……………………11
The modern history of Taiwan…………………………………..14
The crisis of national identity of Taiwan……………………….18
The cultural policy of the Taiwanese government……………...20
The development of craft art in Taiwan…………………………21
The community and the culture industry in Taiwan……………22
Chapter 2 Taiwanese lacquerware…………………………………………….25
The history of lacquerware in Taiwan………………………….25
The recent state of Taiwanese lacquerware……….…………..30
Chapter 3 Virtual museum vs. museum………………………………………..34
Definition of ‘museum’……………………………………………..34
Definition of ‘virtual museum’…………………………………….35
From physical to virtual…………………………………………..37
Virtual museums…………………………………………………...43
Blogs and virtual museums………….………………………...49 VI
Summary………………………………………………………...58
Chapter 4 Interpretation design in the virtual museum……………………….60
Interpretation………………………………………………………60
More than usability………………………………………….…….66
The application of interpretation design to
virtual museums……………………………………….70
The form of virtual museums……………………………………81
Chapter 5 The application of interpretation through the blog………………86
Technical…………………………………………………………..91
Considerations..…………………………………………………..91
Content…………………………………………………………….95
Implementation……………………………………………………98
Content driven…………………………………………………124
Conclusion….……..…………………………………………………………126
Tilden’s principles……………………………………………..127
Bibliography…..……………………..…………………………………………..140
Appendices…..……………………..…………………………………………..165
VII
List of figures
Figure 1………………………………………………………………………….…4
Figure 2………………………………………………………………………….100
Figure 3………………………………………………………………………….101
Figure 4………………………………………………………………………….102
Figure 5………………………………………………………………………….106
Figure 6………………………………………………………………………….106
Figure 7………………………………………………………………………….109
Figure 8………………………………………………………………………….110
Figure 9………………………………………………………………………….118
VIII
List of tables
Table 1………………………………………………………………………………3
Table 2……………………………………………………………………………..74
IX
Introduction
This design research project explores the theory and practice of interpretation design as applied to online exhibitions in a virtual museum.
Virtual museums exist not only as extensions of real museums, but are also increasingly developed as separate entities in their own right. As this thesis demonstrates, virtual museums have the potential to play a unique role in diversifying the possibilities of what a museum is and how it functions in the information era. The internet environment has changed considerably during the several years that I have been working on this research project. The change has extended not merely to the sheer volume and richness of information resources online, but, critically, to the way in which they are generated and maintained, which has involved an unprecedented participation in the sharing of input by the online public – the masses of individual ‘netizens’. (O’Reilly & Battelle 2009) The whole phenomenon, loosely termed ‘Web 2.0’, has reached beyond the transformation of web content to the transformation of users’ daily existence. It increasingly determines interactions in their extended social lives: how they make friends and acquaintances, update them, part ways with them; how they reach the many, or the few, with whatever, for the moment, seems significant to them; where they turn instinctively to start a discussion – or a revolution. It includes such new applications as social networking (MySpace, Plurk, Facebook) and video sharing (YouTube), to name but some of many which have dramatically influenced our way of life. For example, self-presentation, for the masses,
1 once essentially connoted the establishment of a ‘face-to-face’ identity to others in one’s physical surroundings. Now, for untold millions, it evokes the creation and continued updating of an online persona on one or more of the popular social networking sites (Mehdizadeh, 2009). The unprecedented sharing of knowledge represented by Wikipedia, the user-edited online encyclopedia, and the mushrooming growth of weblogs, some with mass followings, typify the dramatic changes in the availability and accessibility of information. It is hard to give a precise definition of Web 2.0, which refers to an increasing trend to use the web for information sharing and collaboration.
It is useful to quote from leading computer publisher and tech innovator Tim
O’Reilly’s (2005) ‘What is Web 2.0’.
The concept of ‘Web 2.0’ began with a conference brainstorming session
between O’Reilly and MediaLive International. Dale Dougherty, web
pioneer and O’Reilly VP, noted that far from having ‘crashed’, the web
was more important than ever, with exciting new applications and sites
popping up with surprising regularity. What’s more, the companies that
had survived the collapse seemed to have some things in common.
Could it be that the dot-com collapse marked some kind of turning point
for the web, such that a call to action such as ‘Web 2.0’ might make
sense? (O’Reilly 2005)
As Web 2.0 has become the mainstream during the past few years, it has come to represent the “real-time” state of internet innovation through search
2 engines such as Google AdSense, Flickr, Wikipedia, and blogging. The table and the ‘meme map’ introduced by O’Reilly give a good account of the applications of Web 2.0. (O’Reilly 2005) (Table 1, Figure1) The table shows the shift of application in various internet services. The ‘meme map’ of Web
2.0 visualises the principles and practices of the applications based on the concepts of Web 2.0.
Web 1.0 Web 2.0
DoubleClick --> Google AdSense
Ofoto --> Flickr
Akamai --> BitTorrent mp3.com --> Napster
Britannica Online --> Wikipedia personal websites --> blogging evite --> upcoming.org and EVDB domain name --> search engine optimisation speculation page views --> cost per click screen scraping --> web services publishing --> participation content management --> wikis systems directories (taxonomy) --> tagging (‘folksonomy’) stickiness --> syndication
Table 1. Some examples of Web 2.0. (O’Reilly 2005)
3
Figure 1. The ‘meme map’ of Web 2.0 (O’Reilly 2005)
The influence of Web 2.0 has overwhelmingly changed the model of communication media. The concept of Web 2.0 dominates in current development of internet applications and should continue its key role in those of the foreseeable future. This research project will incorporate some applications of Web 2.0 and develop an application model for the Taiwanese
Lacquerware Virtual Museum.
The other primary contextualising factor for a virtual museum of Taiwanese lacquerware is the relatively weak awareness of the importance of preserving this part of Taiwan’s cultural heritage. This research builds on recent
4 initiatives outlined by the Taiwanese government in the ‘2008 Challenge,
National Key Development Plan’. (The Culture Creative Industry
Development Plan 2004) Through the design prototype for a Taiwanese
Lacquerware Virtual Museum, a practical project in cultural heritage conservation, this research aims to make Taiwanese cultural heritage accessible to a nationwide local community and an international audience.
Web 2.0 offers new potential to revolutionise the delivery of institutional information in a way that amplifies community connectedness, and this revolutionary potential will play a key role in the research project. The latter may then play a key role in reviving the regional cultural and creative industry, and profile of Taiwanese lacquerware.
The development of virtual museums requires a multi-disciplinary approach, embracing the disciplines of museology, interpretation, storytelling, information technology, communication design and marketing. This research project aims to integrate these fields of intellectual activity to develop an application model and apply it to the Taiwanese Lacquerware Virtual
Museum.
Background
For the past fifty years, Taiwan has concentrated on developing its economy and industry and little attention has been given to Taiwanese regional culture and the arts. However, since the 2000 presidential election, the Taiwanese government has placed more emphasis on Taiwanese cultural heritage conservation and cultural education to invoke a Taiwanese cultural identity.
5 Taiwanese national and cultural identity is generally seen as being under threat from the influence of globalisation and the activities of China. The further development of the project of ‘One Town One Product’ (OTOP) by the
Ministry of Economic Affairs, Taiwan provided a guide for local government.
(The Ministry of Economic Affairs, Taiwan 2006)
Taichung County is the gateway for sightseeing tours of surrounding central
Taiwan. In the past the county was the major centre for the production of
Taiwanese lacquerware, with more than forty lacquerware factories in the golden age of the craft (1981-1986). Nearly ninety per cent of Taiwan’s lacquerware factories were established in Taichung County, but now nearly all have lapsed into disuse. Lacquerware has the potential to be developed as a distinguishing feature and visitor attractor for Taichung County.
Grounding itself upon the concept of design as a facilitator for the solution of real-world problems, especially in the information age, and integrating it with the other disciplines, this research project aims to investigate the future development of the virtual museum, taking a museum devoted to Taiwanese lacquerware as its paradigm.
In May 2002, the Taiwan government’s white papers for culture introduced the ‘2008 Challenge, National Key Development Plan: The Plan of Two
Trillion and Twin Stars’. The two trillion refers to the semiconductor and display industries, which are forecast to each reach an annual production value of above NT$1 trillion within a few years. ‘Twin Stars’ refers to the
6 digital content and biotechnology industries, which the paper indentifies as
Taiwan’s leading industries of the future. In the digital content area, the
Council for Culture Affairs, Taiwan, introduced a project called ‘The
Development Project of Cultural and Creative Industries’. The project has divided the industries into categories including visual arts, music and performance arts, cultural display facilities, crafts, movies, television and broadcasting, publishing, advertising, design industries, fashion design, architectural design, lifestyle industries, and digital recreation and entertainment. (The Culture Creative Industry Development Plan 2004) With respect to the crafts, the guidelines set forth in the project indicated some key issues, including the need for developing a better environment for local craft producers, as shown by the plan to conserve or transform traditional
Taiwanese crafts, which represent the character of Taiwan, by value-adding the craft industry through combining it with the tourism industry. With regard to digital content, the government promoted several national plans, which included the Core Platforms for Digital Content Projects, the Taiwan Digital
Archives Expansion Project, the Digital Education and E-learning Project, etc.
Later, on January 1, 2008, the ‘Taiwan E-learning and Digital Archives
Program’ subsumed all these projects. (Taiwan E-learning and Digital
Archives Program 2008) Since 2002, the Industrial Development Bureau,
Ministry of Economic Affairs, has held several digital content competitions to encourage the creation of outstanding digital content and more speedily improve the industry’s competitiveness. According to the Annual Report of the Digital Content Industry in Taiwan 2007, the digital content industry
7 generated NTD 133,400 million in 2001 and grew further to NTD 368,800 million in 2007. (The Annual Report of Digital Content Industry in Taiwan
2007)
Subsequently, in 2009, the Executive Yuan announced its ‘Six Key Emerging
Industries’ Project, wherein it promoted the development of six designated emerging ‘flagship’ industries. These consisted of biotechnology, renewable energy, high-end agriculture, tourism, medicine and healthcare, and cultural and creative industries. Through the latter enterprise, the project aimed at making Taiwan a center of Asia/Pacific cultural endeavor. The project document further distinguished six critical areas of cultural and creative industry, key among them those of digital content and craft industry. A third, labeled ‘Taiwan e-Learning and Digital Archives Program’ (TELDAP) included among its stated goals facilitating the development of Taiwan’s culture, society, industry and economy, followed by disseminating Taiwan’s experience in the international community and sustainably maintaining important cultural assets of our nation. This research project seeks to attain those goals via creation of a virtual museum – one form of digital archive – which weds digital content to the classic craft industry of Taiwanese
Lacquerware.
The Taiwan government, in January 2010, announced a Cultural and
Creative Development Law, which sought to frame the development of cultural and creative industry in Taiwan. The law also provided for
8 government resources to encourage business investment in cultural and creative industries.
Respecting the goals stated by TELDAP and the 2010 Cultural and Creative
Development Law, my research aims to show how sensitive, web-based interpretation design can play an important role in heightening the public awareness of traditional craft and regional production.
There are currently more than 400 public and private museums in Taiwan of the bricks and mortar variety. Their combined annual attendance, however, is less than Taiwan’s population, meaning Taiwanese citizens on average visit a museum less than once a year. (Chin 2004, vol. 18, p.133) In comparison, the use of the internet is very widespread in Taiwan. Thanks to active support from the government, total broadband penetration (fixed line and mobile) had reached approximately 95 percent by 2011, and more than 70 percent of the population used the internet. (Research and Markets, 2011) Anderson (1997, p.15) notes that, ‘There is general agreement … that electronic connectivity should be used to increase and enhance the attendance of museums.’ Such connectivity shatters barriers of time and space, in ways and degrees so profound that, in face of it, one could well imagine virtual museums the trend of the future. In this study, the main stress falls on the application of interpretation theory in virtual museums. Most of the principles of interpretation identified by Tilden (1957) continue to be a touchstone of
9 interpretation studies. In this research project, it is important to consider how one can apply these principles in the online environment.
10 Chapter 1 Globalisation and culture identity of Taiwan
‘Girls, when I was growing up, my parents used to say to me, ‘Tom, finish
your dinner – people in China and India are starving.’ My advice to you is:
Girls, finish your homework – people in China and India are starving for
your jobs.’ (Friedman 2005, p 237)
Taiwan was once the biggest manufacturing base for laptop computers, with nearly eighty per cent of the laptops in the world made there. However, in
September 2005 the last laptop manufacturing facility in Taiwan closed down its production line. (Ettoday, 2005) More than 200,000 jobs have been lost in
Taiwan because of the departure of the five biggest Taiwanese electronics companies, namely Foxconn Technology Group, Quanta Computer, Asus
Computer, Compal Electronic and BenQ Corporate. Foxconn Technology
Group, the biggest electronic manufacturing services (EMS) manufacturer internationally, has created more than 100,000 jobs in China. (TianXia
Magazine 2006) The first half of the sentence from ‘The World Is Flat’ alluding to hunger in China and India is what we heard as children in Taiwan.
The second half of the sentence, addressing job flight to the developing nations, describes what now happens everywhere.
Taiwan boasts the biggest traditional animation company in the world, Wang
Film Productions, which employs more than 600 animation creators and 400 related professionals. This company had to contend with the challenge posed
11 by the new generation of three-dimensional animation companies. (Wang
Film 2005) Wang Film Productions also is one of the OEM, Original
Equipment Manufacturer, companies of Disney; the famous ‘Lion King’ and traditional Chinese folk story ‘Mulan’ were mainly produced by Wang Film
Productions. In recent years, Wang Film Productions has produced some traditional Chinese folk story animations under its own company name.
Faced with predatory pricing conditions in Korea and China, the company has been trying to establish its own brand. Its strategy is developing content from Chinese history and culture. (TechVantage magazine Online 2005) This is a good illustration of the trend of developing cultural industries in most countries. There is no disagreement on the point that the struggle between globalisation and localisation happens anywhere and anytime. Waters (2001, p. 20) in referring to the types of states in Wallerstein’s argument categorised
Taiwan among semiperipheral areas and he continued: ‘The position of the semiperipheral areas is of special theoretical importance because their existence prevents polarisation and conflict between the core and the periphery.’ One of the main theories of Waters was that ‘symbolic exchanges globalize’, which was the cultural aspect of his theory. In his conclusion from
Arnason (1990) and Hall (1992), he made the following remark: ‘Globalization is in general a differentiating as well as a homogenising process. It pluralizes the world by recognising the value of cultural niches and local abilities.’
(Waters 2001, p. 192)
12 This discussion suggests the great opportunity to develop cultural industries in Taiwan. Taiwan, the special cultural entity, has been moulded by its special geographical position and particular colonial history. From the aspect of its geographical position, Taiwan deservedly developed into a maritime country. The characteristics of maritime culture are a fluid, open mind, diversity and forgiveness. However, a prerequisite is that the maritime culture be developed and enriched by external cultures. The Taiwanese see themselves as having a great capacity for forgiveness, which makes them accept and adapt to external cultures without conflict. The other factor preventing conflict is the barrier of language. The majority of Taiwanese people cannot read or speak English. Although the situation has changed in the new generation, most Taiwanese still rely on Chinese language or characters. Despite the marketing theory of the localisation of product, the imported products’ message needs to be translated into Chinese. Otherwise, only people at the top of the pyramid can know the products. For the development of cultural industries, these two factors – geographical position and language –beget both a threat and an opportunity for Taiwan.
From the historical aspect, it is hard to discuss culture without relating it to politics and the colonial history of Taiwan. The respective ideologies of the governing regimes, which have included the Japanese and the Kuomintang
(KMT), have had a deep influence upon cultural affairs in Taiwan. The dramatic struggle which had dominated Taiwan’s modern history – at bottom, a search for its place in the world – had also enriched its culture. It has
13 furthermore made Taiwan a special point of reference for the understanding of Chinese literature and culture. The role of history remains controversial, so it will be useful, to begin with, to examine briefly the history of Taiwan and its significance.
The modern history of Taiwan
Over the last few decades, the history of Taiwan has been the subject of considerable controversy. That history, in broad outline, is as follows.
The Dutch colonised Taiwan in the 17th century, and then China ruled
Taiwan until ceding it to Japan in 1895, at the conclusion of the first
Sino-Japanese War. After World War II, the Kuomintang (KMT) governed
Taiwan as part of the Republic of China (ROC). In 1949, following the
Chinese civil war, the KMT moved to Taipei with its leader Chiang Kai-shek, and continued to receive recognition as the Chinese Nationalist government by the West, when the Communist Party of China (CPC) established the
People’s Republic of China (PRC). Japan formally renounced its rights to
Taiwan in 1952. The KMT ruled Taiwan as a single-party state for forty years, until Chiang’s son, Chiang Ching-kuo, encouraged reforms in the 1980s, many of them implemented by his successor Lee Teng-hui, with the first direct presidential election in 1996. In 2000, Chen Shui-bian became the first non-KMT president in Taiwan. Since then Taiwan’s democracy has continued to grow and flourish, with the emergence of multiple parties sharing a political landscape dominated, as in America, by two major parties, here, the KMT and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).
14 Before 1996, the textbooks of national history in primary and secondary schools concerned themselves mainly with the history of China. The only mention of Taiwan came in the last volume of the series of textbooks, which was the history of the KMT regime regaining possession of the ‘lost territory’ of Taiwan. As government policy, the history of the Republic of China (ROC), the official name of Taiwan, extended from the ancient history of China to the modern history of Taiwan. From December 1949, Chiang Kai-shek’s vow to
‘recover the mainland’ and his assertion that the ROC was ‘sole legitimate representative of China’ came to define the overriding mission of the government in Taiwan.(Wu 2005, p. 237) Until the early 1980s, the slogan
‘Beware of Communist Spies’ appeared on prominent display in police stations around Taiwan. It also became a favourite topic for compositions throughout the primary and secondary (or high) school system. The purpose of these allusions is to show what remains in the vivid social memory of the
30-year-plus generation. On July 14, 1987, President Chiang Ching-kuo proclaimed the lifting of martial law and the end of the period of National
Mobilisation for the Suppression of the Communist Rebellion. (Wu 2005, p.
239) At the same time, public discussion of formerly taboo subjects became possible. A most significant example would be director Hou Hsian-Hsien’s movie A City of Sadness, which treats the early period of Taiwan’s restoration to Chinese rule and the subsequent February 28th Incident. (Li 1996, p. 1)
(The latter, which began on February 28, 1947, involved an outbreak of civil unrest on Taiwan and its brutal suppression by KMT troops who killed tens of thousands of native Taiwanese people. The ‘Incident’ remains a painful and
15 divisive element within Taiwan’s national consciousness to this day.)
However, it took about ten years from 1987 to 1996 to make the new generation of Taiwanese know and care about the history of Taiwan.
To divide the history of Taiwan roughly, it is useful to quote from Professor
Chen (2004) comments on the resolution of ‘Integral nation, multi-ethnicity’ of the Democratic Progressive Party.
The development of Taiwanese history is formed by three main axes,
namely, the aboriginal history, the immigrant history of the Chinese and
the colonial history. The multi-axial history is destined for the diversity of
ethnicity, culture and language in Taiwanese society. (Liberty Times
Online 2004)
Notwithstanding the ancient aboriginal history and the European (Dutch) colonisation period from 1624 to 1661, it is the history of the Chinese immigration and the Japanese colonial history which, as the two main historical periods, have framed the fundamental cultural characteristics of modern Taiwanese society.
Across the natural barrier of the Taiwan Strait, right up until the 20th century, a steady stream of mainland Chinese immigrated to Taiwan. The old nickname for the Taiwan Strait was ‘Black Gutter’, which described the
16 ruggedness of the Taiwan Strait. One of the most famous Hakka poems, called ‘Bitter Passage to Taiwan’, vividly reveals the situation:
Don’t leave for Taiwan, my friends. It is the gate of hell. Thousands enter
and no one returns. No tidings are ever heard. (Wu 2005, p. 135)
The history of early Chinese immigrants was a very harsh tale of pioneering and of the conflict between the early immigrants and indigenous people. As
Wu (2005) pointed out, history shows that the Taiwanese indigenous peoples’ lands and ways of life were sacrificed for the sake of Chinese land development.
After the First Opium War (1842), various countries stepped up their activity with regard to Taiwan in the economic, diplomatic and military fields. Kerr
(1976) describes this in Formosa Betrayed, noting that:
As international maritime traffic increased the number of shipwrecks and
violent incidents multiplied until the situation became intolerable. (Kerr
1976, p. 5)
The Qing Dynasty purportedly had jurisdiction over all of Taiwan. However, in reality its authority remained confined to already settled areas that had been opened up previously under the Dutch and their successors the Cheng. (Su,
1990) This quotation reminds us of the inevitable disputes and conflicts
17 between foreigners and locals that lie behind so much of Taiwanese development.
In 1895, China ceded its sovereignty over Taiwan through the Shimonoseki
Treaty. The issue of the merits and demerits of the Japanese colonial period, which lasted from this time until 1945, has been the subject of controversy.
(Lamley 1998, p. 202) The construction of infrastructure based on the interests of the Colonial regime would also become the foundation for the modernisation of Taiwan. The most significant achievement remained the building of the railway from the north to the south of the island. The current west coast railway network in Taiwan was based on this railway, completed in 1908. (Wu 2005, p.197)
The crisis of national identity in Taiwan
As flies to wanton boys are we to the gods.
They kill us for their sport.
– William Shakespeare, King Lear
The situation of Taiwan in the early to mid-20th century, led the islanders to describe it as ‘Asia’s Orphan’. The latter became the title of a Chinese novel written by the famous Taiwanese author Wu Cho-Liu (1900 – 1976). The novel first appeared in 1995. The term ‘Asia’s Orphan’ became a personification describing the difficult international situation of Taiwan. The novel with this title described the pre- and post-World War II situation of the
Taiwanese facing two totally different ruling governments: the Japanese and
18 the Chinese Nationalists. A later editor, Wu (2005), made the following remark concerning the novelist’s work:
While Wu’s pre-war writing sketches the helplessness of the Taiwanese
and their inability to control their fate under Japanese rule, his post-war
work evokes the contradictory feelings and social disorder of the time
and describes the evolution from hope to despair brought about by the
succession of the KMT Government.(Wu 2005, p. 211)
The ideology of the KMT regime made it seek to obliterate totally all historical memory of this stamp. However, with the end of martial law, publication and public discussion of differing historical views became possible. The difference in tone was quickly audible. However, a decade is only a relatively short time for the sprouting of democracy. Keen competition between two main ideological camps would still spread turmoil among the people on the island.
One ideology is pro-unification with China; the other pro-independence. Both sides faced the international reality and its interplay of competing interests. It would be hard to envision formal national independence for Taiwan in the near future. However, the majority of Taiwanese can accede to a common understanding that only by investing in their island can they build a better future for Taiwan. The government and the people now make more effort in the conservation of local cultural assets, in raising public awareness of cultural education, and in developing the tourism industry in Taiwan. For more than 100 years, while outsiders ruled, the Taiwanese had not been able
19 to identify with their land and its culture. It would take some time for the islanders, especially the new generation, to understand themselves and to embrace the local culture.
The cultural policy of the Taiwanese government
Currently, the Council for Cultural Affairs (CCA) is the highest administrative department for cultural and artistic affairs in Taiwan. Prior to the foundation of the CCA in 1992, cultural policy was mainly governed by the Department of
Education. The cultural and educational policy aimed at the modernisation and strengthening of Chinese culture. The administrative goals of Chinese cultural development focused on erasing the colonial influence of Japanese culture and education, by promoting the use of Mandarin and strengthening education in Chinese culture. (Government Information Office 2005)
However, after the change in the ruling party in 2000, the cultural policy dramatically changed. The cultural policy of the new government aimed at developing a unique culture that belongs to Taiwan. The term ‘unique cultural characteristics of Taiwan’ may seem oxymoronic when applied across all
Taiwanese because such a diversity of culture blends itself in the island, from
Taiwanese to Chinese, from Western to Eastern, from traditional to modern.
As the people had previously lived completely immersed in their own culture, they had never been aware of the distinctiveness which made it so precious.
The basic cultural policy of the current government is to encourage residents to discover and develop the local culture that represents themselves. The framework of the policy, ‘one city, one distinguishing feature’ provides a guide for local government. It is not realistic to develop a cultural industry in every
20 small town. However, the policy challenges the Taiwanese to pay more attention to their land and culture.
The development of craft art in Taiwan
Taiwan today presents a multi-cultural blend to which the Taiwanese indigenous people, the early Han (Chinese) immigrants, those of the
Japanese colonial period, and the large number of more recent mainland
Chinese immigrants have all contributed. In particular, the large number of newer, post-World War II mainland immigrants and with them, the ruling party have had the greatest influence in the last few decades. The most important figure in the developing history of Taiwanese craft art was Yan, Shui-Long.
Beginning in the 1930s and into the 1950s, the late Japanese colonial period and the years immediately following, he devoted himself to the investigation of craft products in all parts of Taiwan in the late Japanese colonial period.
He helped the local residents to use local materials and indigenous skills to develop better craft products. Furthermore, Taiwan exported its craft products to China and Japan at that time. (Peng 2001, p. 44) However, after the KMT arrived in Taiwan, the story dramatically changed. Because of the ideology of the regime, the ‘Great China’ doctrine in cultural policy suppressed the development of Taiwanese local culture. The artists would face political risk if the artwork implied an emphasis on localisation. More precisely, localisation was taboo. The local craft became a negligible concern for the national government. Yan then devoted himself to fostering craft education at the level of local government.
21 From the 1950s to the 1960s, the U.S. chose to recognise the Nationalist government in Taiwan rather than the Chinese Communist government, and during this time, American funding (US aid) played an important role in the development of the Taiwanese economy. The handicraft industry became an economic mainstay at that time because industry needs labour power and materiel. The craft products mainly focused on the export market. The government policy slogan at that time was ‘The living room is the factory’, which means that craft products can be made in everyone’s living room. The aforementioned slogan also reflects and preserves the social memory of that period. The craft industry was a significant foundation for the economic miracle of the time. However, the craft industry lost economic value because of rising wages which accompanied the more generalised industrialisation of society in Taiwan.
In 2002, the cultural white papers of the Taiwan government introduced the new framework for ‘cultural and creative industries’ in their ‘2008 Challenge, national key development plan’. The government would now pay more attention to local cultural activities and industries, and so encourage the artists working in these industries.
The community and the cultural industry in Taiwan
In keeping with the cultural policy of the Taiwanese government, different levels of local government, from county government to local city councils, made great efforts to promote local cultural industries and activities. However, the nearsightedness of politicians and the shortage of professionals have
22 combined to make policy meaningless. Sometimes a local government spent millions of its budget to create a whole new festival, which did not link directly to the locality or the local culture. Some festivals were outsourced to private marketing companies that invited performing groups from overseas. Such local festivals then depended for their continued existence on the different performing group imported each time. Another anomaly appeared in the vendors’ booths at each festival: here one could buy almost the same goods at every festival! The most obvious example: many local agricultural cooperatives joined in all the festivals around the island and tried to promote or sell directly local agricultural products that only belonged to a specific place. This made such festivals meaningless from the local cultural point of view.
In sum, the confusion of national identity, the conflict of political parties, the lack of vision of the authorities and the often-blurring focus of cultural policies generated much of the current atmosphere of Taiwan. Furthermore, a source of great trouble, and a fundamental problem, lies with the media, especially television news programs. There are more than ten twenty-four-hour news channels and numerous commentary programs in Taiwan, all of them controlled by different parties or syndicates. The media delivers a problematic espousal of values. While the efficiency of government in cultural affairs remains low, a strong voice from the foundations of the society, namely the communities, can play a key role, especially in the preservation of local culture and the function of social education. This analysis represents an
23 attempt to shed light on the possible cultural development of local communities, present and future, in Taiwan.
Hillary Clinton (1996), wife of the former American president, provided an excellent review of the issue.
No family is immune to the influences of the larger society. No matter
what my husband and I do to protect and prepare Chelsea, her future will
be affected by how other children are being raised. (Clinton 1996, p. 15)
‘It takes a village to raise a child,’ an old African proverb, is not only an appropriate title for a book, it also embodies the best solution for the problems confronting current society in every country. However, the contemporary village will be much harder to construct and maintain than that of the past. While this study has its limitations, I hope that it can serve as a basis for exploring this issue, and recommend that the approach outlined in this study be replicated in other communities.
24 Chapter 2 Taiwanese lacquerware
The history of lacquerware in Taiwan
Lacquer, the liquid sap secreted by the lacquer tree Rhus verniciflua, is coloured brown and black, and becomes very hard after it dries. (Webb 2000, p. xvii) It has many excellent qualities, including being moisture-proof, acid-proof, heat-resistant, and it is useful as an antiseptic. The gloss is beautiful and suitable for making various kinds of coating and exquisite ornaments. (Zhou 2003, p. 1) There is no disputing that the earliest lacquer appeared in China. According to the ancient book of Han Feizi, Shun made lacquerware and Yu applied paint to the objects. Han (d. 223 BC) described the situation of the pre-Qin period, which was in the Neolithic Age. (Hou 1995, p. 195) The earliest lacquerware products, the Hemudu red lacquer bowls, which were made in the Neolithic Age, revealed the beginning of the use of lacquer in China.(Hermudu Museum 2006) The book of history, Shih Chi, noted that the wealth of a businessman who owned 1,000 decilitres of lacquer could compare favourably with that of the aristocrat who owned 1,000 horses or chariots. (Zhou 2003, p. 3) This shows the high esteem accorded lacquerware in the early days. Wang (2003) provides an excellent review of the issues related to the development of lacquerware in that period. The development of metallic cutting tools improved the preparation of the substrate of the lacquerware – the timber. Lacquerware for tableware, as a daily necessity, was light, easy to wash, odour-free and easily resisted heat, rot and acid. As an object of pleasure, lacquerware, with its colours and
25 waxing, colourful layers and beautiful patterns would make copper products inferior by comparison. (Wang 2003, p.108) From the initial period to the Qing
Dynasty (1644-1911 AD), the art of lacquerware continued to develop and became a highly sophisticated craft.
Lacquerware first appeared in Taiwan when imported by early immigrants from mainland China in the late Ming Dynasty, c. 1600 AD. However, the manufacture of lacquerware and the cultivation of the lacquer tree in Taiwan did not start until the early 20th century, in the period of Japanese rule. There was a very special requirement for the manufacture of lacquerware: the average temperature had to be warm and the humidity had to be high.
Taiwan met that requirement. Also, the substrate of the lacquerware, timber, was abundant in Taiwan.
In 1916, Yamanaka Akira, a Japanese businessman, opened a Japanese restaurant that became the biggest Japanese restaurant in Taichung City. He had an interesting background. In 1908, he completed his studies in lacquerware at the Tokyo Fine Arts School (now the Tokyo National
University of Fine Arts and Music). The tableware in the restaurant was all lacquerware products. About eight years after he left school, he started a lacquerware products factory in Taiwan. The name of the factory was
Yamanaka Fine Arts and Lacquerware Craft Factory; it was located in
Taichung City. Later, in 1928, he became the principal of Taichung Craft Art
School, funded by the Japanese colonial government. (The Design Culture
26 Laboratory of National University Corporation 2006) As foreign visitors loved the exotic atmosphere, his products became the most famous souvenir of
Taiwan at that time. He travelled all over Taiwan, investigating the local customs, especially in Taiwanese aboriginal culture. He made an excellent contribution in combining the Taiwanese aboriginal and Han cultures to make a new style of Taiwanese lacquerware produced only in Taiwan. The name of the special style came to denote one of the established lacquerware varieties, called ‘Peng-Lai style’. The Japanese lacquerware industries had categorised all the styles based on the producing area, and special fabricating skill or technique. ‘Peng-Lai style’ was the only one produced in
Taiwan. Finally, after the end of World War Two, Yamanaka went back to
Japan and the school was dissolved. From the establishment of Yamanaka
Fine Art and Lacquerware Craft Factory in 1918 to the end of World War Two, the Japanese lacquerware industries had offered sufficient resources to develop a new lacquerware industry in Taiwan.
One special event during the Japanese colonial period was the importation of the lacquer tree. In 1921, a Japanese agricultural officer, Yamashita Shinji, imported lacquer tree seeds from Vietnam and cultivated them in central
Taiwan. Increased availability of the raw materials of lacquerware also enhanced the environment for lacquerware development in Taiwan.
Some of the most famous masters of lacquerware craft art in Taiwan graduated from Yamanaka’s school. (National Museum of History 2006) They
27 all became teachers in lacquerware industries in different factories or had their own workshops. In 1941, one Japanese company, Riken, established a lacquerware factory in Hsinchu, which also became the foundation of the development of lacquerware industry in Taiwan after World War Two. The products of that period were daily commodities such as bowls, boxes and baskets. The factory was liquidated after the War and some of the staff became lacquerware craft artists.
The ideal climate of Taiwan also provided the best conditions for raw lacquer.
During the Japanese colonial government period, the quality of the raw lacquer had become treasured in the Japanese lacquerware industry because the climate in Japan was not suitable for the growth of the lacquer tree. After the war, most of the raw lacquer was exported to Japan because
Japan was not self-sufficient. In the 1960s, Taiwan became the largest raw lacquer-exporting country.
The preceding chapter observed that in the period from the 1950s through the 1960s, American funding had played an important role in the development of the economy in Taiwan. In 1961, the ‘Milepaheluo Factory’ was established in Fengyuan, Taichung County. Though Americans funded the factory, the equipment and technology were provided by Japanese. The main products of the factory were lacquerware salad bowls. It was the largest wood and lacquerware factory at that time in central Taiwan. The large staff employed by the company and trained in its factory became the backbone of
28 the lacquerware industry as skilled staff members move on to establish their own production facilities.
The process of making lacquerware was labour-intensive. In the 1970s, average wages rose significantly in Japan. Difficulty in obtaining the substrates for lacquerware resulted from natural resources being protected by the Japanese government. Some Japanese companies tried to found lacquerware factories in Taiwan to reduce costs. Fengyuan, in Taichung
County, was an ideal location. ‘The right time, the right place and the right people’ to quote an old Chinese proverb, would be the best way to describe the situation at that time. (Lin 1997, p. 14) Fengyuan, Taichung County, located in the centre of Taiwan, is the gateway for sightseeing tours of surrounding central Taiwan. It also was the gateway to the main forest farms and their collection and distribution centre in central Taiwan. Because the main substrate of lacquerware was timber, Fengyuan benefited from a favourable geographical position. From the end of the Japanese colonial period to the period of the Milepaheluo Factory, great talents appeared continually. They all fulfilled the most important requirement: that of the right people. The right time – while the difference of wages lasted – also had arrived to become both opportunity and threat for lacquerware industries in
Taiwan. In the golden age of lacquerware in Taiwan, there were more than forty factories in the Fengyuan area and the employees numbered about
3,000. From 1981 to 1986, the full-bloom period of Taiwanese lacquerware, the annual money value exported was more than 620 million NTDs (New
29 Taiwan Dollars) and more than 90 per cent of it came from the Fengyuan area. (National Museum of History 2006)
However, the process of making lacquerware was as ever labour-intensive.
In the late 80s, average wages in Taiwan rose, the NTD grew stronger and the exchange rate of NTDs to USDs (United State Dollars) strengthened significantly; the resulting great change in the Taiwanese economic environment brought a rapid onset of difficulties for the lacquerware factories.
Some of the factories moved to China or Vietnam at that time, which also marked the end of the large-scale lacquerware industries in Taiwan.
The recent state of Taiwanese lacquerware
The Chinese word for ‘dangerous’ consists of two characters of totally different meaning: threat and opportunity. The threat to the lacquerware industry had forced some of the lacquerware workers to change their vision and direction. They shifted emphasis in their work from being lacquerware workers to being lacquerware designers or lacquerware craft artists. These artists only engaged in their creation unofficially because the authorities did not recognize this kind of craft art. They only recognized categories of ‘pure art’ such as Chinese painting, Chinese calligraphy, and oil painting. Taiwan had no craft art awards to encourage craft artists.
The year 1973 saw the establishment of the Taiwan Province Handicraft
Research Institute. This marked a turning point in the development of craft art in Taiwan. The relaxation of political ideology also made authentically local
30 craft art possible. The government began to pay more attention to local craft art. In addition to the government’s initiatives, several lacquerware masters also played an important role and contributed much effort in passing on their skills. Among the first generation of Taiwanese lacquerware artists since the
Japanese colonial period the most famous figures were Chen Huo-qing, Lai
Gao-shan and Wang Qing-shuang. In 1984, the Taiwan Province Handicraft
Research Institute invited Chen to pass on his highly refined skills. A fortunate few people were able to learn those skills directly from him. Until
1996, an organised instructional program functioned. Its teachers, including
Chen and Lai, sowed the seed of the art of Taiwanese lacquerware craft.
However, both masters passed away in recent years. From 1993, the year of the first Craft Art Design Competition, until the present, their students have earned most of the craft art awards for the lacquerware sector. This is despite the fact that in contrast to the situation with pottery and porcelain, most people in Taiwan today have never touched or even heard of lacquerware.
In 1999, government reform brought change to the Taiwan Province
Handicraft Research Institute, which became the National Taiwan Craft
Research Institute. The Council for Cultural Affairs, the highest cultural department in the Taiwanese government, became the direct superintendent of the National Taiwan Craft Research Institute. Based on the White Paper on Cultural Affairs 2004, (Council for Cultural Affairs, Executive Yuan 2004) the total cultural budget was 1.21 per cent of the total national budget.
However, the major expenses of the cultural budget were in personnel fees,
31 hardware construction and administrative expenses. Direct outlays for cultural affairs were relatively few. Local governments faced the same problem. In craft art, due to difficulties of lacquerware with market share and public recognition, ceramics was always the mainstay, and also took most of the budget and resources for cultural affairs available from government.
In the lacquerware craft itself, some challenges also made popularisation difficult. One was that, in contrast to ceramics, lacquerware was no longer in daily use by families in Taiwan. Another was the complicated and time-consuming process of the workflow, which made the number of participants dwindle. Despite these disadvantages, some lacquerware artists still work in the field without attracting widespread public attention. In the course of this project I had the chance to meet some of the best-known craft artists in Taiwan’s lacquerware industries. I had the further opportunity to learn, at first hand and from field study, the special history of lacquerware in
Taichung.
I had yet to conduct any field study in lacquerware, when I learned that some of the most outstanding figures in the field lived and worked near my hometown of Taichung City. I took a leave of absence for one semester and returned to Taiwan. Once there I became a participant in two government-funded courses conducted by the most celebrated artists and teachers of the lacquerware craft in Taiwan, Huang, Li-Shu and Lai,
Tzough-Ming. They knew of my research and its subject and devoted
32 extensive time to recounting the history of Taiwanese lacquerware and their involvement therein. I also had the opportunity to meet some former employees of the Milepaheluo Factory, located in Fengyuan, Taichung
County, which had attained such renown in the 1960s. Some of them had refined and expanded their skills and were now lacquerware craft artists in their own right. I also met the financial manager of the factory, who provided me with many historical photographs of its operations, now, for the first time, made available to the public. The factory is no more, but those photographs continue to facilitate my immersion in the lacquerware history of Taiwan. This filed study has confirmed my belief that lacquerware craft can furnish the theme for a first-class virtual museum. Further, my journey of discovery in lacquerware suggested in broad outline the visitor experience I sought to create. Background information had had its place, examination of lacquerware itself had had its place, but my personal interaction with the craft artists themselves had been central to insight and understanding. So I would provide the visitor with orienting information and a suitable gallery of images… but the site’s true focus would be the real-life craft artists, their work, their words, and the opportunity to converse with them. Thus my own experience of learning about lacquerware pointed me to the template for the design of the virtual museum herein. In this work, I endeavor to provide a more precise resolution of the issue mentioned above – how the art of
Taiwanese lacquerware is to survive and flourish. In so doing I shall comment on the general state of Taiwan’s creative cultural industry as well.
33 Chapter 3 Virtual museum vs. museum
Definition of ‘museum’
An effective consensus prevails regarding the concept of the traditional museum. The term ‘traditional museum’ refers to one of the wide range of actual museums that are housed in buildings or in the field: for example, an art museum, a science museum or a zoo. Throughout this essay the term museum refers to the same concept. The International Council of Museums
(ICOM) lists several definitions from different countries. (The International
Council of Museums 2005) Burcaw (1997) lists a wide range of definitions of museums in his Introduction to Museum Work. The most comprehensive definition appears on the website of the International Council of Museums
(ICOM).
A museum is a non-profit making, permanent institution in the service of
society and of its development, and open to the public, which acquires,
conserves, researches, communicates and exhibits, for purposes of
study, education and enjoyment, material evidence of people and their
environment. (The International Council of Museums 2005)
From this viewpoint one would say that the main purposes of museums are study, education and enjoyment. However, from the perspective of visitors in general, the most important function of museums is education and enjoyment.
Most people, and that includes most researchers, accept the latter contention.
34 (Falk & Dierking 1992, p. 14) (Burcaw 1997, p.31) One must make due allowance for the fact that there are many audiences, including those devoted to professional study, and that the museum has an important additional function of heritage preservation. It is useful to discuss these two functions of the museum more fully before moving on.
On March 22, 2002, Museums Australia defined a museum as an institution with the following characteristics:
A museum helps people understand the world by using objects and
ideas to interpret the past and present and explore the future. A museum
preserves and researches collections, and makes objects and
information accessible in actual and virtual environments. Museums are
established in the public interest as permanent, not-for-profit
organisations that contribute long-term value to communities. (National
Council of Museums in Australia 2005)
This definition indicates that the virtual environment can be an important part of the development of traditional and contemporary museums both present and future.
Definition of ‘virtual museum’
Numerous articles appearing in the last few years have addressed the study of virtual museums. However, the term itself challenges precise definition.
One good account of a virtual museum is the following:
35
A virtual museum is a collection of electronic artifacts and information
resources - virtually anything which can be digitized. The collection may
include paintings, drawings, photographs, diagrams, graphs, recordings,
video segments, newspaper articles, transcripts of interviews, numerical
databases and a host of other items which may be saved on the virtual
museum's file server. It may also offer pointers to great resources
around the world relevant to the museum's main focus. (McKenzie 1995)
Interestingly, when we turn to the famous Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, the definition for virtual museum changes dramatically from time to time, as the Wikipedia is open for the public to write the entry.
A virtual museum is an online website with a collection of objects (real or
virtual) or exhibitions. (Wikipedia encyclopedia 2006)
A virtual museum is a museum that exists only online. A virtual museum
is also known as an online museum, electronic museum, hypermuseum,
digital museum, cybermuseum or Web museum. (Wikipedia
encyclopedia 2011)
After this short definition, some examples of virtual museum links followed.
Given the variety of the examples, it seems reasonable to state a simple
36 definition and leave it open for newcomers to rewrite the definition, which is the principle by which Wikipedia operates. Such a view underlies the following remarks by Schweibenz (2004): ‘the development of virtual museums has been “under construction” for some ten years now.’(Schweibenz 2005, p. 4) The first thing that one notices is that the form of the virtual museum is quite flexible. We have a very special example of that in the Virtual Museum of the Cultural Revolution. (Virtual Museum of
Cultural Revolution 2006) The museum consists only of oral history, historical reflections, and critical articles related to the event. With the exception of the website, the virtual museum consists merely of text. The homepage comprises photographs of the event. The total text amounts to more than one million words as stated in the introduction. Such possibilities for variety and versatility inherent in the forms of the virtual museum also inspired me to do research on this topic.
From physical to virtual
One of the most important functions of museums is education. Falk and
Dierking (1992) provide a sophisticated series of books advancing a new theory of the experience of museum visitors from the perspective of the museum visitors themselves. (Falk & Dierking 1992, 2000, 2002) Their user-centred perspective also represented a paradigm shift in museology.
The questions they addressed are exactly the questions that we need to consider – from museums to virtual museums. From the perspective of visitors, Falk and Dierking (1992) give a good account of categorising the contexts in which people visit museums: the personal context, social context
37 and physical context. (Falk & Dierking 1992, p. 3) It is worthwhile to examine the subject more closely, especially as we move from the plane of the traditional museum to that of its virtual counterpart.
In the personal context, Falk and Dierking (1992) provide a very important insight: that time is a major ‘cost’ of visiting a museum. (Falk & Dierking 1992, p. 13) The time travelling to the museum and the time spent in the museum are major concerns for people visiting the museum. This is an important fact to emphasise. Unless the museum is well known internationally, the museum’s visitors will mainly consist of the local residents. In Taiwan, there are more than 400 public and private museums. However, based on research, the total annual attendance figure for all museums in Taiwan is less than the population of Taiwan; in other words, residents visit a museum, on average, less than once a year. (Chin 2004, pp. 133-137) Furthermore, the majority of the visitors only visit the major museums in their locality. They will pass up other small, private museums. This creates a difficulty for most private museums, which cannot gain enough public exposure due to lack of budget in marketing. However, in a ‘flat world’ (a Thomas Friedman [2005] construct, of which more later), the infrastructure of the internet also brings opportunity to these private sector museums, especially as internet use is quite universal in Taiwan. Based on national statistics, more than sixty per cent of Taiwan’s families now have a broadband connection. (The Department of Statistics,
Ministry of Interior, Taiwan 2006) For the well-funded museums, the museum website is only one among their many marketing tools. However, the
38 under-funded, not-for-profit or private museums can benefit significantly from such internet presence, insofar as it eliminates the major costs of a museum visit. The question which remains is how to attract the visitors.
Another issue in the personal context, as Falk and Dierking (1992) accurately pointed out, is that word-of-mouth was a major, if not the primary factor in attracting visitors. (Falk & Dierking 1992, p. 28) However, the premise is that the expectation and experience of the visit influenced suggestions to relatives and friends. The quality of the experience bore a strong relationship to the nature of guided tours in the museums. In other words, the interpretative work conducted in the museum significantly affects the experience of visitors.
In the social context, Falk and Dierking (1992) examined the interaction between family members, especially children and parents. They found that people visit museums for purposes of recreation and social intercourse. The major difference between children and parents was that the children liked to interact directly and the parents liked to look at graphics and read labels.
(Falk & Dierking 1992, p. 42) In research dealing with school field trips to museums, the guided tours made for a better museum experience than did visitors’ self-guided tours. (Falk & Dierking 1992, p. 50) Interestingly, the main point emphasised was that the understanding of information depended on the interaction of the group and the sharing of meaning. Most visitors only remember the interaction of group members in response to the related information or the interaction among members themselves after the visit.
39 (Falk & Dierking 1992, p. 54) These results suggest we move beyond the focus on interaction between humans and exhibition objects, interaction kiosks or touch screen games. It is the interactive dialogue between the group members which makes the museum experience more meaningful. As
Roberts (1997) pointed out:
More attention should be paid to the development of goals that inspire
visitors to discover and construct their own narratives. (Roberts 1997, p.
142)
The narratives here can be individuals’ narratives or expanded more widely to include the narratives formed between members. The best expression of this process came from the early 20th century philosopher, Ludwig
Wittgenstein (1889 -1951) when he first addressed the ‘language-game’.
(Wittgenstein & Anscombe 2001, p. 7e [English edition]) The language-game here is the knowledge constructed by the constant dialogue between group members. In addition, the language game is a metaphor that makes our life connect with other people and promotes learning between people. The application of narrative in the context of a virtual museum formed the focus of my research, leading me to the theory and application of interpretation and interpretation design.
40 In the physical context, an interesting research finding that Falk and Dierking
(1992) discussed was ‘museum fatigue’. Their research shows in detail how visitors behave in museums.
Significantly, though, in the first few minutes of a visit, the ‘naïve’ visitor’s
attention is usually unfocused; once he decides where to begin, he
forces all his attention on the content of the exhibits. The period of
intensive looking is quite consistent for all visitors, and can last forty-five
minutes or more, but usually lasts less than thirty minutes. (Falk &
Dierking 1992, p. 59)
This excerpt is interesting in that it shows for how short a time visitors can pay close attention in museums. Then comes the next phase: ‘cruising’. The visitors do not read the labels and start to skim the contents of exhibits. Their feet are sore, their legs are tired, and their minds are becoming saturated.
(Falk & Dierking 1992, p. 60) Finally, they start to find a reason to leave.
Some older studies, as Falk and Dierking (1992) noted, found little or no direct evidence that learning occurs in museums. (Falk & Dierking 1992, p.
97) Such research examined visitors’ ability to recall facts and concepts encountered during the museum visit. Though some studies found such learning to occur, more typically, ‘significant’ factual recall and concept acquisition failed to appear. The authors comment that the term ‘learning’ is both often used and often abused, and that the existence of multiple
41 definitions has generated confusion. Many theoretical analyses essentially confine the term to the acquisition of cognitive information. This, the authors feel, is unfortunate. (Falk and Dierking, 1992, p.99) To arrive at a meaningful assessment of learning, as it takes place in museums, we require a more comprehensive definition, one that does justice to the complexity of human experience. That definition takes into account the personal and social context of the individual’s encounter with the museum. As the authors observe:
Learning is almost always socially mediated. Because humans are social
organisms, they rarely acquire information is a social vacuum. People
learn while talking to, listening to, and watching other people. They
incorporate other people’s ideas in their own; even feelings and physical
actions are amalgamations forged during social contacts. (Falk &
Dierking 1992, p. 100)
The longstanding view of the importance of social mediation in learning has found reaffirmation elsewhere in the field of museum studies.
Hooper-Greenhill (1994) considered the way in which learning occurs in an art museum. She stressed the self-generated effort and activity of the visitor who naturally seeks the meaning of an exhibit. That visitor, alone or assisted, progressively constructs a personal understanding of the artwork, which amounts to an interpretation of it. Hooper-Greenhill emphasizes that this interpretive process, while carried out by an individual, is ultimately social in nature. This follows from the role of social strategies for determining meaning.
42 Since group adaptation fosters shared interpretive strategies, we find learning, including museum learning, talking place within interpretive communities. Similarly Hodge and D’Souza (1994), after examining the role of a museum as communicator, concluded that the various problems they identified reflected the nature of the communicative process itself, which exists as part of society, culture, and politics, from which we cannot meaningfully separate it. The main aim of this paper is to carry forward the study of virtual museums with respect to such issues. A more extended discussion appears in the next section.
Virtual museums
The concept of virtual museums has become a critical issue in the museum community, as one may see in the following statement of prominent
Canadian network director J. M. Blais in 2005:
Here are a few facts to consider: a) most museum visitors and users are
in cyberspace, b) more than half the users of the Virtual Museum of
Canada (VMC) come from outside of the country, c) the Internet and
search engines have become the main source of information for all forms
of research. These phenomena are indicative of profound changes for
museums, archives, and libraries. These memory institutions have been
responding to these realities, but they should be reacting more
quickly.(Blais 2005, p. 110)
43 Not surprising, in view of the foregoing, is the appearance of numerous papers on the virtual museum, with the studies reflecting a variety of research perspectives. This research has included the areas of information design,
(Wang 2003), educational aspects (Christal 2003), digital preservation (Hsieh
2003), and technical issues. (Ciou 2002) For large-scale museums, the museum website offers one marketing tool. Furthermore, most of these museums have constructed a huge amount of virtual museum space, whether limited to selective topics or comprehensive in coverage. Given the trend of digitising the collections, it seems reasonable to multi-utilise the digital collections.
Now we turn once more to Taiwan, and the development of virtual museums among real museums. According to the website ‘Museums of Taiwan’, established by the Council of Cultural Affairs, Taiwan, and the Chinese
Association of Museums, museums in Taiwan fall into nineteen categories based on their characteristics. The total number of museums was 582, according to that website. I conducted a personal review of the entire list of
582 museums as there presented, which yielded the following statistics: 26% of these museums had no official website, 25.3% of them had website addresses but could not be linked, and 48.7% had operative official websites.
Among these operative museum websites, 35.7% had linked to their own virtual museums; however, only 17.3% of these operative websites had guestbook-related services. Of those museums without official websites,
44 87.8% are private museums, while 75.8% of the unlinked websites belong to private museums. The detailed statistical data appear in Appendix 1.
Based on these statistics and my own analysis of the organisations, most of the private museums, which tend to be small and under-funded, did not have their own official website, and for those who did, interactive capability remained a largely undeveloped potential. The website herein will be operative and provide interactive service, while remaining minimally funded and requiring no professional IT staff support. It will thereby address the unfulfilled need suggested by the foregoing statistics and present a design model which provides a practical answer. My research offers a new insight and more innovative possibilities for the virtual museum. The virtual museum solution that I focus on here is suitable for application to small organisations that operate under-funded, not-for-profit or private museums. For these organisations, shortage of resources, such as budget, professional marketing and information technology staff constitutes a handicap in getting themselves before the public. The purpose here is to explore these issues a little further and give practicable solutions for this segment. Key among the latter will be the utilization of free software rather than one of the proprietary products heretofore characteristic of efforts to create virtual museum websites. Free software possesses advantages of simplicity and stability over proprietary products. It does not require the ongoing maintenance associated with the periodic upgrades and other changes users have come to expect from the proprietary systems. Such modifications mandate the participation of IT professionals and Web designers in keeping websites functional. Free
45 software, on the other hand, permits of installation and maintenance by ordinary staff who need not be professionally qualified in IT or Web design.
This carries important advantages of organizational simplicity and cost savings.
The applications of the internet are overwhelming in scope and power. It is hard to imagine how one could now do research without the internet. We can search almost all journal articles online. We can order books online. We can request that books be sent to our homes from libraries. One may safely assume that the internet will constitute the platform for learning and research at present and in the future. Hence, the materials and information of a virtual museum also represent one of the sources of knowledge. However, the quality of the knowledge is another issue; this is too involved a subject to be treated here in detail. As Falk and Dierking (1992) pointed out, the quality of learning experience in a museum visit, by itself, was far from forming knowledge. In a student group’s field trip, before they come to the museum, they must have done pre-visit research either by receiving instruction from teachers, reading books or searching online. This model of museum learning could well serve as a paradigm at the primary or secondary school level.
Otherwise, the student might think the field trip is merely a recreational trip
(such as sightseeing) and teachers might find it difficult to control the students during the visit. Hence, pre-visit knowledge is more critical than the learning done directly while at the museum. Furthermore, to master the content of an article, one reads it time after time. It is hard for anyone to
46 acquire lasting knowledge from a single perusal. Also, while in the course of experiencing, listening, watching, and understanding are all important, most in today’s world, to develop their thinking deeply, will have to read articles and books. This point deserves explicit emphasis. Due to the domination of mass media, especially television and now online multimedia, the younger generation faces a serious challenge in cultural and literacy learning. I would like to stress that the form of the virtual museum cannot be developed into the myth of multimedia, three-dimensional animation or virtual reality. People are always interested in the freshness of information on the internet. It is this constantly updated verbal content that continually brings them back. Most visitors will not return only because of fantastic games or animation because there are thousands of fantastic animations waiting for anyone elsewhere.
The internet’s attraction provides a vehicle for textual, as well as visual learning. As Thomas (1998) pointed out:
In our popular culture we have allowed television to define the terms of
visual literacy. It seems to me that museums have the authority – one
might say the responsibility – to challenge this hegemony, to develop
additional terms and examples, to provide new yet compelling visual
information for our growing publics.( Thomas, Mintz & American
Association Of Museums 1998, p. xi)
Another good illustration is that provided by Norman (2004):
47 Far too many high-technology creations have moved from real physical
controls and products to ones that reside on computer screens, to be
operated by touching the screen or manipulating a mouse. All the
pleasure of manipulating a physical object is gone and, with it, a sense of
control. (Norman 2004, p.79)
The foregoing suggests further possibilities for developing the form of the virtual museum. It is difficult to argue against the notion that the applications of the internet will dominate our lives now and in the future. Based on the development of information technology for the internet, such as the search engine, availability of well-organised information in every domain can greatly benefit the general public – even professionals. Wikipedia is a notable example. It challenges traditional, more dominant knowledge providers and gives greater opportunity to smaller organisations and even to individuals. In the society of the knowledge economy, government of large-scale organisations no longer dominate the construction of knowledge. The general public and individuals can have greater influence over the construction and dissemination of knowledge. An important consequence is that the virtual museum is a potential means for small organisations or individuals to contribute to their knowledge by using the internet. The well-organised information of virtual museums can become an excellent resource for knowledge in specific domains. However, as mentioned above, Falk and
Dierking (1992) argue that the interaction of people and social intercourse is the most valuable function of museums. I will give this point equal importance
48 in the exploration of the virtual museum environment. How to actualise the social function of the virtual museum also becomes the main topic of this research.
Blogs and virtual museums
At the core of the change in the museum’s approach to interaction and the potential of web 2.0 technologies is the advent of the ‘new museology’. ‘At the core of the new museology is an assumption that the museum is not a center of research nor primarily a collecting institution but that it is in fact an educational instrument’ (Srinivasan et al. 2009, p. 667).
Srinivasan et al. (2009) discuss the implications of Web 2.0 for the virtual museum, with special reference to the museum’s traditional function of cataloguing its own contents. They find one root of the broader change that has swept the museum field in the past several decades to be the appearance, at the end of the 1970’s, of what was then called ‘the new museology’. The latter had as a central premise the notion that the museum’s primary function is neither to collect nor to perform research, but, rather, to educate. The present research design incorporates this core concept of the
‘new museology’. The virtual museum’s creator naturally contemplates that its store of images and other content will grow ever richer and more fecund over time; also, that the shared effort of the museum’s staff and visitors will lead inevitably to a wider body of knowledge, and deeper understanding, within the field of lacquerware. Nevertheless, the primary function of the museum is to educate. This appears in the emphasis given to interaction
49 through the blog and other interactive functions of the virtual museum. The online visitor experiences the images, has the aid of the storyteller or curator of the virtual museum in understanding and interpreting them, and through his/her own comments and feedback adds to their meaning and the wealth of association they can have for others. Furthermore, the interactive features – in this case emphasizing the blog, with its live personality – ensure that the instructive function is flexible, not limited to printed descriptions or one-sided formal lectures. There is, on the contrary, the opportunity for ‘class discussion’ in this museum, even for resort to the Socratic Method, if one desires.
Another source of the recent change cited by Srinivasan et al. (2009) has been the body of research generally known as contemporary museum studies. That research begins with a set of premises concerning the nature of knowledge in the museum setting. These premises emphasize the role of social and political influences in the manner in which such knowledge is created and transmitted. Specifically, the ways in which one comes to know something are inherently social, since, first, ‘knowledge is generated discursively’ (through conversing with others), and, second, one’s disposition to accord a given statement the status of knowledge rests chiefly on the degree to which one perceives that that the members of a trusted community treat that statement as knowledge. Srinivasan et al. (2009) note the implications of such an approach for the new museology: some find in it a useful corrective for a tendency of the curatorial staff, as educators and,
50 effectively, marketing managers, to confine the meaning of museum exhibits in accord with some preconceived straitened view of their significance for the public.
The Taiwanese Lacquerware Virtual Museum reflects these insights into the social nature of learning which receive such emphasis in the field of contemporary museum studies. The blog and other interactive features allow creation of an online participatory community whose conversations concerning the museum’s content help generate knowledge, while critical feedback shared by visitors and their respected guide provides some standards for according particular statements their status as knowledge. The continual availability of visitors’ input ensures that possibilities for learning do not suffer for any unforeseen constriction in the museum’s educational perspective.
Cooper (2006) examines the possibilities for taking the online museum past the simple function of providing a substitute for visiting a ‘real’ museum. He charts a series of contrasts between the experience of visiting a physical museum and that of visiting one online, some of these contrasts being favorable to one venue or the other. He notes, in favor of the physical museum, that the visit may be either a social or a solitary experience, whereas the online visit ‘is generally a solitary experience only.’ The present design acknowledges Cooper’s point as it reflects the reality of the
51 conventional online museum. It addresses that point through its inclusion and emphasis of the blog –style interactive function.
Social media, including blogs, offer a new form of interaction and potential for learning by visitors to the museum (Russo et al. 2008). Thus, Simon (2007) asserts that the interaction between museums and web 2.0 technologies including blogs has reinvigorated the relationship between the institution and visitors. Such use of web 2.0 technologies across the globe already exhibits rich diversification (Lopez, Margapoti, Maraglioni 2010). Gates (2007) referring to the Smithsonian Art Gallery Museum, suggests that blogs are a way for the museum to attract a younger generation of viewers more familiar with this technology. Liu (2008) meanwhile also observes that curators and museums are actively seeking new ways to interact with audiences and that blogs are an especially useful medium. This is particularly true given their potential to effect interpretation in the museum environment (Fischer &
Levinson 2010)
A number of other studies have examined more closely various aspects of the blog’s educational potential and reached conclusions significant to the present research. De Voe (2009) considered one evolutionary form of the blog_the use of microblogging_and examined its application to delivery of library reference and user support services. She noted that features of immediacy and of assumed community are critical to microblogging. Absolute freedom of content coupled with forced brevity (and consequent informality),
52 distinguish it from more conventional blogging and give it a special appeal.
De Voe (2009) observed that microblogging, to succeed, required an audience: otherwise the conversation could not begin. She concluded that the microblog had much potential utility in the library services setting, but that realizing that potential must begin with establishing an audience. This meant not only reaching out to existing friends and acquaintances in the day-to-day library community, and soliciting new ones through networks based or shared locations and interests, but actively promoting the online visibility of the library’s microblog. Successful strategies include those which capitalize on the element of immediacy in microblogging, such as a focus on upcoming events, latest updates to library content, timed contests, and integration with real life events such as author appearances.
The present research design does not incorporate a microblog as such, but appreciates the insights offered by De Voe (2009) into the appeal of microblogging and its potential for education. The Lacquerware Virtual
Museum blog does not include a set limit for the length of user contributions, and the content management system provides for a freedom of topic which, while generous, remains relative rather than absolute. The design does contemplate building a lively user community centering on interest in
Taiwanese lacquerware. Far from limiting itself to historical material, the blog content will include updates as to artists’ activities, museum events, recent publications, collectors’ acquisitions, and other ongoing developments in a
53 growing community. To that extent it will resemble the dynamic and community-centered vehicle which De Voe (2009) found in microblogging.
Johnson (2010) explored the possibilities of the blog as an educational tool.
She focused upon a series of authors with a target audience of young adult readers, and examined the use of those authors’ blogs in teaching language arts to young adults. Johnson (2010) described her findings in strongly positive terms. She noted the common desire of such authors to establish a closer bond with their young adult readers, and the fact that blogging facilitates this. The motivation and content of the authors’ blogs created a setting for learning that emphasized connection, collaboration, and creative activity. This in turn fostered students’ capacity to think in a critical and analytical manner. Furthermore, blog participation enabled students to generate content in ways unavailable in a conventional paper-and-pencil setting. Besides leaving written comments, they could provide links to images, podcasts, videos, and similar multimedia, thereby enriching and elucidating the expression of their ideas, and others could in like fashion link to such posts. Johnson (2010) suggested that the resulting experience in analysis and comparison of information from multiple sources, and its synthesis in effective student expression, could be of great value in stimulating development of critical and analytical modes of thought. From the blog, the student learns, not merely information, but where to find it and how to use it.
54 The Lacquerware Virtual Museum seeks to realize the potential of the blog as a learning instrument which emerges from research such as that of Johnson
(2010). Her authors are artists whose medium is the written word. Their motivation to blog includes an abiding wish to connect more closely with the young adults who experience and appreciate their work. Blogging provides that direct connection. The author’s posts frequently furnish a more direct revelation of the author’s life, thought, and personality than do the contents of the books he/she has written. The reader in turn can reach the author with feedback that is immediate and personal. Ongoing communication leads to shared effort and collaboration, for example, when the author apprises readers of a creative project in process. The creative potential of readers enters the picture as they offer their own suggestions and personal reactions with respect to the work in progress.
Pi et al. (2010) found that features of interactivity and personalization both correlated positively with user perceptions of a particular blog’s value. By interactivity Pi et al. (2010) referred to the characteristic of shared communication enabling education, as by the posting of comments, links, articles, responses, and tracking capabilities to the blog (Kim, 2008). By personalization Pi et al. denoted the adaptation of a standard product or service to potential desires or requirements of the individual (Pine et al.,
1993). Pi et al. found such personalization to consist, in the case of the blog, in the user’s relative freedom to decide what style [of web design, of personal communication] to use when writing a blog. Convenience of use, service
55 compatibility, and cognitive effort were additional factors which positively influenced user perception of blog value. Positive perception of blog value in turn had a positive influence upon users’ intention to continue using the blog.
The present design embraces both interactivity and personalization as key features of the Virtual Museum’s blog format. The design contemplates formation of an active user community which will enrich the Museum through its blog postings, which can include linked images, audio, video, and other multimedia as well as the expected conventional written commentary. This shared communication concerning lacquerware will become a vehicle for education in a living craft art. Personalization, for the artist, proceeds from the freedom to introduce and illustrate a topic in the blog format. For blog visitors, it comes from the encouragement to comment and offer meaningful content derived from their own emotion and experience, including multimedia with personal associations.
Dicker (2010) explored the ways in which the blog and other social media impact the life and work of the contemporary museum curator. She noted the rapid adaptation of museums to Web 2.0 and their increasing engagement with a new online audience. A primary theme has been improving online accessibility of collections and of those responsible for their management. As museums have come to grasp users’ desire to have all their content at a single location (Bernstein, 2008), they have naturally begun to share their collections in the social media sphere. This has brought the museum curator
56 to the forefront of online interaction with the visitor audience, a function formerly consigned to public-program and outreach or Web-editorial staff. As
Internet access has multiplied opportunities for community interaction with museum content, the accompanying shift to social media channels has confronted curator and audience with multiple potential platforms for their new communication. Dicker (2010) found that, of those who used social media in their role as curator, two-thirds contributed to a museum blog. This bolsters the conclusion of the present research, independently derived, that the blog is currently the most suitable and promising framework for introducing the interactive feature in a virtual museum.
Dicker (2010) further found that, by an overwhelming margin, the curators she surveyed considered the greatest impact of social media on their work to lie in bringing it to a new and wider audience, one not limited to those visiting the museum floor or reading publications. In plain terms, the public simply has unprecedented access to the curator’s work. Dicker (2010) found a strong sense among her subjects that this development had been not merely significant, but transformative. Those surveyed were in overwhelming agreement that the curator’s role is changing. Dicker (2010) described the change as follows. In the past, she asserted, curators focused on their status as specialists in their respective fields, possessed of expert knowledge, and serving as the lone link between museum content and the public. But Dicker
(2010) found that only a minority of the curators she surveyed still viewed themselves as experts, specialists, or ‘gatekeepers of knowledge’. While still
57 strongly linking their role to collections and content, most respondents defined it in terms of research, communication, facilitation, the ‘brokering of knowledge’, and, most often, interpretation. (Emphasis added.)
The concern with strengthening the presence of museums and their interaction with the public is a relatively recent phenomenon in Taiwan.
However, the rapidly developing literature of such efforts dates at least from the last decade. Thus, Young (2000), writing of Taiwan specifically, described the success of the Tsing-Hua Web-based Science Museum, which since developing an on-line presence had raised its profile enormously with the public.
Summary
Museums serve a number of functions, the most important of which are the education and enjoyment of the visiting public. Traditional museums occupy physical settings such as buildings or field sites. Virtual museums exist online as websites. Research such as that of Falk and Dierking (1992, 2000, 2002) analyzes visitor museum experience to reveal how learning takes place in museums. The results essentially reaffirm longstanding notions of learning as socially mediated, while refining their application to the museum context.
The recent pervasive spread of the virtual museum is but one manifestation of profound change in the way societies create, store, and access knowledge.
The Web 2.0, phenomenon, in turn, with its emphasis on user-centered interactivity, offers the virtual museum the opportunity to transform itself. It
58 does so by embracing the interaction characteristic of social media and in this case specifically attained by incorporating a web log function. The artist’s blog becomes the vehicle for interpretation and for visitor sharing: the social context of learning. In this way, Web 2.0 enables the virtual museum to apply the valuable insights of modern research into the museum’s educational function.
59 Chapter 4 Interpretation design in the virtual museum
Interpretation
The previous chapter considered the development of museums, their changing public role and the development of virtual museums. This chapter looks more closely at the possibilities inherent in the virtual museum, viewed from various perspectives. The first is that of interpretation, which will be a key word in the discussion which follows, for interpretation theory now finds widespread application in museums, national parks, and natural conservation, which have also developed their own respective and different emphases. The
Interpretation Australia Association defines ‘heritage interpretation’ as follows:
Heritage interpretation is a means of communicating ideas and feelings
which help people understand more about themselves and their
environment. There are many different ways of communicating these
ideas, including guided walks, talks, drama, displays, signs, brochures
and electronic media. Heritage interpretation is often used in national
parks, museums, zoos, botanic gardens, Aboriginal keeping places,
galleries, historic sites, science centres, state forests, urban parks, and
reserves. Interpretation is used increasingly by guided tour operators,
conservation organisations and local history associations. (Interpretation
Australia Association 2006)
60 Another definition provided by the National Association for Interpretation
(NAI), based in the US, is:
Interpretation is a communication process that forges emotional and
intellectual connections between the interests of the audience and the
meanings inherent in the resource.(National Association for
Interpretation 2006)
Tilden (1957), memorably articulated the concept:
Thousands of naturalists, historians, archeologists and other specialists
are engaged in the work of revealing, to such visitors as desire the
service, something of the beauty and wonder, the inspiration and
spiritual meaning that lie behind what the visitor can with his senses
perceive. This function of the custodians of our treasures is called
Interpretation.(Tilden 1957, p. 3)
Later in his book, he made the definition more specific as applied in national park services, museums and other similar cultural institutions:
An educational activity which aims to reveal meanings and relationships
through the use of original objects, by firsthand experience, and by
illustrative media, rather than simply to communicate factual information.
(Tilden 1957, p. 8)
61 Tilden (1957) placed special emphasis on certain principles of interpretation.
In the ensuing half century, he has had many successors who have developed and expanded interpretation theory, but the six principles introduced by Tilden in 1957 remain fundamental to interpretation practice.
Beck and Cable (1998) thus stated in the preface to their book:
Yet it is Tilden who is far better known and who is often credited with first
formulating a philosophy of interpretation. (Beck & Cable 1998, p. xi)
The six principles are:
1. Any interpretation that does not somehow relate what is being displayed
or described to something within the personality or experience of the
visitors will be sterile.
2. Information, as such, is not interpretation. Interpretation is revelation
based upon information. But they are entirely different things. However,
all interpretation includes information.
3. Interpretation is an art, which combined many arts, whether the materials
presented are scientific, historical or architectural. Any art is in some
degree teachable.
4. The chief aim of interpretation is not instruction, but provocation.
5. Interpretation should aim to present a whole rather than a part, and must
address itself to the whole man rather than any phase.
62 6. Interpretation addressed to children (say, up to the age of twelve) should
not be a dilution of the presentation to adults, but should follow a
fundamentally different approach. To be at its best it will require a
separate program. (Tilden 1957, p. 9)
The six principles furnish the guidelines for interpretation. Tilden’s remaining chapters concern their practical implementation, a matter I consider in more detail later. I note, for now, the illustration Burcaw (1997) gave of interpretation in practice and its relation to the views subsequently expressed by Godin (2005) regarding satisfaction of consumer wants from the marketer’s perspective:
An Associated Press news item of July 1971 said that Lester B. Dill,
director of Meramec Caverns, a commercially operated cave near
Stanton, Missouri, had ruled out the possibility of hiring geology students
as guides. ‘They are too technical when they conduct tours,’ he said.
‘Tourists would prefer to hear about how Jesse James used the cave to
elude the law.’ (Burcaw 1997, p. 153),
Stories make it easier to understand the world. Stories are the only way
we know to spread an idea ... Marketers lie to consumers because
consumers demand it. Marketers tell the stories, and consumers believe
them. (Godin 2005, p. 2)
63 One may view the visitors to museums, national parks, or the other heritage sites as a special kind of consumer. The principle of satisfying the consumer has not changed. People love to hear a story, especially where they are made to feel what the teller has experienced. Except in the case of the self-guided interpretation works displayed on-site, the interpreter himself/herself plays a key role in the activities. Such a view underlies the following remarks by Colquhoun (2005):
The success of personal interpretation relies on the interpreter’s
communication skills and abilities. (Colquhoun 2005, p. 51)
The easiest and best way to get the visitors involved is by telling the story of the site. When we visit a place, what we remember most of all is not the scenery of the place but the moving story about the place told by the interpreter. However, how the visitor receives the story reflects the professional skill and personality of the interpreter, which involves an art as stated by Tilden. The criterion by which visitors judge whether a story is real is their intuitive sense that it is the real personal experience of the storyteller.
Such a view underlies the following remarks by Beck and Cable (1998):
An interpreter is … He or she is familiar with and practices effective
communication techniques and strives to create meaningful and
provocative stories. (Beck & Cable 1998, p. 10)
64 Hence, the effectiveness of interpretation mainly depends on the communication skills of the interpreter. Grater (1976) pointed out directly that the critical issue is the communication skill of the interpreter:
No matter how much he knows about his subject, if he cannot transmit
this knowledge to his listener, he has failed. (Grater 1976, p. 19)
As Tilden acutely pointed out, interpretation is an art. Without full devotion to the place interpreted and immersion in the related knowledge, the interpreter cannot be competent. Good interpretation makes visiting activities different.
This research project will apply interpretation theory in the virtual environment to make the online experience different. Unlike well-known news websites or search engines, the websites of small organisations hardly reach people. Meanwhile, differentiating a website from the others is the objective of most website participants, including businesses, marketers and designers.
It is not an easy task. However, in this research, interpretation practice offers fresh insights to web design practice, especially for those websites with cultural and historical content.
An example of such insight appears in Tilden’s assessment of technology applied to interpretation, in a passage of a chapter ‘On Gadgetry’, which has not received sufficient attention:
65 There will never be a device of telecommunication as satisfactory as the
direct contact not merely with the voice, but with the hand, the eye, the
casual and meaningful ad lib, and with that something which flows out of
the very constitution of the individual in his physical self. While I think
nobody disagrees upon this, we all know that there will not be enough of
those individuals to make the direct contact. (Tilden 1957, p. 95)
... that such a mechanical device can never deliver anything better than
what some person thought, prepared, spoke or otherwise personally
performed. (Tilden 1957, p. 96)
This is the main point of the research project: how one organization can implant interpretation practice into the online environment – in this case, virtual museums – and thereby make them different.
More than usability
First, one has to inquire into the online users’ experience. As Nielsen (2006) reaffirmed in his recent research on web usability, the web is not television, even though the popularisation of internet broadband and the application of new video format make use of video online easier. (Nielsen & Loranger 2006, p. xix) The user can now access or share videos online more easily, such as via the very well-known YouTube. However, online video, for all its quality, remains only one kind of format applied on the internet. I agree with Nielsen that appealing, cutting-edge web design, complex user interface and high interactive myth still dominate the web design industries. However, the
66 principal application of the internet could dramatically change in the future.
One interesting survey result concerning user behaviour in the interior pages of the website appears in the following quotation.
It may seem surprising that users spent more time in the content area
than in areas that are usually used for navigation, such as the top of the
page or the left or right columns. (Nielsen & Loranger 2006, p. 35)
We have good grounds for thinking that the content area mainly consisted of text, which Nielsen highlighted in a sample diagram’s display of the text area appearing on the preceding page. (Nielsen & Loranger 2006, p. 34) Also, one of Nielsen’s interesting research studies dealing with ‘Eyetracking Web
Usability’ shows that users focus primarily on the text area within the contents of a web page. (ZDNet 2006) An analysis of news websites reveals that most of the articles contain one photograph only. If the website user wants to know the story, he or she needs to read because pictures do not tell the entire story.
It seems reasonable to suppose that most people read web pages if they need to know the actual information; especially when, thanks to the development of online search engines, people can search for anything they want online. Using a search engine, people search for a specific topic, which is mainly text. The text is the only information that the search engine can read.
The users want to know information concerning a certain topic or even detailed explanations of the object of the search. This brings us to the following paradox described in Nielsen’s influential book Designing Web
67 Usability, a work already translated into twenty-one languages. (useit.com
2006)
If you really want to learn about a topic, it is still better to do so by
reading a coherent, in-depth treatment of the topic written from a single
perspective than to bounce among multiple shorter ideas and different
perspectives. In other words, a book is still better than the Web for the
goal I want to achieve: to get readers to understand the usability
perspective of web design. (Nielsen 2000, p. 4)
This deserves qualification. Though one categorizes the World Wide Web as new media, the format of the content of the web page, it seems, still cannot break away from the category of traditional media. A good example of this appears in the case of most academic journals, which can be searched in online database systems, and most of which are recorded in Portable
Document Format (PDF). The digital format of the document is new media.
The content of the document is old media, which people still need to print out or read on the screen. Another instructive example is the online video file download or video on demand (VOD) system. Thanks to the expansion of the bandwidth of broadband, the user can now choose online television programs that are simultaneously shown on broadcasting TV channels.
However, the quality still cannot compare with that of the real TV channel. Of one thing we can be assured, that the wide range of new media will find application throughout the internet. However, it is difficult to set criteria for
68 deciding what kind of media is most appropriate for display on the web. The traditional television channels remain the most dominant media in our lives.
At the same time, the younger generation swallows attractive multimedia content from video games, online games and the internet. The literacy crisis could worsen if the electronic media spread from TV to the online environment. From a cultural aspect, the development of web content should distinguish itself from the traditional TV-style media, and focus on more text-based media. The other main category of web content is pictures. The description of the picture is the most important part of the page; without it users may not understand the meaning of the picture in the content. The following quotation will suffice to show the importance of the text in media.
Naturally, even from the perspective of a purely immanent analysis, the
structure of the photograph is not an isolated structure; it is
communication with at least one other structure, namely the text – title,
caption or article – accompanying every press photograph. (Barthes &
Heath 1987, p. 16)
However, to encourage online users to read the text, the content needs to be sophisticated. I discuss this in the next chapter, and turn now to usability. The diversity of internet applications rests on more than usability. The question of usability focuses on how the interface influences the users. It is vital to ask of the internet why the users want to use it and why the users want to visit the website. Next after the delivery of information, the most significant application
69 of the internet lies in forming a new platform of communication. People can read others’ articles and share their ideas online. This gives the online experience vitality. This interaction makes the internet meaningful. As
Norman (2004) pointed out:
But even if exact prediction of successful products is not possible, we
can be certain of one category that almost always guarantees success:
social interaction. (Norman 2004, p. 148)
Each website can serve as a standalone product. Social interaction is, and will remain, the key element for developing cultural content websites. The internet is a consummately influential medium because of its seductive and entertaining delivery style, which the user accesses by choice. These qualities belong also in more ‘educational’ or ‘cultural’ settings. The internet can play a significant role in the establishment of Taiwanese cultural identity, highly restricted historically under the rule of the past regime. Now, the internet has encouraged diversity. However, in pursuing change, the first question is how to attract people and get them to stay longer on a cultural website, hence the importance of interpretation theory as it applies to the online environment. I will begin with a simple observation.
The application of interpretation design to virtual museums
I have pointed out that my research project focuses on underfunded, not-for-profit or private museums. The basic problem is that the budgets of these private museums (and especially for information technology
70 technicians) are relatively limited. This research provides these organisations a practical virtual museum solution available to those with small budgets.
In traditional cultures, the intermingling of personal stories, communal
stories, myths, legends and folktales not only entertained us, but created
a powerful empathetic bond between ourselves and our communities.
(Lambert 2002, p. xviii)
As we learn from the research into aboriginal societies, there must be a place for gathering in each community. The place is the centre for ceremony as well as social intercourse. It is also the centre for sharing knowledge, culture and values. Most important is that this is a place of socialisation for the younger generations. Of fundamental significance, the activities taking place there remain on the oral plane and do not involve written documents. In the modern world, the gathering place finds its replacement in churches or temples.
In Taiwan, the folk religion temples, such as Mazu temples and village god temples, served as the gathering places for the local community in the past.
However, the social function of these places has now nearly died out. Insofar as it involved religion, that function waned as newer faiths such as Buddhism and Christianity supplanted traditional practices. The majority of Taiwanese still believe in folk religion. They come to the folk religion temples to burn joss sticks for peace and comfort. However, the temple’s function as local community gathering place no longer exists. As Lambert (2002) pointed out:
71
As we moved from oral cultures to a world where the written word had
primacy in communication, we lost a range of social practices that had
enormous value in our communities. (Lambert 2002, p. xviii)
Lambert has identified the important role that oral culture played in social practices. The problem of social education may be the most serious problem in contemporary society. The closeness of social intercourse among local community members has lessened dramatically. There is a tendency for the media instead to provide the social education function within communities. If the new generations learn their values mostly from the media, confusion may result, especially since almost all of the media in Taiwan are controlled by syndicates or the government. The media, in this context, includes the internet. Especially, the internet promises to become the main media vehicle for present and future. Meanwhile, as Nielsen and Loranger (2006) noted in their review of state-of-the-art web usability research:
When users visited interior pages during their browsing of a site, they
spent an average of only 27 seconds on each page. (Nielsen & Loranger
2006, p. 35)
When it comes to browsing behaviour, online users tend to move the mouse quite easily, which causes the web pages to be changing all the time. This is especially true of the younger generation. Studies of browsing behaviour in
72 students from primary to high school level have had a shared result: The younger generation’s online behaviour reveals a relatively short attention span and a tendency to skip information easily.
If there were too many sites to visit, or if there was lengthy text on a page,
most students usually skimmed quickly through each site and then
moved on. (Fidel et al. 1999, p.29)
Nielsen (2005), studying the usability of websites for teenagers also concluded that, they simply don’t like to read a lot on the web.
Teens’ poor performance is caused by three factors: insufficient reading
skills, less sophisticated research strategies, and a dramatically lower
patience level. (Nielsen 2005)
Nielsen (2005) summarized his results, with their practical implications for web design, in an influential table. (Nielsen 2005) (Table 2) He found clear differences in the styles and preferences of children, teens and adults who sought information online. While adults readily employed scrolling, children found it problematic, with teens in the middle as limited users. Adults did online reading with benefits in moderation, but children and teens alike showed reluctance or felt difficulty when reading online.
73 Animation Mine sweeping and Advertising Scrolling Reading for links sound effects
Kids
Teens
Adults
Key:
Enjoyable, interesting, and appealing, or users can easily adjust to it.
Users might appreciate it to some extent, but overuse can be
problematic.
Users dislike it, don't do it, or find it difficult to operate.
Table 2. differences between age groups (Nielsen 2005)
In the meaning time, the designer must meet the challenge of engaging and
holding the user’s attention in a universe of competing distractions. One
promising approach is to bond users to the site through the offer of
membership on an online community. The universal drive towards social
interaction and belonging can find ready accommodation among those who
exchange information or commentary on the website.
We come now to the point at which it is necessary to deal carefully with
interpretation. Keene (1998) made a close study of the virtual museum,
74 provided an excellent review of the opportunities presented by such museums, and concluded that emphasis on interpretation and interaction offered the most promising approach for the virtual museum.
If anyone can access a database, perhaps through highly interpreted
and interactive screens created ‘on the fly’ according to the user’s
interests. (Keene 1998, p. 3)
Nevertheless, it bears emphasis that highly interpreted content is much more important than interactive screens. Everyone loves stories. Interpretation is about telling stories, which is the most valuable activity of interpretation.
People still like to read the original novel upon which a movie is based, as, for example, in the Harry Potter series. I contend that the text itself has magic for readers’ imaginations. The imagination leads the reader to visualise, which leads to the readers’ immersion in the story. To me, this is the magic of text.
By contrast, movies based on the novel, richly detailed as they are, set limits on the reader’s imagination. Adorno (1903 - 1969) criticised the mass culture as follows:
Imagination is replaced by a mechanically relentless control mechanism
which determines whether the latest image to be distributed really
represents an exact, accurate and reliable reflection of the relevant item
of reality. (Adorno & Bernstein 2001, p. 64)
75 This will lead us further into a consideration of interpretation design applied in the online environment – virtual museums. It is difficult for the underfunded, not-for-profit or private museums to compete with well-funded ‘grand’ museums. However, this also gives the former museums opportunities to develop virtual museums in more flexible ways. Often, those who found local museums or belong to their supporting associations have begun their endeavors on quite a modest scale. A personal interest or attraction to samples of the material in question leads them, by casual and gradual effort, to acquire and assemble a collection of relevant objects. The local community may come to learn of their accomplishment and accord it recognition, after which the enthusiast’s efforts become more committed and systematic and eventually form the nucleus of a local museum. Alternatively, the collector may continue to work in relative obscurity, with the fruit of his efforts largely inaccessible to those discerning people who might find it interesting and appealing. I recall a vivid example in this vein from my visit to a hotpot restaurant in the Tamsui district of New Taipei City in 2010. The restaurant’s décor consisted mostly of an impressively varied collection of Coca-Cola cans assembled by the owner, over time, from all over the world. He had made of his restaurant a kind of informal Coca-Cola museum.
The hotpot proprietor had the benefit of a physical venue and ready visitor base for the display of his efforts. Others with a similar, compelling interest are not so fortunate. However, those in either position can reach a wider audience through the vehicle of the virtual museum. For both, it can be the means of getting their work before the public despite limited budgets and lack
76 of sophisticated marketing techniques. It can specifically accomplish the foregoing without professional IT resources through use of the free software design model presented herein.
The virtual museum’s promise also extends to those who, unlike the hotpot proprietor, cannot or do not collect the physical thing. One devoted to the architecture of the traditional temple, equipped with a digital camera and means of transportation, may assemble a treasury of aesthetically pleasing and historically valuable images. Another with some similarly keen personal interest, but unable to visit physical sites or objects associated therewith, can nevertheless scour the web for pertinent images and build up a file that enshrines them: thus, we may find a museum dedicated to the dark side of the moon. This reminds us yet once more of just how momentous a paradigm shift the online revolution has meant. The modern museum has moved from roots in the private “cabinet of curiosities” formed by the wealthy gentleman of leisure in centuries past, to a new, virtual reality which all are free to access in order to collect, construct, and visit. The transformation extends far beyond hitherto undreamt-of capability to gather and order material of interest in one place, important as that may be. Just as important is the profound change in the dimension of accessibility. The special interest with potential appeal to a real, but numerically small and geographically scattered community, might formerly have found expression in impressive work which only its creator got to appreciate. Now, a few keystrokes on the search engine, and those who would never have met can discover and together
77 cultivate a shared interest. It takes visitors, and interpretation, to lift a collection to the level of a museum. An online presence, simply put, can not only expand a universe of visitors, if can create one that would not otherwise exist. Henceforth, anyone can found a museum, and everyone is a potential visitor.
Usually, those who found local museums are, in addition, enthusiastic to explore and extend local culture and history. They are willing to tell the story.
Such people are a valuable resource for a local community. It is not easy to train good interpreters. Those of whom we speak may already possess the precondition, which is that they sincerely desire to tell the true story. Some of them may have done oral history for local government. Usually oral history documents or related documentaries get stored in a library where nobody pays them heed. Those people of whom we speak can discover the local culture and history. The public, however, cannot always hear their voices.
What is important is how to deliver their story to the public, especially the younger generation. Virtual museums can accomplish this when the aforesaid interpreters tell that story therein.
This brings us back to the social context issue raised by Falk and Dierking
(1992). The virtual museum can be a vehicle for community education and formation of a learning community. Virtual museums constructed by local or interest-driven communities can play a significant role in passing on local history, uniting the local community and increasing the sense of belonging. In
78 Taiwan, there are two factors which contribute to problematic national identity.
One is the past politically biased historical education of the KMT regime, under which Taiwan’s people could not know their own history nor face it, their land or their country, because all such matters were taboo and thus grossly neglected. The other factor is that while society made great efforts to develop economically it neglected the all-important foundation of society, which is the building of community. What has resulted is a community that struggles to pass on its history to the younger generation. Against this background, local oral history offers a means to reveal the real history of
Taiwan. The next obstacle is that Taiwanese people often do not pay particular attention to matters of local history owing to the fact that differing regimes’ ideologies have had correspondingly different interpretations of the history of Taiwan. This has been a source of real confusion for Taiwan’s people, especially for the newer generation. However, delivery of authentic
Taiwan history depends upon locals. Real change in Taiwanese identity can happen only by such initiatives.
The present project applies interpretation design in the virtual museum.
Building on the foundations of existing museum and interpretation practice, I propose an integrated solution which joins online storytelling with the building of a community via social interchange. This approach takes account of the issues regarding visitors’ behavior within museums raised above, as well as the conclusions regarding interpretation practice contained in the present chapter. I first take up the matter of storytelling online. Consider the following:
79
Up until this century, 90% of the world’s population was born, lived, and
died within a ten-mile radius of their homes. While this is difficult for us to
imagine, our sense of place is the basis of many profound stories. One of
the earliest interactive storytelling websites was a German project, 1000
Rooms, that invited people to send a single image of their room at home,
and to tell a story about their relationship to their room. (Lambert 2002, p.
29)
I agree that the image is helpful so long as it represents the object being discussed in the story. The purpose of the images is to enhance the reference of the real story. The main content of the web pages is the story written by the people. In keeping with this, I anticipate that virtual reality or
QuickTime VR animation will prove unnecessary in community-based virtual museums. Where a real need arises for what VR provides beyond ordinary imaging, the community-based user will do better to seek out the real-world, physical object for a complete and accurate experience. Meanwhile, the bandwidth demand of the VR feature slows website interactivity and thereby sharply reduces the quality of the visitor’s museum experience. VR animation represents an impressive technological achievement with a certain usefulness to the specialist, but it does little to fill any need or confer any benefit for the contemplated community-based user. That user will look at a display, not study it in some systematic and exhaustive fashion and from every conceivable angle. The image is a useful adjunct or starting point,
80 which should not command resources as though it has become an end in itself. The most important matter in interpretation is the story connected to the personality or experience of the visitors. The community-based story is the key element for the content of virtual museums. It can also become a vital vehicle for community awareness and insight.
The form of virtual museums
One final point should be made about the form of the virtual museum. Here I introduce the weblog into the framework of community-based virtual museums. The term ‘weblog’ is defined in Wikipedia as:
A weblog (usually shortened to blog, but occasionally spelled web log or
weblog) is a web-based publication consisting primarily of periodic
articles, most often in reverse chronological order. Early weblogs were
simply manually updated components of common websites. However,
the evolution of tools to facilitate the production and maintenance of web
articles posted in said chronological fashion made the publishing
process feasible to a much larger, less technical, population. (Wikipedia
2006)
During the past few years, the blog has become one of the most popular phenomena in internet history. In the early development of the internet, the
BBS (Bulletin Board System) provided a text-based discussion environment for online users. However, this activity mainly developed on campuses of higher educational institutions. The discussion topics focused on campus
81 issues and the users were anonymous. The blog, by contrast, opens itself to communication of all kinds, without constraint. Compared to the new media including the internet, the traditional media are only a one-way transmission.
In fact, the advent of the internet did not change the dominant role of mainstream media ownership except in the case of the blog. Such a view underlies the following remarks by Kline and Burstein (2005):
While niche and micro media have been growing for years (in print, on
talk radio, on websites, on cable TV), challenging this mainstream media
monopoly, blogging represents a significant qualitative change in the
equation. (Kline & Burstein 2005, p. xv)
Any person can build his or her own blog; anyone can have the right to speak out to the unknown public. The basic form of the blog provides an excellent online environment in the form of diary-style articles and is a direct communication between author and readers. As Kline and Burstein (2005) pointed out:
So, although the word weblog, contracted into blog, may have first
appeared in 1997, and there may have only been a few hundred blogs in
1999 around the time that Pyra Labs launched its Blogger software to
make it easy for the rest of us to blog, I believe we are dealing with a
phenomenon that has ancient antecedents and deep cultural roots.
(Kline & Burstein 2005, p. xv)
82
One important advantage for the diffusion of the blog is that it is easy to use.
Users don’t need to worry about how to set up a server or build web pages.
Storytelling has deep roots in culture. The form of the weblog provides an excellent online environment for people to share their story. It offers spontaneity, flexibility, and adaptability. Another important part of the blog environment is the readers’ comments section. This is an indispensable part of the blog, and lets the storyteller, the blogger, know that somebody is listening to him/her. The author can get the feedback directly. The reader also can get the answer from the author directly. Each side can see that this is a real communication. The form of the blog, the communication model of the blog gives the information more interactively. The two-way communication makes it easy for each person to understand and share the experience. In addition, the communication between other members of the audience makes the discussion richer. The comments section of the blog offers readers the chance to share freely their opinions about the article. The readers can see what other people have written. Writers can respond to the questions of readers directly. Having two or more contributors to a specific topic makes the blog become a richer, more meaningful medium. It gives the participants a sense of connection to others, arguably the most important social dimension of the internet. That sense of connection is also the secret to encouraging users to visit the blog again and to develop a sense of belonging. Furthermore, this is the beginning of constructing the online community. Kline and Burstein (2005) take a similar view.
83
Blogging, in addition to being a huge phenomenon in its own right, is the
key metaphor for interactivity, community-building, and genuine
conversation: one to one, one to many, many to one, many to many.
(Kline & Burstein 2005, p. xxi)
Regarding the content of virtual museums, the main participants are the artists and the collectors. Both can tell their story. The artists can tell the story of how they learned their art or craft and discuss its background and leading concepts as they create their art works. At the same time, for a scattered industry, such as the lacquerware industry in Taiwan, this can become a point of convergence for the participants in the virtual world. They can share their experience and communicate with the younger generation. Virtual museums can become a platform of communication between generations and communities. Members of the older generation can tell their stories and have a response that is direct and immediate. This would buoy their interest and encourage further storytelling. Moreover, the younger generation can discover the story of the place where they live and come to understand the history of that place. This should produce a sense of cultural belonging. This is most important for the younger generation in Taiwan (including the writer), as in our generation we missed the story of our cultural identity.
The other advantage of the blog applied in virtual museums is the diffusion effect of the blog. The users of the blog can link to other blogs quite easily. It
84 is thus easy to attract other members of a group having the same interests.
With respect to content, the add-on articles from different users can become the variorum of a certain topic, an evolving, collective commentary. This can be of great value in historical or field study.
The application of interpretation should make the online experience more interactive. Genuine storytelling and the intercourse between writer and audiences make the online experience meaningful. The sound of the word
‘blog’ in Chinese is the same as that of the word for ‘village’. I submit that the application of the blog in locally-based virtual museums can constitute a village community of the future. Through this platform, the older generation can pass on history, tradition and culture to the younger generation. Though the real community cannot be replaced by the online community, the online experience can become a catalyst for real community feeling.
The main topic of the research is interpretation design in virtual museums, and the blog form provides a great opportunity for applying interpretation design online. However, interpretation practice applied online faces some constraints. The next chapter addresses them.
85 Chapter 5 The application of interpretation through the blog
During the past few years of the internet, the blog phenomenon has gone mainstream. The merger of blog service companies has also become big news in the IT and network industry. Google bought Pyra Labs, known as the most famous Blogger, in 2003, and YouTube in 2006. Now, there are plenty of blog services on the market, such as Blogger, Microsoft Live Space, and
Yahoo 360°. Meanwhile, and dramatically, social networking services have become a mainstream internet application. On sites such as Facebook, people can easily create a user account and start sharing their lives and ideas right away. However, the service provider may limit significantly the functions made available. The user cannot fully control the interactive function, such as by filtering the articles, or modifying the appearance of the style. Fortunately, there is also available content management system or blog related server software that gives users more flexibility in designing their website.
Coombs (2008) corroborates others’ findings as to the utility of the content management system (CMS) in maintaining a library web site. She notes the usefulness of wiki and blogging software for that task. While adoption of a
CMS allows staff to create, edit, and manage web pages without possessing
HTML knowledge or skills in web design, it is not a panacea. Coombs stresses that library staff still need to gain new skills in order to do an optimal job in creating web content. They must build technical skill while grasping the
86 inherent difference of the web from conventional print media and remaining alert to the way online visitors access and use content.
Powers (2010) reviewed CMS options for those administering college and university websites. She stressed the very wide range of choices available, and the potential for tailoring the final choice to the user’s specific goals and needs. The open-source CMS, she found, had its own advantages over the commercial option, which extended beyond simply being free. It fostered collaborative effort and group integration, as seen, for example, in sharing and publication of research that would not have taken place otherwise.
Stein and Bachta (2010) also addressed the recurrent issue of how best to help ‘non-technical’ staff create and control web content. Their solution combined wiki-style authorship tools with the traditional content management system in an attempt to secure, to the extent possible, the advantages of each approach. The resulting hybrid, which the authors term a ‘pseudo-wiki’, showed considerable promise as reflected in good results from its use in developing and implementing an actual museum web site. The flexibility obtained operated in both directions: not only could non-technical staff create
‘rich’ web content, but, with segmenting of content and user interface, technical staff could gradually modify and enhance web pages’ appearance with no resulting need to re-write content. The importance of such a solution appears, as the authors note at the outset, once we consider the nature of the modern museum’s data set. Far from being at all static, it undergoes
87 continual growth, change and renewal. To take but one instance, technical developments in photography present recurring opportunities for new and better presentation of objects online. Furthermore, as interaction increases and content generated by users themselves comes to figure more prominently in the museum, the dynamic quality of the data will be ever more salient. The museum, to meet the challenges which result, must optimize its systems for creation and control of content.
Farkas (2008) discussed the use of the content management system (CMS) in next-generation websites. (The latter embody the trend to a dynamic, participatory, easily managed and updated model which is now replacing the more or less static institutional website of the recent past.) While acknowledging the utility of the blog as a way to manage online content, she stressed that it was but one means of many. The latter include the content management system, which consists of software that enables development of online content. Use of a CMS divorces site content from site appearance, and the associated software makes content management an easy matter, even for those who lack skill or training in web design. The interested user may choose from a wide variety of content management systems. These include proprietary systems which are in some cases quite expensive. At the other extreme is the free and open-source CMS, a popular example being
Drupal (drupal.org). The latter has enabled libraries to manage online content easily and to integrate dynamic as well as static features into their web sites.
Web design skill remains essential only for site setup and design
88 (appearance). Once the construction is there, Drupal renders staff updates and additions to content easy.
The present research design employs a free, open-source content management system. The latter provides basic order in developing the contents of the Lacquerware Virtual Museum. It does so without any dependence upon a constant source of expertise in technical aspects of web design. It maintains the freedom of the blog format with its attendant advantages while preventing the accumulation of extraneous material, e.g. such “clutter” as inappropriate commercial links.
Peremba (2010) reviewed recent trends and innovations affecting content management in the business environment. She found the need for business agility (flexibility, adaptability), the demands of increased customer interactivity, and the growing role played by social media to be leading themes. At one level, such phenomena reflect a simple demographic shift: the newest generation of consumers has grown up in, and been shaped by, a world pervaded by digital connection (Peremba, 2010, pp. 32-33). Reaching those consumers most naturally and effectively means enlisting the newer tools of communication which to them are second nature. The present research responds to these basic perceptions. It begins the task of reviving lacquerware, with a special view to the newer generation, by going online.
There it allows a meaningful audience to experience enough of the best in lacquerware to motivate their engagement with it in the physical world, which
89 includes the traditional museum. The design has interactive communication at its very foundation.
Online blog software comparison reviews give users advice for choosing blog software. One example is the Blog Software Comparison Chart from Online
Journalism Review. (Online Journalism Reviews 2006) Based on this chart and some additional considerations significant for internet users, ‘free of charge and easy to use’ are the most important criteria for such software. The first criterion is freedom of licence: The software is free to anyone. It is useful to quote from the Free Software Foundation: ‘Free software is a matter of the users’ freedom to run, copy, distribute, study, change and improve the software.’(Free Software Foundation 2006) The second criterion concerns functionality and user friendliness.
Using these two criteria, I installed and tested some of the most popular free content management system (CMS) and blog related software, including
Drupal, Joomla, Mambo, and XOOPS. As for modularizing the system, there are many modules which one can install in the XOOPS system to increase its capabilities and usefulness, such as the blog function software, WordPress.
The blog function can easily be installed in the content management system
(CMS). XOOPS also exceeds the other systems in popularity, and its use is pervasive in Taiwan’s primary and secondary schools. I chose the XOOPS system to implement this project. XOOPS shares the free and open-source characteristics of the Drupal system which has found favor in library
90 applications (Farkas, 2008) XOOPS, however, offers certain advantages compared with Drupal. These include greater ease in use coupled with greater flexibility. The latter resides in the greater number of free modules available from XOOPS, which makes possible a significantly richer website.
Technical
Prior to the installation of the XOOPS software, many preliminary steps are necessary. Firstly, the server and the database server software require installation. The free software Linux and MySQL server furnish the best choice for the project. The MySQL database system is the free built-in database software found in most Linux packages. For those who cannot install the Linux server or MySQL server, there are some ISPs (internet service providers) that can help the users build the servers. Installing XOOPS software is quite straightforward. Using the browser to access the server installation page ensures this. The most important step is to create the administrator account and password. After completion of the installation script, the basic blog server is set up.
Considerations
Before implementing the content of the blog website, there are other considerations which require discussion. In the past few years, there have been many three-dimensional (3D) objects displayed on some museums’ websites, especially in Taiwan. At this point, I agree with Nielsen and
Loranger (2006) in thinking that the 3D interface represents a hindrance to the website.
91
Three-dimensional user interfaces on the Web are almost always overly
difficult to use and rarely worth the effort. The basic problem is that 3D
images are displayed on a two-dimensional surface, the screen, and are
controlled through a two-dimensional input device, the mouse. Add in
zooming and multiple camera angles, and the potential for trouble
multiplies. Users find it very difficult to get 3D interfaces to show
products at good angles. They spend most of their time struggling with
the interface instead of viewing the product. (Nielsen & Loranger 2006, p.
109)
In fact, the quality of 3D objects is usually worse than that of ordinary still images due to file sizes. 3D objects may be an impressive novelty at first glance but are not good when it comes to viewing the details of the objects. In actual practice, to get one simple online 3D object work done, the requisite photographic work takes quite a long time and the subsequent fabricating process on 3D software is also time consuming. Another key issue is that the price of the equipment to create the 3D objects is still quite high. It is not advisable for a small organisation to invest in such equipment. It is not economical, in terms of both money and time. In fact, there is no point in any circumstances to producing photographic-based 3D objects on the web, especially on community-based virtual museum websites. I maintain that still images and video furnish a better solution in the online environment.
92 A special instance of the three-dimensional approach does deserve further comment. Liu and Qiao (2008) consider the application of ‘virtual reality’ technology to design of the modern Chinese museum. They stress the characteristics which distinguish this technology from ‘traditional’ three-dimensional animation, including special emphasis on ‘immersion’ and
‘interaction.’
Liu and Qiao (2008) further assume, as an integral part of museum design, the presence of a ‘communication platform’: when visitors complete their tour, they will naturally have thought and emotion concerning their experience, and, being human, it will be in their nature to share it. So British Telecom, for example, divides its display into two zones, ‘trip’ and ‘talking’, with the latter devoted to providing a virtual space for free and unrestricted communication among site visitors. The hallmark of such a display becomes the richness and diversity of its cumulative content.
The present research design acknowledges certain fundamental insights expressed by Liu and Qiao (2008). The Lacquerware Virtual Museum aims at creating immersion for its user, in the sense of offering access to the world of
Taiwanese lacquerware in an online environment that recreates it faithfully and with attention to fine detail. Contemplated user interaction shapes, not only the construction features of the lacquerware image content section, but the integration of the blog and related interactive features as central components of the design. The present research, nevertheless, finds the
93 three-dimensional ‘virtual reality’ of Liu and Qiao (2008), like the ‘virtual characters’ of Shao and Liu (2008), inadequate to sustain the vision of the
Taiwanese Lacquerware Virtual Museum. Three-dimensional virtual reality software, when extended to internet applications, too often yields crude or poorly focused images. Moreover, the interactive feature provided by virtual reality software, for all its educational possibilities, also retains the potential for holding the visitor to a gamelike level. In the Lacquerware Museum, the focus of interaction remains where it is most important and significant: the communication between real artist and real visitor.
As XOOPS became the basic platform for the project, some important technical terms regarding the software require clarification here. XOOPS is free software that anyone can distribute, change, and improve. The programming language of this software is based on PHP.
PHP is a widely used general purpose scripting language that is
especially suited for Web development and can be embedded into HTML.
(PHP.net 2007)
What is immediately apparent in this extract is that PHP is a scripting language which one can embed into HTML (Hypertext Mark-up Language), the basic language for creating web pages. PHP, too, is free. Reflecting the
‘free software’ spirit, there are many enthusiastic programmers who create huge amounts of free software that anyone can freely use. The free software
94 that enhances the functions of XOOPS is called a module. In this project, I have chosen some modules to apply in the website. I will use examples to illustrate the function of the modules. Though it may seem quite difficult for a person of non-technical background to understand at the beginning, the installation of the modules is the same as that used for installing software on the Microsoft Windows system. This offers an advantage for the staff of a not-for-profit organisation in implementing installation and maintenance.
Content
As the XOOPS software integrates with the database server, it provides the fundamentals of fully functioning content management software and a straightforward interface for users. This is most useful, because it frees users to concentrate only on the content part of the website, without regard to file management of the website.
On the other hand, the users can also design each page separately. From another aspect, the form of the blog itself provides interpretation online, as it gives the first and the most important impression to users: that the blog content differs from that of other website forms. The tone of voice lets the users feel that the blogger talks to the users directly. This gives the blog life.
As Wright acutely points out:
Because the earliest blogs were built on the principles of an authentic
voice, honesty, and authority, most blogs are expected to have those
95 qualities – this holds true even more so for the corporate blog. Blog
readers (even brand new ones) are so conditioned to reading a personal
voice on blogs that they expect it from companies, too. (Wright 2006, p.
3)
Although Wright (2006) focused on the corporate blog, the principles of the authentic voice, honesty and authority remain the same for every blog, especially that of the lay user.
In the field of museum information interpretation, the most authoritative voice yet is that of Tilden, at the core of whose theory stands the interpreter, at once knowledgeable and empathetic, communicating with accuracy while relating the information to each visitor’s unique personality and experience.
Tilden’s criteria are in my view the most demanding criteria by which to judge the performance of any museum, the Taiwanese Virtual Lacquerware
Museum included. Before Tilden (1957) set forth the six principles of interpretation, he supplied this quote from Edward P. Alexander:
Research is a continuing need and the life blood of good preservations.
Both historical authenticity and proper interpretation demand facts.
Research is the way to obtain these facts. There is no substitute for it,
and no historic preservation should be attempted without research.
(Tilden 1957, p. 5)
96 The first objectives of the Taiwanese Lacquerware Virtual Museum blog website are to present the history of Taiwanese lacquerware, along with the collection of lacquerware craft and comprehensive research information, and somehow to capture the authentic voice of the artist. In the course of generating this project’s content, I invited the eminent Taiwanese lacquerware artist and professor of professional technique, Huang, Li-shu, to serve as storyteller on the blog website. Professor Huang was born in 1949.
In 1976, she started work in the Taiwan Provincial Handicraft Research
Institute, which in 1999 became the National Taiwan Craft Research Institute.
The institute was the main organisation to develop research into the
Taiwanese craft industry. When she worked in TPHRI (Taiwan Provincial
Handicraft Research Institute), she expended considerable effort in field study of the bamboo industry at Chushan and, later, of the lacquerware industry around the island. In 1997, she studied lacquerware recovery techniques at the National Research Institute for Cultural Properties, Tokyo,
Japan. Her work has been highly significant not only for her numerous craft awards in lacquerware but also for field study of lacquerware in Taiwan. She spent much effort in such study, conducting personal interviews and compiling documentation. In fact, almost all Taiwanese lacquerware historical articles owe a heavy debt to her research. During the course of my interviews with Professor Huang, I also participated in lacquerware workshops she taught. This special experience gave me further understanding of lacquerware.
97 Implementation
After installation of the blog software, the first page of the blog is quite simple.
Separation of content and layout design represents the mainstream of web server software, and XOOPS software also has this characteristic. Template files implement the layout design of the theme. These files include image files, web page files, and cascading style sheets (CSS). The point I wish to emphasise is that CSS is a powerful tool in web design, which gives the website an integrated layout of fonts, colors, and spacing of objects in a manner that is simple to control and can provide design consistency to a site despite varied file input and varying technical knowledge of its users. Due to the availability of powerful, WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) web design software, such as Macromedia Dreamweaver, most designers don’t need to be aware of the CSS design element. The software does the coding job for the designers. However, the designer has an advantage if he/she can understand the code in the CSS file. Theme design is not a problem once designers learn the designs of existing themes. I stress that there are numerous free themes already in existence and free for everyone, such as those found at themesBase.com. (themesBase.com 2010) Also, there are some companies offering mass or customised templates designed for this kind of server-side web software at a quite low price, such as deonixdesign.com. (deonixdesign.com 2010) It follows from what I have said that the individual or small organisation can utilise this tool to accomplish what were in the past difficult jobs. The administrator can also provide several different themes for blog users to choose from, so that the users can
98 create personalised themes. The following diagrams demonstrate some graphic design features of the XOOPS system, from the basic themes to some more refined examples. (Figure 2, 3, 4)
99 Figure 2. Screenshot of the first step of installation of XOOPS system.
100 Figure 3. Screenshot of the XOOPS system homepage after installation.
101 Figure 4. Screenshot of the dedicated sample webpage for XOOPS system,
Figure 4. Screenshot of the dedicated sample webpage for XOOPS system, http://www.graneroverde.com/
102 When one makes a blog platform the vehicle of interpretative content, users get used to the browsing style of the blog. The titles of the articles are quite conspicuous in the menu part of the blog. The site map of the blog in fact is quite flat. It breaks with the tree structure site map of the traditional website.
The basic logic of the blog articles manifests itself in a reverse chronological order. Any article – the newest, the most viewed, or whatever – can become the main article, with the administrator controlling which it shall be. My planning for structure of the lacquerware museum begins with the classification of articles into categories. The basic category sections of the lacquerware website are History, Craft Technique, Collection, and
Community. Tilden’s guidelines of interpretation remain most important in the implementation.
Before I address those guidelines, one interesting thing deserves mention.
Before Tilden starts to detail the guidelines, he mentions some excellent examples of interpretation, such as the articles from New York Sun reporter
Will Irwin relating to Charles Darwin and Mark Twain (Tilden 1957, p.19).
These help make his point that the good interpreter must have extensive knowledge. Tilden concludes that the best interpretation will ultimately be culturally grounded in books, as well as the interpreter’s personal experience.
Articles also can be a good interpretative vehicle. Following are some of
Tilden’s guidelines on which I lay special emphasis. Tilden points out with the comment from The Making of Citizens of C. E. Merriam:
103 ... the strength of the urge of men to associate themselves with the
historic past. (Tilden 1957, p.12)
This brings us to the first point of Tilden’s principles.
The visitor is unlikely to respond unless what you have to tell, or to show,
touches his personal experience, thoughts, hopes, way of life, social
position, or whatever else. (Tilden 1957, p.13)
In the History section of the Lacquerware Virtual Museum, the main strategy involves connecting the history of lacquerware to the, as yet, untold history of
Taiwan. The period from the commencement of Japanese occupation up to the infamous February 28, 1947 Incident represents also the initial phase of lacquerware craft industry in Taiwan. Of course lacquerware had a very long and ancient history on the mainland, dating back some 7,000 years. This furnishes an appropriate starting point for the story of Taiwanese lacquerware. In the History section, the photographic background will be a most important reference. Photographs are treasured in the history of
Taiwanese lacquerware manufacture, since very few have ever appeared.
One advantage of this blog virtual museum is that it encourages the people to share their memories of particularly relevant periods in Taiwan’s history.
Users can share their pictures with the other blog users, either directly uploading to the website or sending them to the administrator. This promises to be a most meaningful interaction in its drawing out the collective memory
104 of the local people. Sharing of memories, whether by narrative- or photo-sharing, will also be a practical embodiment of Tilden’s first and fourth principles of interpretation. The former stresses relating the material to the visitor’s own personality and experience; the latter, provoking, rather than instructing, as the chief aim of interpretation. The museum has by definition succeeded in doing both, when it has stimulated the visitor to participate actively by giving something of himself to its accumulated content.
In the course of this project, Professor Huang found a very special paper wrapper of a restaurant from the time of Japanese government. This wrapper is nearly eighty years old. The owner of the restaurant played a key role in developing lacquerware craft in Taiwan – and was none other than
Yamanaka Akira, the businessman and pioneering craft educator mentioned in chapter 2. This discovery happened accidentally while I was interviewing
Professor Huang and she showed me some old photograph collections.
Following the picture of the wrapper is one which shows the prototype of the
History section. (Figures 5, 6)
105 Figure 5. Screenshot of the photograph of warpping paper.
Figure 6. Screenshot of the detailed photograph of warpping paper.
106 Furthermore, Tilden gave striking examples of how conversational interpretation appears in the books. The first thing that one notices is conversational words or sentences applied in articles. This also provides the first guideline for how to write for a museum website. As Veverka (1994) explains:
When communicating with visitors using the interpretive approach, the
main goal of the interpreter is to translate from the technical language of
experts to the ‘everyday’ language of the visitor. (Veverka 1994, p. 20)
In other words, the everyday conversational intonation is the first tool enabling connection to the personality of the visitors. This kind of conversation also is the main characteristic of the blog. As Scoble and Israel
(2006) point out:
Bloggers just talk to each other. They make grammatical errors. They
hop from one topic to another and back again. They interrupt each other
to ask questions, make suggestions, challenge arguments. These
conversations build trust. One blog pioneer, David Winer, calls it
‘come-as-you-are conversations’ and says he enjoys seeing an
occasional typo because it reveals authenticity, showing you are reading
the unfiltered work of a real person. (Scoble & Israel 2006, p. 3)
107 What is immediately apparent in the above extract is that the blog herein can become an excellent interpretation tool. Also, the composition of the articles in that blog will focus on unrefined and direct insight from the author. The
History section combines the main strategy of the blog articles with the conversational interview and formal articles written by Professor Huang.
However, in the direct interaction section, everyday conversational intonation will play a key role. In fact, this section makes direct use of the unrefined interview. Here we will find that revelation based upon information which
Tilden, in his second principle, held to define interpretation. The interactive feature will enable Professor Huang to address the comments and queries of the individual visitor; as those inevitably reflect, at some level, the personality and experience of the one who posts them, Professor Huang’s responses will always relate in some degree to the personality and experience of the visitor, as demanded by Tilden’s first principle of interpretation. Per the second principle, all interpretation includes information. This is found throughout, but also in ordered and concentrated form in the section of blog articles written by
Professor Huang. The next figure shows craft work of Professor Huang and her interpretation of that craft. The following figure shows comments made in reply by users. (Figures 7,8)
108 Figure 7. Screenshot of Dr. Huang demonstrating the lacquerware work process.
109 Figure 8. Screenshot of comments area.
110 This is direct communication between users and the blogger. It is the practical equivalent of the dialogue generated between visitor and guide in the traditional, “real-world” museum, the dialogue which sets the context for
Tilden’s principles of interpretation. Those principles, by their nature, presuppose the opportunity for interaction between visitor and guide, if they are to attain their optimal expression and highest potential usefulness. The lecture, however generally worded and thoughtfully prepared, simply cannot substitute for an ongoing conversation with the individual who stands before the display, revealing more of himself with each exchange, and thereby offering the interpreter the chance to work to the fullest.
Tilden’s third principle makes interpretation an art and one which combines many other arts, “whether the materials presented be scientific, historical or architectural” (Tilden 1957, P.9). The website herein draws on science, history, art and more to arrive at a unified picture of Taiwanese lacquerware.
Web design itself remains an art, and interpretation enters first at the level of site construction. The designer’s own vision of lacquerware and its place in past and present has informed his work at each stage of structuring the site.
What to present, what to exclude, what to assign a position of special prominence; how to organize the material, to separate and categorize it to facilitate access, use and understanding; how to link the site, and thereby provide a context, while opening new dimensions of usefulness to the visitor: all such decisions come down to art, based on and making use of science.
111 The designer has made them, consciously or otherwise, guided by his own vision of lacquerware and his desire to use his art to communicate that vision.
Interpretation as art further manifests itself in the highlighted presence of Dr.
Huang, Li-Shu. To give the visitor a feel for lacquerware, he or she gets to make the acquaintance of one of its greatest living practitioners, renowned alike for skill and knowledge in the craft. The demonstration of an interesting step in decorating an object, accompanied by a clear, non-technical descriptive text, sets the stage for visitor comments and questions and a follow-up discussion. Skill in interpretive art will determine the craft artist’s sense of how best to respond to the visitor(s) at hand. The interpreter’s art may also take more conscious, deliberate and systematic form. Dr. Huang provides a brief but illuminating narrative, “The reflection of the moon.”
Therein, we find lacquer art interpreted on as intimate a basis as one can have: that of the artist telling the story of her own creation.
This short passage offers us a look at Tilden’s principles in practice. Dr.
Huang begins by sharing the genesis of a noted lacquer piece in her own observation of the moon while walking at night. Very few people do lacquer art, but who has not experienced the beauty of the night sky and wondered at it? This is something within the personality and experience of the visitor (first principle): the work’s subject itself touches a common chord in humanity. The artist next describes, step by step, the mental preparation for the work, in which selective layering of lacquer enables her to capture the delicate beauty
112 of the moon’s reflection. This is information, but more, it is revelation based upon information, and therefore interpretation, per Tilden’s second principle.
What does the artist reveal? She shows us the complexity of her craft, the possibilities for originality and innovation, and the critical role of accumulated personal experience. The latter alerts her to what to expect, not only in terms of technical outcome, but in how people will respond to her creation. Above all, though she never says it, we learn that she pursues perfection and deeply loves her work. The reader/visitor may have previously sensed there being more to the artist’s endeavor than casual imagination would disclose. That now stands starkly revealed, and he can compare it with what he knows of other endeavors, his own and others’, artistic or otherwise. The insight which follows brings another, more general revelation, as Tilden contemplated.
The fourth principle holds that interpretation aims not to instruct, but to provoke. Dr. Huang’s brief account makes no pretense to provide practical, how-to guidance in craft art. Nor does she ever claim her approach to be the only, the best, or even (necessarily) an effective way to accomplish the task she sets herself. She merely tells us what she does, and why. The visitor can now experience lacquer art, not only as a set of images, but as a story of creation. Having heard that story once, can he ever again look at a new piece of craft art in the same way he would have before?
The foregoing observations apply with equal strength to “Feng” and “Bloom of
Composite Flowers”, other accounts of particular works provided by Dr.
113 Huang. The former details the triumph of ingenuity, patience, persistence and sheer will power over a daunting practical challenge (the controlled weaving of pre-lacquered bamboo). The physical task remains utterly remote from the visitor’s experience. But the story of final success in the face of imposing obstacles: this touches us all, it is the story (justified or not) we all tend to tell about ourselves in moods of autobiographical reflection; in the end one might make it a metaphor for human existence. The artist struggles, as do others.
Her sharing touches them and relates her work to their own experience, as envisioned by Tilden’s first principle. The latter turns up also in the artist’s later mention of the economic constraints upon bamboo craft. Few of us never need to count our money. The role of financial considerations in material selection, the compromise reached and the search for a transformative solution, will come as a revelation to some, but something to which all can relate.
The artist, in “Bloom of Composite Flowers”, again tells the story behind a particular work. Again we find that that this simple device dependably initiates interpretation as Tilden understood it. In telling the story the artist presents information, but the final meaning for her is a personal one: she is detailing her journey of creation. As her own personality and experience enter the narrative, that of the reader/visitor will in turn engage, relating through shared humanity (Tilden’s first principle). Furthermore, in telling her story, the artist automatically selects and orders information to arrive at a unified whole: a statement of what the art work has meant to her. The latter is revelation
114 based upon the presented information (second principle). The artist gives the background of the piece and some historical context with no hint of a pedagogical tone. This is a story, not a lecture, told not to instruct, but to share an appreciation and understanding of an art, and let the listener see how interesting and appealing it can be. That aim comprises provocation, not instruction (fourth principle).
The museum will include such personal narratives, not for whatever technically useful content they may happen to contain, but for their giving the visitor a window onto the world of the artist. That in turn should further understanding and appreciation of the artist’s work. Direct exposure to the human dimension of lacquer craft production also promises to make the whole subject more vivid and appealing to the visitor. Seeing the devotion of the artist to her work, her absorption in the demands of its detail, can scarcely fail to provoke added interest in the product.
Inclusion of these narratives also answers to Tilden’s fifth principle, that interpretation “aim to present a whole rather than a part” and “address itself to the whole man rather than any phase” (Tilden, 1957). No museum can include everything. The present museum aims to present Taiwanese lacquerware craft art, and to present it, so far as is possible, as a coherent, unified whole. That mandates the presence, in some form or other, of the artists themselves. The designer, imagining the site without their input, feels an abiding sensation of the incomplete, of finding less than the whole of what
115 he now understands by lacquerware. What part is missing? It is the insight and understanding gained directly from the artist herself. He knows of this at first hand and from personal interaction, in the classroom and craft studio as well as interviews. The visitor will find it in the individual artists’ descriptions of their work and, interactively, in the blog feature. Furthermore, lacquer art rests upon a technique which is at once little known and highly refined, and counts few among its practitioners. They are special. A credible claim to address the subject as a meaningful whole requires that they form an integral part of the presentation.
The aim of interpretation as to whole, rather than part, also necessitates inclusion of appropriate background material. This appears chiefly in the sections devoted to description of lacquer and lacquerware manufacturing and the history of the craft in China and Taiwan. This material, deliberately kept brief, seeks to orient the general visitor for the encounter with artist and gallery of images. This overview of lacquerware amounts to two integrated narratives. First, we have the historical journey that begins with the earliest known lacquer artifacts and brings us to the present day and the work of Dr.
Huang, Li-shu. Second, there is the story that begins with sap and growing timber and culminates in what we see in the gallery. In the latter, which displays some of Dr. Huang’s best work, the two narratives converge and join.
116 The technique of manufacturing lacquerware is quite complicated, which is a disadvantage when it comes to letting people understand the craft. The convenience of the digital camera makes documenting the production process of lacquerware easy. This project will also utilise video and image sharing. In plain words, that means storing the videos and images in another remote server. From a technical point of view, this also brings economy in data traffic of the blog website. (Figure 9)
117 Figure 9. An example of the YouTube video application.
118 Tilden’s fourth principle states succinctly that the chief aim of interpretation is not instruction, but provocation. In presenting the technique of lacquerware manufacture, the museum does not purport to offer practical training in the craft to those visiting the site. (Conceivably, it may awaken sufficient interest in some to lead them to pursue such training in another, appropriate venue.)
Thus technically refined discussion of the manufacturing process is neither necessary nor desirable. Rather, the museum seeks to give the visitor an overall “feel” for what goes on in the making of lacquerware. For this purpose, the summary accounts of Dr. Huang, which combine clarity and concision with accuracy of detail, richly supplemented by illustrative images and video, will suffice. The museum offers no instructional manual to the casual visitor, but at once makes plain the nature of the lacquerware craft as an endeavor in care, complexity, patience, and painstaking attention to detail __ ultimately, a labor of love. The visitor can relate that endeavor to the patterns of effort and achievement, striving and fulfillment, be they artistic or otherwise, in his own life and those of others. Are those things as difficult as lacquerware? As rewarding? Already, the visitor is tentatively relating lacquerware to matters within his own personality and experience, that relational process indispensable, per Tilden’s first principle, to authentic interpretation. Tilden’s second principle states that interpretation is not mere information, but, rather, revelation based upon information. To know how one makes lacquerware, is to grasp at once its status as costly and rare, while of enduring appeal, and with few, but dedicated, practitioners.
119 A most important further consideration is that of applying some marketing strategy to the blog virtual museum. As Professor Huang currently teaches in universities and community colleges in Taiwan, two special sections of the blog will target the broader spectrum of online users. One is the documents download area where users can download the journal articles published by
Professor Huang. The other is the photograph-sharing area from which users can download photographs, including class photographs, for sharing with others, including other students. It is worth pointing out that the timing of posting blog articles is very important in maintaining the life of the blog. One must not post all the articles simultaneously. This does not keep up the interest of the users. Regular posting is the best way to maintain the interest of the users. The interaction between Professor Huang and users, and between users is the main element which keeps the Taiwanese lacquerware virtual museum alive.
The foregoing approach to implementation finds further support in two recent research studies, which deserve consideration in some detail.
Liu et al. (2010) refer to the efforts made by museum facilities to adapt emerging interactive Web technology to their own mission. Such efforts have met with varying success. The wiki has proven itself appropriate and useful in certain undertakings depending upon collaborative endeavor. However, Liu et al (2010) find the blog to be more appropriate for a vehicle which resembles a continuing periodical and derives its order from a chronological
120 arrangement of articles with their associated comments. Such blog technology lends itself to the support of a growing online community. The present research adopts the interactive blog format based upon the same considerations. The Lacquerware Virtual Museum derives order from the periodic updates posted by its artists-in-residence, and having the same function as brief magazine articles. User comments naturally accompany those postings which have elicited them. The goal of reviving the craft contemplates, not only the bare establishment of a relevant online community, but its dynamism and expansion. This must unfold over time and depend upon a dialogue enriched over time through shared experience and learning.
Liu et al. (2010) further examine the museum-based online community from the perspective of the concept of a ‘Community of Practice’, as described by
Wenger et al. (2002). Briefly, the concept identifies three structural elements basic to a community – domain, community, and practice – and posits that, when their collective functioning goes well and smoothly, there results a
‘community of practice’ which furnishes an ideal vehicle of learning (Wenger et al. 2002). Domain refers to the common interest which members must share for the community to be effective. Without it, we have mere group participation by an assortment of people who act without common purpose.
Community here implies the willingness of members of a group to interact with some other group members, so that the whole group may justifiably be viewed as a single internally connected entity. Liu et al. consider this crucial for the community’s potential to progress in shared learning. Practice refers
121 to a number of socially validated ways of proceeding in the common domain which provide a framework for group members to communicate and act.
Such practice does not limit itself to received wisdom. It also seeks the development of future practice.
The present Lacquerware Virtual Museum, in its interactive aspect, aspires to meet the criteria of a ‘Community of Practice’ as described by Liu et al (2010).
The craft art of Taiwanese lacquerware constitutes the domain, or area of shared interest, for the virtual community formed by the website’s blog. The guiding role of the contributing artist, reinforced by the site’s content management system, ensures that the domain remains fixed and focused and does not ‘morph’ into something else through extraneous or tangentially relevant material. The artist’s postings and comments thereto, and of course the comments to comments, are the engagement of people with one another that defines a community, and enables its members to progress in shared learning. Lastly, the practice of the Museum’s virtual community resides in the blog format itself and in the accumulation of artist and user postings.
Ultimate control of the latter by the Content Management System (CMS) will allow for creativity in approaching and understanding lacquerware, while maintaining appropriate standards for the ultimate disposition of user contributions to the blog. The blog itself will thus come to embody the community’s ever–emerging practice.
122 Bowen et al. (2011) examined the current status of the online museum discussion forum. They reviewed the historical development of virtual communities, noting their proliferation among the general public, while observing that a majority of museums have yet to create meaningful virtual communities in any systematic fashion. More specifically, Bowen et al. (2011) assert that the device of the online forum is not currently well assimilated into the museum sphere. They explore various options for information sharing within the museum community, including mailing lists, newsgroups, discussion forums, news feeds, and web logs. Bowen et al. (2011) speak favorably of the blog in this context, noting its use to gather and classify information and commentary. The authors stress the advantage of the web log inhering in its simplicity of use, which facilitates its utilization by those not specially versed in computer technology. They conclude their discussion of the blog as follows:
Web logs have significant untapped potential for building a community feel
to and increased interactive involvement in museum Web sites. It is
recommended that museum web masters investigate and consider their
possible use. (Bowen et al., 2011)
The present research design shares the appreciation expressed by Bowen et al. (2011) for the potential of the blog in contributing to the virtual museum’s interactive function. It extends that appreciation further with the recognition that visitors, as well as the museum personnel to whom Bowen et al. (2011)
123 allude, have a valuable contribution to make in realizing the full educational potential of the blog. Without them the blog content could remain at the level of a lecture or a mere discussion among museum staff, however well-informed and professional. With those visitors adding their comments to the blog, we have the public communicating its own experience of the museum, an audience that engages the storyteller in dialogue. At the same time, the residual filtering function of the content management system (CMS) ensures the integrity, focus, and coherence of the unfolding discussion.
Finally, the blog format lends itself to the needs of the Lacquerware Virtual
Museum better than would a ‘discussion forum’ feature, in the strict and more narrow sense of that term (Bowen, 2008). Such a forum has a more democratic, less structured and directed quality, with members controlling the subject matter of discussion and thereby, ultimately, the content generated
(Bowen, 2008). The present blog format recognizes the primary role of the craft artist as educator and Museum storyteller, while still providing an appropriate and profitable vehicle for dialogue and discussion.
Content driven
As I mentioned, the site map of the blog is quite flat. It is different from that of the traditional website. In the traditional website, the site structure is static.
The hyperlinks connect to pages controlled by the designer. However, in the blog website, structure is content driven. The administrator defines the content categories of the blog first. When a blogger creates an article, he/she categorises the article according to the preset categories. The side menu will
124 show how many articles are in each category. When users read an article in a specific category, it will show the articles in the same category. It is category driven. Also, when users choose a topic from the tag words, it will show the related articles. The search tool of the blog provides the same function. This brings up the search engine issue. As the number of websites is immense, people visit a website because they search for certain terms. Their search is content driven. For example, when people research lacquerware in Chinese by search engine, they will find the Taiwanese Lacquerware Virtual Museum because the site’s contents contain many of the Chinese words pertaining to lacquerware. People then visit the website because they want to find the topic and learn more about it.
The browser experience herein is different from that of the traditional website.
The user can see the articles based on the categories. The users also can see the most viewed or the most commented-on articles. This is important, meaningful interaction between users. The users know what discussion topic at this moment is in the blog. Users’ expectation of the blog is about interaction. This content-driven browsing method also enhances the interactive interpretive qualities of the virtual museum.
125 Conclusion
This study began with two objectives: the strengthening of Taiwanese cultural identity, and the revival and preservation of an endangered craft industry –
Taiwanese lacquerware. It found both goals attainable through successful implementation of the Taiwanese Lacquerware Virtual Museum.
Considerations of design began with the influential theory of Tilden, whose concept of interpretation, crystallised in six principles, remains the touchstone for modern structuring of the museum experience. A paradox emerged.
Tilden’s theory points to the paramount importance of a guide or other mediator who can assure that the visitors’ experience is enriched by understanding – that it is not a mere sterile confrontation with facts or objects.
However, a virtual museum – a mere collection of digitised images, devoid of a living, breathing voice – seems at first to be the very antithesis of the visitors’ experience Tilden envisioned. The paradox finds its resolution in the powerful solution provided by that most powerful new application of the ‘Web
2.0’ revolution – the web log, or blog. The blog author becomes the irreplaceable guide for the museum’s visitors, who, through the blog format, react, question, comment, and share – not only with their ‘guide’, but also with each other. The virtual museum, with its ever-increasing interconnectedness, does not only strengthen a community – it becomes a new and valued community of its own. In this research, I propose a new virtual museum model that applies Tilden’s principles of interpretation through the free platform. The result is an exceptionally promising format for
126 adoption by current and future virtual museums. It embodies a solution that provides the social context that virtual museums so often lack. The communication between the visitors, and visitors and artists in the virtual museum becomes central to its meaning. Tilden’s work on interpretation, meanwhile, remains a landmark in its field. It is a benchmark by which the success of a research project such as the present – one of interpretation design – is fittingly judged. Subsequent interpretation theory has been unable to avoid reference to these six fundamental principles. I shall revisit Tilden’s
Interpretation Principles one by one to evaluate the effectiveness of the
Taiwanese Lacquerware Virtual Museum site created for this thesis.
Tilden’s principles
1. Any interpretation that does not somehow relate what is being
displayed or described to something within the personality or
experience of the visitors will be sterile.(Tilden 1957, p. 9)
This brings us to the question of whether the interpretation relates to the user’s personality or experience. Owing to the prejudiced historical and political views of the previous governing party, most of the Taiwanese people had scarcely ever read or heard about Taiwanese history or the history of their local town or city. Because of the deep-rooted political threat felt by the older generation, talking about the local history was taboo, especially such past events as the February 28, 1947 Incident. After the end of martial law, the local culture revived to some extent, and contemporary Taiwanese wish
127 to know about our local history. This research project has as its point of departure the history of lacquerware in Taiwan. Currently, most traditional craft arts appear to be dying out, leaving young people with no relevant experience of them. To introduce the previously untold history of Taiwan through the lacquerware industry offers an appealing remedy. For the lacquerware artists or for those who are interested in lacquerware, the web becomes a platform for interaction and the exchange of information, knowledge, and shared experience. The interpersonal communication of the blog also provides the interpretive platform for the interpreter: as I mentioned before, users trust the voice of the blogger. Such considerations make the blog platform appropriate for the project. Absolutely critical is the blog format’s provision of an opportunity for users to comment and/or add their own viewpoint or perspective to ongoing description and discussion. This virtual museum contemplates the incorporation of that discussion process into website content. The ongoing discussions between visitors and artist both share experience and expand the domain of knowledge. The construction of knowledge in the Web 2.0 age is open to online users. This is the living proof to which Wittgenstein’s (1953) theory of ‘language-game’ has successfully attained. (Wittgenstein & Anscombe 2001, p. 7e)
2. Information, as such, is not Interpretation. Interpretation is revelation
based upon information. But they are entirely different things.
However, all interpretation includes information.
128 3. Interpretation is an art, which combined many arts, whether the
materials presented are scientific, historical or architectural. Any art
is in some degree teachable. (Tilden 1957, p. 9)
These two principles merge in Tilden’s succinct advice on doing interpretation.
I am merely suggesting that he dip into his own artistic appreciation, give
form and life to his materials, and tell a story rather than recite an
inventory. (Tilden 1957, p. 28)
The basic requirement of interpretation remains well documented, authoritative or authentic information. First-hand field study material, then, is an excellent source for the content of the website. Also, the person who tells the story plays a key role in influencing the image conveyed to the users.
Interpretation, as an art, implies that it is not easy for everyone to interpret well. It takes time to train a good interpreter. However, in this project, I am grateful to have had the good fortune to have a very distinguished lacquerware artist and lecturer, Huang, Li-Hsu accept my invitation to become a storyteller on the website, which thus has means to comply with the foregoing two principles. Also, of primary importance is skill in writing or speaking, as Tilden points out:
129 It should be clear, from the foregoing, that while the interpreter is called
upon to employ a combination of the arts, his main reliance will be upon
a proficiency in what we call rhetoric; that is, the art of writing or speaking.
Especially, it implies skill in the presentation of ideas, adapted to
whatever situation is at hand. (Tilden 1957, p. 31)
The primacy of the blog format in the Taiwanese Lacquerware Virtual
Museum reflects the paramount role of the written word in its interpretation design. While users will access images of actual lacquerware craft and other relevant pictorial material, the true lifeblood of the virtual museum will be the verbal messages of Professor Huang and numerous other online visitors, in which they share information and knowledge about, and responses to, the visual and written contents of the museum. The presentation of ideas will range from the strictly formal (e.g. the archived scholarly articles of Professor
Huang) to the most unstructured and spontaneous posts (e.g. comments exchanged by online visitors).
4. The chief aim of Interpretation is not instruction, but provocation.
5. Interpretation should aim to present a whole rather than a part, and
must address itself to the whole man rather than any phase. (Tilden
1957, p. 9)
130 Tilden, above, distinguishes instruction from provocation. Instruction comprises straight information. Provocation is something more, and is the essence of interpretation, which has as its purpose:
… to stimulate the reader or hearer toward a desire to widen his horizon
of interests and knowledge, and to gain an understanding of the greater
truths that lie behind any statements of fact. (Tilden 1957, p.33)
The Lacquerware Virtual Museum offers a paradigm for providing rich informational content, verbal and nonverbal, appropriately controlled and updated with the aid of its content management system. Thereby it instructs its visitors. Beyond that, it seeks to provoke them: to increase interest in lacquerware and its possibilities, to impart appreciation – passion, even – along with information. The Museum succeeds when the visitor wants to experience more: to revisit the website, to exchange messages with others, to visit physical exhibitions, to acquire his or her own lacquerware. This interest benefits from awareness of the story behind lacquerware – its labored journey from raw material to finished product, its ancient roots and contemporary challenges.
Taiwanese lacquerware deserves its own museum, as it is not a subset of
Chinese lacquerware, but something different and unique to Taiwan. It began, not 7,000 years ago, but in the early twentieth century, and the roots of its craft are not in China, but in the Japan of Yamanaka Akira. Its wood is the
131 native timber of Taiwan, its lacquer that of the Vietnamese tree under a century of Taiwanese cultivation. The latter, and Taiwan’s ideal climate, have yielded a lacquer product that excels all others. Moreover, one must seek for the artistic provenance of Taiwan lacquerwork, not in China, but in Formosa under Japanese rule. Here it was that Yamanaka Akira combined the motifs of Taiwan’s aboriginal and locally developed cultures to yield a novel decorative style of lacquerware. That distinctive style, uniquely the product of
Taiwan, gained recognition as the popular Peng-Lai style (Chapter 2). The passing of Japanese rule, on the other hand, brought no interruption to lacquerware development. Peak levels of production came as recently as the
1980’s, midway through the period of Taiwan’s separate rule. This craft art, which has reached maturity only during the period of Taiwan’s de facto independence, reminds us of the complexity of Taiwan’s history and of the richness of its culture, rendered by native, Japanese and other influences irreducibly distinct from that of a Chinese province.
The Lacquerware Museum thus widens horizons (Tilden’s phrase) by strengthening the sense of Taiwan’s unique history and culture. It has also the stated aim of reviving an endangered craft industry. Taiwan developed lacquerware largely as a product for export, rather than as an item for personal use by Taiwanese. Then, as we have seen in Chapter 2, changed economic conditions, beginning in the late 1980’s, caused large-scale lacquerware manufacturing operations to move elsewhere. Remaining craftsmen, with government support, sought to conserve their technique and
132 bring the general public to appreciate lacquerware as craft art. One result has been a concentration on the production of a few simple utensils – quintessentially chopsticks, also cups and bowls – which have become the point of contact with lacquerware for ordinary Taiwanese. This latter development has its usefulness. It does offer one answer to the question:
“What is lacquerware?” But that answer smacks of information, not interpretation, per Tilden: lacquerware is so much more! The Lacquerware
Museum goes beyond this by providing ready access to the rich artistic potential of fine lacquerware. The visitor compares the museum’s exhibits with what he possesses, finds exhibited elsewhere, or encounters for sale.
Refinment of taste leads to appreciation for true quality and more appropriate remuneration therefor. The blog discussion feature promises to be of great utility in this process. Through it, the visitor develops an informed and critical judgment of the merits of particular lacquerware. More basically, simply knowing and understanding more about the objects at hand makes them more interesting and more worth having. This, in turn, makes them more worth acquiring, and stimulates demand for the artist’s creative production.
The revival of lacquerware has also a simpler dimension which the present design takes care to include. Links to other sources of information, among them traditional (physical) as well as virtual museums, feature prominently and draw regular review and update.
133 Taiwanese people at the moment seem to have an unclear, uncertain, perhaps confused interpretation of their history. We have herein the salutary opportunity to bring local history to the public through a relatively neutral art – lacquerware. Also, the characteristics of lacquerware carry excellent potential to promote awareness of the need for protecting the environment. Knowledge of the lacquerware manufacturing process can teach the public to treasure the raw material and the fragile environment upon which it depends. Thus lacquerware can contribute greatly to educating the public in ecology.
6. Interpretation addressed to children (say, up to the age of twelve)
should not be a dilution of the presentation to adults, but should
follow a fundamentally different approach. To be at its best it will
require a separate program. (Tilden 1957, p. 9)
At this juncture, there is no point in constructing a blog for children. This follows from their immaturity as internet users. It is hard for young children to access correct online information, and it is not appropriate for children to participate in online discussion in their early years. Therefore, in this research project, I have focused on adults only.
Throughout the entire research project, apart from the main issue of the application of interpretation in the virtual museum, the fundamental issue has been how I can position myself in the globalised world. During the past few years spent working in the IT and design industry in Taiwan, my first-hand
134 experience taught me that without the integration of different disciplines there is no profit at all. In Taiwan, because we share the same language –
Chinese – with China, jobs in the design industries, from industrial design to graphic design, are very easily outsourced to China. Furthermore, the controversial educational policy of the past few years in Taiwan has created tough academic competition in general. The number of universities has reached 163. (Department of statistics, ministry of education 2007) Against such a backdrop the most desirable skill for students remains the ability to integrate different disciplines – that of successful interdisciplinary study. A vivid illustration of the new competitive environment comes from a mid-sized design firm in America with more than forty employees, including graphic artists and web designers. The following describes what happened to its proprietor:
The world had grown flat, and it had happened so fast, and had affected
his business so profoundly, that he was still wrestling with how to adjust.
It was clear to him that he was facing competition and pricing pressure of
a type and degree that he had never faced before … The technology and
software are so empowering that it makes us all look the same. In the
last month we have lost three jobs to freelance solo practitioners who
used to work for good companies and have experience and then just
went out on their own. (Friedman 2005, pp. 340-341)
135 Taiwan cannot escape the same situation. The current reality in Taiwan is that the customer pays the price for web hosting and then gets the web design for free. That is the real world. Therefore, besides having design skills, designers need to think of other possibilities in the design industry, including those of collaborating with other disciplines. However, the key point is how to integrate other disciplines without being integrated by them.
As I propose in this research project, the blog is an effective communication platform for the community. Blogging activity will transform the community, enabling its expansion to an interest group. The application of interpretation is a proper tool to serve the local community, to foster the local culture and to provoke people to care for it. In the information age, the local community can easily change to an interest group that shares communication online. As
Giaccardi (2006) commented, offering a perceptive insight on the virtual museum:
In MUVI, for instance, as described later in this paper, stories and
images (as culture objects) are by-product of the continuous process of
interaction and interpretation occurring within the local community.
(Giaccardi 2006, vol. 22, no. 3, p. 29)
This research project expands further the new era of the virtual museum. In it,
I contend that the future of Web 2.0, insofar as it concerns imparting knowledge, is primarily about written communication.
136 How to deal with the written language will become the critical element in every online context. The principles of interpretation offer an answer. As
Tilden’s thinking remains so influential in interpretation theory, it has been necessary to discuss it in detail and go back to the original concepts. As
Tilden quotes from the Park Service Administrative Manual:
Through interpretation, understanding; through understanding,
appreciation, through appreciation, protection. (Tilden 1957, p. 38)
Furthermore, the principles of interpretation in practice become quite powerful tools applied to the marketing or advertisement industry. What I wish to show in this research project is how to integrate the different disciplines, which can then work in collaboration with the design industry. On the other hand, I wish to encourage designers to absorb strengths from other disciplines that may enrich their design outcome. In the Web 2.0 age, the best practice is to secure the collaboration of experts from different disciplines. The experts have different talents but by working together they can create a dynamic synergy. One way to illustrate this is to consider the situation of those Taiwanese students who major in Chinese literature. Upon graduation most find it quite difficult to get a job. Yet, notwithstanding their supposedly impractical skills, they are very well suited to handle tasks such as storytelling and field study envisioned by a virtual museum.
137 Finally, I offer a comparison between interpretation and Taoism. The first sentence of the Tao Te Ching, the classical work of Taoism, famously states:
The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao.
One cannot truly describe the Tao. However, to let people understand the
Tao, the best approach is just to do what one can to describe it. Tilden (1957) told us at the very beginning of his book:
Interpretation is the revelation of a larger truth that lies behind any
statement of fact. (Tilden 1957, p. 8)
The interpreter, like the seeker of the Tao, forever pursues a greater truth beyond that which is before him. Theirs is a journey which finds fulfillment, not in completion, but in progress. That journey embodies a dialogue between interpreter and visitor. To that dialogue, the interpreter brings a wealth of information developed and documented, together with a continually cultivated art in its presentation. The visitor brings the lifetime of thought and experience which goes into making up each unique human person. As the individual visitor is unique, so also is the dialogue. In it the interpreter seeks, as well as he or she is able, to relate the presented material to the partner of the dialogue. That person responds, and the response itself becomes a force to shape and inform the interpreter’s art. Interpretation, where it most succeeds, changes both partners to the dialogue: each gains that widened
138 horizon of which Tilden speaks. Mere gadgetry, whether a mechanical device in a traditional museum or the production of virtual reality and virtual characters online, cannot sustain that dialogue. The latter requires the interaction of living interpreter and living visitor, with access for each to the words of the other. The web log provides such interaction, and is, for a developing online cultural institution, an ideal solution. The blog of the artist-interpreter herein has thus fittingly become the centrepiece of the
Taiwanese Lacquerware Virtual Museum. The design paradigm which results offers an equally promising solution for nonprofit institutions in general.
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164 Appendix 1 Art
Organizations Website address Virtual Guest Museum book
冢ᷕ䷋䩳㷗⋨喅埻ᷕ⽫ http://www.tcsac.gov.tw/
䈃俛喅埻℔⚺ http://www.neweraart.com.tw
㜿㶝㧠䳈喅埻䲨⾝棐
䤍⣒⌂䈑棐
▱佑䷋㠭ⵢ伶埻棐 http://www.cyhg.gov.tw/cyhgcultural/art/index.asp
⣯伶⌂䈑棐 http://www.chimeimuseum.com/ V
居㰅喅埻棐
䌳⭞伶埻棐
檀晬ⶪ䩳㬟⎚⌂䈑棐 http://w5.kcg.gov.tw/khm/tw/index.asp V V
檀晬ⶪ䩳伶埻棐 http://www.kmfa.gov.tw/
檀晬ⶪ䩳䪍∝シ伶 http://www.kmfa.gov.tw/ 埻棐
㼬㶭㷾㴟㲳⣯䍵⚺
ἃ䶋㔯䈑⯽奥棐 http://www.fgs.org.tw/fgsart/ V
ἃ䶋伶埻棐䷥悐 http://www.fgs.org.tw/fgsart/ V
ἃⰙ⮞啷棐
⯷㜙ἃ䶋伶埻棐
⭄嗕ἃ䶋伶埻棐
㣲⢓剛䲨⾝㜿⚺
㱛㜙➪䋭⫸⌂䈑棐 http://www.leogroup.com.tw/
昛⾈啷伶埻棐
⭄嗕䷋䃉⯦㷗䓇ン䣦 http://www.wwg.org.tw/ V V ⋨栀㘗棐
㜿⊁⯨伭㜙㜿㤕䭉䎮 嗽⋿㽛ⶍἄ䪁 㜿㤕 棐炽䓇ン棐
剙咖䷋㔯⊾⯨伶埻棐
剙咖䷋䞛晽⌂䈑棐 http://stone.hccc.gov.tw/
哉⸛春㛐晽喅埻棐
⚺䡑䞛侘㜿倘よ䞛晽⚺
㷠ᾉ㫉䞛晽℔⚺
Ḵ⏮喅埻棐
165 ⚳䩳冢䀋㔯⬠棐 http://www.nmtl.gov.tw/ V
㧡⽟䥹㈨⣏⬠⺢䭱冯 http://www.hcd.stu.edu.tw/ ⎌帇䵕嬟䲣
㣲劙桐伶埻棐 http://www.yuyuyang.org.tw/ V
泣䥏伶埻棐
⎘⊿䔞ẋ喅埻棐 http://www.mocataipei.org.tw/
ᷕ䑘伶埻棐 http://www.cmcart.com/ V
⎘⊿ⶪ䩳伶埻棐 http://www.tfam.museum/ V
Ⓒ劙敋
⣏ⷓ㜿㔯⊾喅埻棐
暯㖎喅埻⌂䈑棐 http://www.aurora.org.tw/ V
ⷓ⣏䔓
⎘⊿ἃ䶋伶埻棐 http://www.fgs.org.tw/fgsart/ V
䌳䥨㜆晽⟹⚺
ᷕ⚳㔯⊾⣏⬠厗ⱉ⌂ http://www2.pccu.edu.tw/CUCH/ V V 䈑棐
⚳䩳㓭⭖⌂䈑昊 http://www.npm.gov.tw/ V
喯匟䪍伶埻棐 http://www.artart.com.tw/
沛䓚伶埻棐 http://www.hong-gah.org.tw/ V
ᷕ⣖䞼䨞昊ⵢ⋿伶埻棐 http://lnfam.sinica.edu.tw/ V
叔剛伶埻棐
㛙所伶埻棐 http://www.juming.org.tw/ V V
䞛⯂䣎䈑⊾䞛⌂䈑棐 http://www.paleowonders.com.tw/
厗㡝㔯䈑棐 http://www.hfu.edu.tw/~gfc/ V
✒㜿勞㤕⌂䈑棐
⎘⊿䷋ᷕ⛘⋨彚㚫 㔯䈑棐
㛶㠭㧡䲨⾝棐 http://www.limeishu.org/ V V
㛶㠭㧡㔁㌰䲨⾝㔯䈑棐
⎘⊿䷋䩳浗㫴昞䒟⌂ http://www.ceramics.tpc.gov.tw/ V 䈑棐
單㳚ⶪ䳓䤩❶⌂䈑棐
⾈喅棐
㛶㽌喑伶埻棐 http://www.tzefan.org.tw/ V
㕘䪡䷋㔯⊾⯨伶埻棐
⚳䩳⎘䀋伶埻棐 http://www.ntmofa.gov.tw/ V
166 㔯劙棐⁛䴙䇰⌘䈡啷⭌
Schools
Organizations Website address Virtual Guest Museum book
⚳䩳⎘⊿喅埻⣏⬠斄 http://kdmofa.tnua.edu.tw/ 㷉伶埻棐
㶉㰇⣏⬠㔯拁喅埻ᷕ⽫ http://www2.tku.edu.tw/~finearts/c_index.htm V
㶉㰇⣏⬠㴟ḳ⌂䈑棐 http://www2.tku.edu.tw/~finearts/mm_index.htm V
漵厗䥹㈨⣏⬠喅㔯ᷕ⽫
ᷕ厗⣏⬠喅㔯ᷕ⽫ http://arts.chu.edu.tw/
⚳䩳㶭厗⣏⬠喅埻ᷕ⽫ http://www.arts.nthu.edu.tw/ V
⚳䩳Ṍ忂⣏⬠喅㔯ᷕ⽫ http://acc.nctu.edu.tw/ V V
做忼⓮㤕㈨埻⬠昊⺋ http://w3.ydu.edu.tw/art/ Ṇ喅埻ᷕ⽫
㖶忻ᷕ⬠䎦ẋ㔯⬠棐 http://www.pressstore.com.tw/guest/mingdao/main V .html
⻀䥹㈨⣏⬠喅埻ᷕ⽫
朄⭄⣏⬠喅埻ᷕ⽫ http://www.lib.pu.edu.tw/artcenter/ V
⚳䩳⎘⋿喅埻⣏⬠⌂ http://museum.ntua.edu.tw/ 䈑棐
檀晬ⶪ䩳劙㖶⚳㮹ᷕ ⬠㮹㔯䈑棐
㬋ᾖ䥹㈨⣏⬠喅埻ᷕ⽫ http://art.csu.edu.tw/
⬅⦩⚳⮷㟉⚺⌂䈑棐
Anthropology
Organizations Website address Virtual Guest Museum book
⚳䩳⎘䀋⣏⬠Ṣ栆⬠ http://homepage.ntu.edu.tw/~anthro/museum/mus 䲣㧁㛔昛↿⭌ eum_intro.html
呁啷㔯⊾ᷕ⽫ http://www.mtac.gov.tw/main.php?peo=5&lang=1 V
枮䙲⎘䀋⍇ỷ㮹⌂䈑棐 http://www.museum.org.tw/index.htm V
↙忼㟤嗕㔯⊾棐 http://www.ketagalan.taipei.gov.tw/Default.aspx V V
ᷕ⣖䞼䨞昊㮹㕷⬠䞼 http://www.sinica.edu.tw/ioe/tool/museum/index.ht V 䨞⌂䈑棐 ml
⚳䩳㓧㱣⣏⬠㮹㕷⌂ http://www.ethnos.nccu.edu.tw/museum.html 䈑棐
167 ⎘⊿䷋䁷Ἦ㲘晭㮹㕷 ⌂䈑棐
⎘⊿䷋䩳䁷Ἦ⚳㮹ᷕ ⮷⬠⍇ỷ㮹㕷㔯䈑棐
剿㞿䷋岥⢷㕷㮹㔯 䈑棐
咔厲⚳⮷岥⢷㔯䈑棐
㲘晭㔯䈑棐 http://www.atayal.com.tw/
ḅ㕷㔯⊾㛹 http://www.nine.com.tw/
嗕⎶Ⱉ匲悺㕷㔯䈑棐
ⶎ捖㉼楔⸛❼㔯䈑棐
⮷㜿⚳⮷⸛❼㕷㔯䈑棐
ⶫ彚㔯⊾⯽䣢ᷕ⽫
⎘䀋㌺䀋㕷晽⇣棐
欗↙㕷㔯䈑棐
埴㓧昊⍇ỷ㮹㕷⥼⒉㚫 http://www.tacp.gov.tw/ V 㔯⊾⚺⋨䭉䎮⯨
㐺⌉≺㔯䈑昛↿棐
⊿㌺䀋㕷㔯䈑喅埻棐
∱㳣Ⱉ⛘䞛㜧⯳㮹 㔯䈑棐
㗍⋲Ⲟ⍇ỷ㮹ㇳⶍ 喅棐
⎱⬱悱旧伶㔯䈑棐
⣒⠙旧伶㕷㔯䈑⯽ 䣢⭌
⎘㜙䷋⍇ỷ㮹㔯䈑昛 http://www.ccl.ttct.edu.tw/ch/index.aspx V ↿⭌
⎘㜙䷋旧伶㕷悱⛇㔁 做ᷕ⽫
Personage
Organizations Website address Virtual Guest Museum book
⚳䩳ᷕ㬋䲨⾝➪ http://www.cksmh.gov.tw/ V
㜿婆➪㓭⯭ http://www.linyutang.org.tw/ V
⻝⣏⋫⃰䓇䲨⾝棐
拊䧮㓭⯭ http://www2.scu.edu.tw/chienmu/index1.htm 168 傉怑䲨⾝棐 http://www.mh.sinica.edu.tw/koteki/ V
湫潄䎮䲨⾝棐
⏛㽩㳩喅㔯棐 http://www.shihwu.gov.tw/calture/index.html
㖶⎘檀ᷕ㜿䌣➪⃰䓇 http://www.mtvs.tcc.edu.tw/eu/ 㔯䈑棐
屉⛀㱽Ṣ▱佑ⶪḴḴ ℓ䲨⾝㔯㔁➢慹㚫旬 姕昛㼬㲊㔯⊾棐
惕ㆸ≇㔯䈑䲨⾝棐 http://culture.tncg.gov.tw/area7/page04/photo17/p age.php
惕ㆸ≇㔯䈑棐
挦䎮䲨⾝棐
ᾆ⣏䵕⃰䓇䲨⾝棐
Craft
Organizations Website address Virtual Guest Museum book
⚳䩳⎘䀋ⶍ喅䞼䨞 http://www.ntcri.gov.tw/zh-tw/Home.aspx V ⎘⊿⯽䣢ᷕ⽫
堾䍵⌂䈑棐 http://www.mmot.com.tw/
⮎嶸⣏⬠㚵梦⌂䈑棐
㧡䀓䲨⾝䳁⌂䈑棐 http://www.suhopaper.org.tw/
䎱䐫ⶍ⣑㭵⚳晃喅 http://www.liuli.com/ V
䎱⚺㯜㘞⌂䈑棐 http://www.tittot.com/ V
ḅấ桐䬷⌂䈑棐 http://www.cfkite.com.tw/ V
⎘䀋㮹䩗䓇ン㔁⬠⚺⋨
⎘䀋Ṍ嵦昞喅埻㔯䈑棐 http://www.koji-pottery.org.tw/
昛忊栗㮓刺晽⇣棐 http://www.miniature.org.tw/ V
⎘䀋㶭厗䞛⢢喅埻ᷕ⽫
㕘㖢昞喅䲨⾝棐 http://www.hsin-wang.com/html/introduce/introduc V e-12.php
慱ᷳ厗ņ㳣䘬昞䒟㔁 做棐
ᷕ厗㚵梦㔯⊾ᷕ⽫ http://www.tcdm.fju.edu.tw/
伶晭⢓㴖晽伶埻棐 http://www.meidiyas.com/
ᷕ⚳⎌⺢䭱喅埻棐
㟫⚺䷋ᷕ⚳⭞℟⌂䈑棐
伶厗⚳⮷旨坢⯽䣢棐 169 刦䫃䨢攻喅埻ᷕ⽫ http://www.taconet.com.tw/inill V
㕘䪡ⶪ䩳䍣䐫ⶍ喅⌂ 䈑棐
噳ᷳ喅⌂䈑棐
檵櫂㠭剙⚺⌂䈑棐
勺㛐喅剹 http://huangmun.com.tw/ V V
⽫晽⯭Ʉ昛䁗廅䲨⾝棐
剿㞿昞䒟⌂䈑棐
⋫ⱙ⌂䈑棐 http://www.1000-artists.com.tw/ V
⎘䀋喅埻⌂䈑棐
ᶱ佑㛐晽⌂䈑棐 http://www1.mlc.gov.tw/woodcarving/ V V
共嬄㔯⊾䓇㳣棐 http://www.olife.com.tw/feller.htm V
⎘䀋㺮㔯⊾⌂䈑棐
冢ᷕ䷋䩳㔯⊾ᷕ⽫ http://www.tchcc.gov.tw/ V V
寸⍇㺮喅棐
曺暚揬∵喅埻㔯⊾棐 http://sword.tacomall.com.tw/
吋⛸䞛䠗喅埻棐 http://www.tungtso.com/
Ḵ㯜坢㹒䞛喅棐
䪡喅⌂䈑棐 http://www.nthcc.gov.tw/chinese/06feature/01featu re.asp
⋿㈽昞⯽䣢棐
⚳䩳⎘䀋ⶍ喅䞼䨞 http://www.ntcri.gov.tw/ V 昛↿棐
⯂⎌昞䒟⌂䈑棐
漵⋿⣑䃞㺮㔯䈑棐 http://www.puli.com.tw/ln-html/index.htm V
㶣冰䩗昞喅㛹(普普噯 http://www.tensing.com.tw/ V 䩗)
㯜慴噯䩗昞喅㔯⊾⚺⋨ http://www.snakekiln.com.tw/
▱佑ⶪ㔯⊾⯨Ṍ嵦昞棐 http://www.cabcy.gov.tw/koji/index.htm V
吓單晽⇣喅埻棐
彚㤕㨇℟昛↿棐 http://www.ehai.npust.edu.tw/ V
⏪伶渿䱦晽喅埻棐 http://www.lml.com.tw/ V
⅔Ⱉ桐䬷棐
⭄嗕䷋⅔Ⱉ悱䍵䎈䣦⋨ http://www.jenju.org.tw/ V
䍲䐂㱽䓴⌂䈑棐 http://www.coralmuseum.net/ V
慹攨昞䒟⌂䈑棐
170 Cultural Museum
Organizations Website address Virtual Guest Museum book
冢⊿䷋⭊⭞㔯⊾⚺⋨ http://www.hakka.tpc.gov.tw/web/Home?command =display&page=flash
⚳䩳ᷕ⣖⚾㚠棐⎘䀋 ↮棐
⎘䀋㮹⊿㈽㔯䈑棐
ᷕ⣖䞼䨞昊㬟⎚婆妨䞼 http://www.ihp.sinica.edu.tw/~museum/tw/index.ht 䨞㬟⎚㔯䈑昛↿棐 ml
⛘㕡䈡刚㔯䈑棐
⃫ᷕ䤕䣨㔯䈑棐
⎘⊿㆟冲⌂䈑棐
ᶱ⮠慹咖㔯䈑棐 http://www.footbinding.com.tw/ V
ᶱⲥ捖㬟⎚㔯䈑棐 http://www.sanshia.tpc.gov.tw/web/SG?command= display&pageID=32844&page=view&PX=%E4%B E%BF%E6%B0%91%E6%9C%8D%E5%8B%99
庼ṩ⣏⬠ᷕ⚳⣑ᷣ㔁 http://www.fuho.fju.edu.tw/ 㔯䈑棐
庼ṩ⣏⬠㟉⎚棐 http://www.fuho.fju.edu.tw/
⎘䀋㮹攻㔯⊾棐
㲳㲳⣏奨㮹㔯䈑℠ 啷棐
㕘䪡ⶪ䛟㛹⌂䈑棐
⽟冰⎌ẋ㔯䈑❶
⽟⮞⌂䈑棐
⊿❼⛘㕡㔯⊾棐
楁㟤慴㉱⭊⭞㔯䈑棐
⎘ᷕⶪ㮹℔⚺⎘䀋 㮹㔯䈑棐
叔⭖㔯䈑棐 http://www.wanhegong.org.tw/Default.htm
⎌彚匲㔯䈑棐 http://farmhouse.myweb.hinet.net/
䞛ⱉ悱⭊⭞㔯䈑棐
䑘Ⱉ㲘晭㮹㔯䈑棐
Ⱡ墉㔯䈑喅埻棐 http://www2.olps.tcc.edu.tw/spschool01/index.htm
㶭㯜捖彚㛹㔯䈑棐
171 ⼘⊾䷋㔯⊾⯨㔯䈑昛 ↿⭌
⼘⊾䷋⛘㓧㔯䈑棐
渧㷗㮹㔯䈑棐
伶捖䩳⚾㚠棐㮹 㔯䈑棐
渧察悱⛘㕡㔯⊾棐
暚㜿䷋⚃㷾悱彚㺩㛹 䓇㳣㔯⊾棐
㠭Ⱉ彚㛹㔯⊾棐
ᷕ厗㮹㛹ņ㮹㔯 䈑棐
屉⛀㱽Ṣ㕘㷗⣱⣑⭖ 㬟⎚㔯䈑昛↿棐
⚳⭞⺋㑕㔯䈑棐 http://museum.rti.org.tw/index.asp?lan=zh V
㮹䪍䍑棐
沛↘㔯䈑ᷕ⽫ http://www.pccart.com.tw/ V
⚳䩳ㆸ≇⣏⬠㬟⎚㔯 䈑棐
㯜厵⠕㔯⊾㚫棐
▱⋿㔯⊾喅埻棐
湣寮捖㔯⊾棐
⎘⋿䷋㬟⎚㔯䈑棐
渥㯜捖㔯䈑昛↿⭌
慯桐㔯䈑棐
⎘䀋慓䗪⎚㕁㔯䈑ᷕ⽫ http://203.65.117.106/
㛶㮷ッ楔喅埻∝ἄ⛲
檀晬ⶪ⭊⭞㔯䈑棐
檀晬ⶪ⼴⁁⎠Ẍ悐曺 㹒㔯䈑棐
⼴≩㔯䈑棐
檀晬䷋嶗䪡悱⛘㕡㔯 ⊾棐
檀晬䷋伶㽫⭊⭞㔯䈑棐
檀晬䷋伶㽫⚳ᷕ⭊⭞ 㔯䈑㮹棐
⯷㜙䷋⭊⭞㔯䈑棐 172 䢩㹒⌂䈑棐
Ḵ䳸⸬䓇㳣㔯⊾棐
ᶱ∃揝ⶍ⺈㔯䈑棐
⾈≯⚳⮷㔯䈑⭌
㼶㷾䷋悱⛇㔁⬠屯㸸 http://www.dwps.phc.edu.tw/DW/i.html V ᷕ⽫
⎱居㔯䈑棐
㼶㷾匲⭞匲㮹棐
楔䣾㮹㔯䈑棐
Drama
Organizations Website address Virtual Guest Museum book
⎘⍇⣏䧣❽„㇚棐 http://www.taipeipuppet.com/
⎘⊿„㇚棐 http://www.pact.org.tw/
⚳䩳⎘䀋㇚㚚⮰䥹⬠ 㟉⚳∯㔯䈑棐
㛶⣑䤧ⶫ堳㇚㔯䈑棐
⼘⊾䷋㔯⊾⯨⋿⊿䭉 枛㦪㇚㚚棐
䙖⼙㇚棐
⎘䀋㇚∯棐 http://svr2.ilccb.gov.tw/theatre/
Music
Organizations Website address Virtual Guest Museum book
⎘⊿ッ㦪㙐㠭⒚枛㦪 http://www.tspo.org.tw/ V 㔯⊾棐
櫷拎㸸㦪☐⌂䈑棐 http://www.wmim.idv.tw/ V
Ṣ栆枛㦪棐
檀晬ⶪ枛㦪屯妲棐
Historical Building
Organizations Website address Virtual Guest Museum book
⚳䇞⎚帇䲨⾝棐
⎘⊿㓭ḳ棐 http://www.storyhouse.com.tw/
㜿⬱㲘⎌⍅㮹㔯䈑棐
⢓㜿⭀恠
春㖶㚠⯳ 173 ⊿㈽㹓㱱⌂䈑棐
㜿㛔㸸⚺恠
冢⊿䷋䩳㶉㯜⎌帇⌂ http://www.tshs.tpc.gov.tw/ V 䈑棐
ㇻ䉿劙⚳柀ḳ棐 http://ww2.british-consulate.com.tw/
悱⛇喅埻棐
㜦⚺⇍棐
区㦻
⎘ᷕⶪ攟℔棐
Nature
Organizations Website address Virtual Guest Museum book
⎘⊿ⶪ䩳ㆸ≇檀䳂ᷕ⬠ http://203.64.138.8/tweb/?tea=butterfly V 㖮垚䥹⬠⌂䈑棐
㜿㤕娎槿㜿㤕昛↿棐 http://www.tfri.gov.tw/
⚳䩳冢䀋⌂䈑棐 http://www.ntm.gov.tw/ V
⚳䩳⎘䀋⣏⬠≽䈑㧁 http://zoology.lifescience.ntu.edu.tw/equip/museu 㛔棐 m.htm
⚳䩳⎘䀋⣏⬠㢵䈑㧁 http://tai.ntu.edu.tw/ V 㛔棐
⚳䩳⎘䀋⣏⬠㖮垚㧁 http://entomol.ntu.edu.tw/ V 㛔棐
⚳䩳⎘䀋⣏⬠彚㤕昛 http://www.aeh.ntu.edu.tw/ V ↿棐
⋫圞察㖮垚䓇ン彚⟜
⎘⊿ⶪ䩳⣑㔯䥹⬠㔁 http://www.tam.gov.tw/ 做棐
⎘⊿㴟㲳棐
春㖶Ⱉ⚳⭞℔⚺ http://www.ymsnp.gov.tw/ V
ᷕ⣖䞼䨞昊㢵䈑䞼䨞 http://hast.sinica.edu.tw/ V 㧁㛔棐
ᷕ⣖䞼䨞昊≽䈑䞼䨞 http://asizrm.sinica.edu.tw/ V V 㧁㛔棐
⎘⊿ⶪ䩳≽䈑⚺≽䈑䓇 http://www.zoo.gov.tw/ V ン㙐⿸漵⌂䈑棐
ⲹⳁ喍䓐㢵䈑⚺ http://www.kunlun.com.tw/
174 History
Organizations Website address Virtual Guest Museum book
⎘⊿ḴḴℓ䲨⾝棐 http://228.taipei.gov.tw/ V
⚳䩳㬟⎚⌂䈑棐 http://www.nmh.gov.tw/ V
⚳幵㬟⎚㔯䈑棐 http://museum.mnd.gov.tw/ V V
⚳䩳⚳䇞䲨⾝棐 http://www.yatsen.gov.tw/ V
⚳⎚棐 http://www.drnh.gov.tw/ V
⎘䀋䚩㓧屯㕁棐 http://www.tpg.gov.tw/c-life/tpaih/index.htm
⋿㈽䷋䷋⎚棐
⚳⎚棐⎘䀋㔯䌣棐 http://www.th.gov.tw/ V V
▱佑ⶪḴḴℓ䲨⾝℔ http://www.cabcy.gov.tw/ V ⚺䲨⾝棐
▱佑ⶪ⎚帇屯㕁棐
⚳䩳冢䀋㬟⎚⌂䈑棐 http://www.nmth.gov.tw/ V
⭄嗕姕㱣䲨⾝棐
⭄嗕䷋⎚棐 http://svr2.ilccb.gov.tw/history/
ヰ㜿㔁做➢慹㚫炷⎘䀋 http://www.chilin.org.tw/ 㮹ᷣ忳≽棐ˣヰ㜿䲨⾝ 棐⍲⎘䀋䣦㚫忳≽⎚ 㕁ᷕ⽫炸
ℓḴᶱ㇘⎚棐
⎌⮏柕㇘⎚棐
Archeology
Organizations Website address Virtual Guest Museum book
⎘⊿䷋䩳⋩ᶱ埴⌂䈑棐 http://www.sshm.tpc.gov.tw/ V
⚳䩳冢䀋⎚⇵㔯⊾⌂ http://www.nmp.gov.tw/ 䈑棐
⚳䩳⎘䀋⎚⇵㔯⊾⌂䈑 http://www.nmp.gov.tw/ 棐⋹⋿㔯⊾℔⚺
Science
Organizations Website address Virtual Guest Museum book
⚳䩳冢䀋䥹⬠㔁做棐 http://www.ntsec.gov.tw/ V
⎘⊿ⶪ㓧⹄㴰旚⯨旚 䀥䥹⬠㔁做棐 175 ⚳䩳㴟㲳䥹㈨⌂䈑棐 http://www.nmmst.gov.tw/ V V 䯴⁁嗽
ᷕ㬋凒䨢䥹⬠棐
⎘⋿ⶪ䩳ᷕⰙ䪍䥹 ⬠㔁做ᷕ⽫
⚳䩳䥹⬠ⶍ喅⌂䈑棐 http://www.nstm.gov.tw/ V V
㼶㷾䷋䥹⬠棐
Industry
Organizations Website address Virtual Guest Museum book
⎘䀋暣≃℔⎠㟠Ḵ⺈ ⊿悐⯽䣢棐
ḅấ慹䣎⌂䈑棐
湫慹⌂䈑⚺⋨ http://www.gep.ntpc.gov.tw/
⎘䀋䄌䣎⌂䈑棐 http://www.coalmine.com.tw/
卩㟸䣎㤕䓇㳣棐
㲘Ⱉ悱⦫⦫䓊㤕㔯⊾棐
⎗⎋⎗㦪ᶾ䓴
⎘䀋Ṣ㔯䩗⟜⯽㺼棐 ņ厗昞䩗
剹墉捖喢勱㔯⊾棐
䀋渿䢂䒎㔯䈑棐
⎘䀋揝嶗䭉䎮⯨剿㞿 揝忻㔯䈑⯽䣢棐
忈㧳㛐䁕㔯䈑棐 http://charcoal.58resort.com.tw/index.htm
⎘䀋㱡䣎昛↿棐
⎘䀋埞㤕㔯⊾棐
勱医㔯⊾棐
⎘䀋厠惺偉ấ㚱旸℔⎠ ⎘ᷕ惺⺈惺㔯䈑棐
⎱⭞⛘䒄䷩埵ᷣ柴 㔯⊾棐
⎘䀋卯栆㔯⊾棐
㜿㤕⯽䣢棐
ᶫ↮䩗 http://leif-art.myweb.hinet.net/
㕘䣦悱彚㚫㜯㜟䓊㤕 㔯⊾棐 176 㡏㢚捖彚㚫䓊㤕㔯⊾ http://www.wctfa.org.tw/html/main/cult_bulit.asp ⣏㦻
㶭㯜捖枕湫䓊㤕㔯⊾棐
⣏䓚䧣䰛䓊㤕㔯⊾棐 http://www.tachia.org.tw/03_announce/03-09rice/in dex.htm
⎘䀋揝嶗䭉䎮⯨⼘⊾䪁 揝忻㔯䈑⯽䣢⭌
䘥嗕㮷⌂䈑棐 http://www.brands.com.tw/museum/index.htm
⼘⊾⋨㺩㚫㺩㤕㔯⊾棐 http://www.fa.gov.tw/recfsh/hua/4/ghu4.htm
❼慴惺㔯⊾棐
普普揝嶗㔯䈑⌂奥棐
㠭⫸⌂䈑棐 http://www.meistore.com.tw/
䪡喅㔯⊾⚺⋨ http://www.bamboo.org.tw/ V
渧察悱䪡喅㔯⊾棐
渧察悱彚㚫勞叱㔯⊾棐 http://www.lugufa.org.tw/house01.htm
⎘䀋厠惺偉ấ㚱旸℔⎠ ▱佑惺⺈惺栆㔯䈑棐
⎘䀋䱾㤕⌂䈑棐
⎘⋿ⶪ渥䓘䓇ン㔯⊾㛹 http://www.saltpan.org.tw/
䌱ḽ悱刺㝄䓊㤕㔯⊾ 屯妲棐
⎘⋿⭞℟䓊㤕⌂䈑棐 http://www.yungshingfurniture.com.tw/c/p01-frame V .htm
䘥㱛咖剙䓊㤕㔯⊾屯 妲棐
ᶳ䆇悱䓊㤕㔯⊾⯽䣢棐
䱾㤕⌂䈑棐
㧳Ṽ柕噳噳Ḽ↮⚺
㲳响䓊㤕㔯⊾棐
⡦ᶩ⚳⭞℔⚺䑲湣ⶍ 㤕㬟⎚⯽䣢棐
⭄嗕惺⺈䓚⫸嗕惺㔯 䈑棐
㨀ᷳ悱囄棆⼊尉棐 http://www.lanyangnet.com/orange/
㜿伶慹㡿㔯⊾棐
嚪慯棐 http://www.bee-family.com.tw/
⊿ㆸ⸬匟剙⼊尉棐 http://www.wobo.com.tw/3.htm 177 䔄䓊娎槿⭄嗕↮ 梲泐ㆸ㝄⯽䣢棐
䘥䰛㛐⯸㛹 http://www.baimi.org.tw/
⋿⬱⚳ᷕ㺩⎚㔯䈑⭌ http://www.najh.ilc.edu.tw/fish.htm
剙咖揝忻㔯⊾棐
㜙㱛悱慳徎䓊㤕㔯⊾棐
㛙䚃㔯䈑䲨⾝棐
晭廒㔯䞛昛↿棐
㼶㷾ⶴ㛃⣑⛘
忋㰇䷋㓧⹄⺢姕⯨㺩㤕 䭉䎮婚㺩㤕⯽䣢棐
⎘䀋渥⌂䈑棐 http://www.taiwan-salt.com.tw/tts_index.html V
Special Topic
Organizations Website address Virtual Guest Museum book
⎘⊿ⶪ䪍Ṍ忂⌂䈑棐
冒Ἦ㯜⌂䈑棐 http://waterpark.twd.gov.tw/index_c.asp
悝㓧⌂䈑棐 http://www.post.gov.tw/post/internet/y_postmuseu m/index_all.htm
㴟斄⌂䈑棐
屉⛀㱽Ṣ⛇⛘㓡朑䲨 http://www.landreform.org.tw/ ⾝棐
悕⃫䙲䱽梭⌂䈑棐
ᾉᶵᾉ䓙Ἀ㏄⣯⌂䈑棐
忻䓇ᷕ⚳ℝ☐⌂䈑棐 http://www.chang-hsiang.com/dao.html
ᶾ䓴嬎⮇⌂䈑棐 http://wpm.cpu.edu.tw/bin/home.php
㕘䪡ⶪ㴰旚⌂䈑棐
⎘䀋檀揝㍊䳊棐
⸣⣂⣯⎎栆⌂䈑棐
楁㟤慴㉱⎌吋干⌂䈑棐
䩳⣓ᷕ慓喍⯽䣢棐 http://www2.cmu.edu.tw/~cmcshow/
⎘ᷕⶪ㔯⊾⯨䪍棐
䲭叱悱⛇䪍䍑棐
⼘⊾➢䜋㔁慓昊昊⎚ http://www2.cch.org.tw/history/ 㔯䈑棐
ῷ怈慓䗪⭋㔁㬟⎚夳 嫱㔯⊾棐 178 ▱佑ⶪ䞛柕屯㕁棐 http://www.cabcy.gov.tw/main06_2.asp
㯋尉⌂䈑棐 http://museum.cwb.gov.tw:8080/Q_ware/view/inde x.jsp
悕ⷠ╄ℝ☐喅埻㔯䈑棐
䲭叱⮹㡺䲨⾝棐
屉⛀㱽Ṣ⻝㥖䘤➢慹㚫 http://www.evergreenmuseum.org.tw/ V 攟㥖㴟ḳ⌂䈑棐
Religion
Organizations Website address Virtual Guest Museum book
ℓ䔅⚺伶埻棐 http://www.rosily.com.tw/ V
ᶾ䓴⬿㔁⌂䈑棐 http://www.mwr.org.tw/ V
⎘䀋⮹㜿⮢⬿㔁㔯䈑 ⌂䈑棐
⣏䓚捖㿦⭖⩥䣾㔯䈑 http://www.dajiamazu.org.tw/crafts/html/page03-8- 昛↿棐 3.htm
渧㷗⣑⎶⭖⩥䣾㔯䈑棐 http://www.lukang.gov.tw/title-3/title-1/ancient/old/7 .htm
⎘䀋⮢⺇喅埻棐 http://www4.cca.gov.tw/artsquery/06-h01.asp
攟㥖ᷕ⬠➢䜋攟侩㔁 㚫㬟⎚屯㕁棐
⋿殌死ẋ⣑⹄殌㿃㔯 ⊾喅埻棐
┬⊾ㄞ⬱⭖㔯⊾棐
⭄嗕䡏曆⭖㬎䧮㔯⎚棐
Movie
Organizations Website address Virtual Guest Museum book
屉⛀㱽Ṣ⚳⭞暣⼙屯 http://www.ctfa.org.tw/ V 㕁棐
⎘䀋⚳晃夾奢喅埻ᷕ⽫
⎘䀋暣夾⌂奥棐 http://www.ttv.com.tw/serviceweb/TVmuseum/ V
㕘䪡ⶪ㔯⊾⯨⼙⁷⌂ 䈑棐
檀晬ⶪ暣⼙⚾㚠棐
179 Other
Organizations Website address Virtual Guest Museum book
⎘⊿ⶪ䩳䪍做㦪ᷕ⽫ http://www.tcrc.taipei.gov.tw/
⎘⊿㍊䳊棐 http://www.discovery.taipei.gov.tw/
㕘䪡ⶪ桐❶栀㘗棐
∵㷾Ⱉ⌂䈑棐
䁷㧡㜿ẹ攺⌂䈑棐
檀晬ⶪ䥩䩳侴䔘⸤䧂 ⚺旬姕⌂䈑棐
⭄嗕䷋䩳嗕春⌂䈑棐 http://www.lym.gov.tw/ V
Other Organizations
Organizations Website address Virtual Guest Museum book
㔁做悐䣦㔁⎠
埴㓧昊㔯⊾⺢姕⥼⒉㚫 http://www.moc.gov.tw/
Ṍ忂悐奨⯨ http://www.tbroc.gov.tw/
ᷕ厗㔯⊾⽑冰忳≽䷥㚫 http://www.gacc.org.tw/
⣒⸛㲳㔯⊾➢慹㚫
⎘䀋㮹攻⌂䈑棐⋼㚫
ᷕ厗㮹⚳⌂䈑棐⬠㚫 http://www.cam.org.tw/ V
⎘䀋∝₡⬠㚫 http://www.twsgi.org.tw/
屉⛀㱽Ṣ⚳⭞㔯⊾喅 http://www.ncafroc.org.tw/ 埻➢慹㚫
⎘⊿䷋Ṣ㛔㚵⊁㚫 http://poi.zhupiter.com/p/cht-803909/%E5%8F%B0 %E5%8C%97%E7%B8%A3%E4%BA%BA%E6%9 C%AC%E6%9C%8D%E5%8B%99%E6%9C%83/
⭄嗕䷋⌂䈑棐⭞㕷⋼㚫 http://ilcilma.pixnet.net/blog V
㘢恎喅埻➢慹㚫 http://seed.arttime.com.tw/ V
屉⛀㱽Ṣ岜㔯㔁➢ 慹㚫
屉⛀㱽Ṣ慹攨㮹㔯 ⊾㛹㔯㔁➢慹㚫
⎘⊿ⶪ㓧⹄㔯⊾⯨ http://www.culture.gov.tw/
➢昮㓭ḳ棐
忋㰇䷋㓧⹄㔯⊾⯨ http://www.matsucc.gov.tw/
⎘⊿䷋㓧⹄㔯⊾⯨ http://www.culture.ntpc.gov.tw/ 180 ⎘⊿䷋喅㔯ᷕ⽫ http://www.ntpc.gov.tw/_file/2890/SG/23651/D400 00002890000002.html
⭄嗕䷋㓧⹄㔯⊾⯨ http://www.ilccb.gov.tw/ch/
㕘䪡ⶪ㔯⊾⯨
㕘䪡䷋㔯⊾⯨
㟫⚺䷋㓧⹄㔯⊾⯨ http://www.tyccc.gov.tw/ V V
剿㞿䷋㔯⊾⯨ http://www.mlc.gov.tw/
⎘ᷕⶪ㔯⊾⯨ http://www.culture.taichung.gov.tw/
⎘ᷕ䷋䩳㔯⊾ᷕ⽫ http://www.tchcc.gov.tw/ V V
冢ᷕ䷋㔯⊾⯨ http://www.culture.taichung.gov.tw/
⼘⊾䷋㔯⊾⯨ http://www.bocach.gov.tw/
⋿㈽䷋㓧⹄㔯⊾⯨ http://www.nthcc.gov.tw/
▱佑ⶪ㔯⊾⯨ http://www.cabcy.gov.tw/ V
▱佑䷋㓧⹄㔯⊾⯨
暚㜿䷋㓧⹄㔯⊾⯨ http://www2.ylccb.gov.tw/
⎘⋿ⶪ䩳㔯⊾ᷕ⽫ http://www.tmcc.gov.tw/
⎘⋿ⶪ㓧⹄㔯⊾⯨ http://www.tnc.gov.tw/
⎘⋿䷋䩳㔯⊾ᷕ⽫ http://park.org/Taiwan/Cca/center/a312/index.htm V
⎘⋿䷋㓧⹄㔯⊾⯨ http://www.tnc.gov.tw/ V
檀晬ⶪ㓧⹄㔯⊾⯨ http://www.khcc.gov.tw/ V
檀晬䷋㓧⹄㔯⊾⯨ http://www.khcc.gov.tw/
㼶㷾䷋㔯⊾⯨ http://www.phhcc.gov.tw/ V
慹攨䷋㔯⊾⯨ http://www.kmccc.edu.tw/
⯷㜙䷋㔯⊾⯨—⎘䀋 http://tour.cultural.pthg.gov.tw/SceneriesDetail.aspx ㌺䀋㕷晽⇣棐 ?Cond=a1913cd3-f2cc-47e4-a81f-291d10b14d95
⎘㜙䷋㓧⹄㔯⊾⯨ http://www.ccl.ttct.edu.tw/ V
剙咖䷋㔯⊾⯨ http://www.hccc.gov.tw/
⚳䩳冢䀋喅埻㔁做棐 http://ed.arte.gov.tw/ch/Index/index.aspx V V
⎘⊿ⶪ䩳䣦㚫㔁做棐 http://www.tmseh.taipei.gov.tw/
⚳䩳㕘䪡䣦㚫㔁做棐 http://www.nhclac.gov.tw/ V V
⚳䩳⼘⊾䣦㚫㔁做棐 http://www.chcsec.gov.tw/nchlac/ V
⚳䩳⎘⋿䣦㚫㔁做棐
檀晬ⶪ䩳䣦㚫㔁做棐
⚳䩳⎘㜙䣦㚫㔁做棐 http://www.ttcsec.gov.tw/
⚳䩳⁛䴙喅埻ᷕ⽫㮹 http://rimh.ncfta.gov.tw/cht/index.php? V 㕷枛㦪䞼䨞
⚳⭞⚾㚠棐 http://www.ncl.edu.tw/ 181 ⎘䀋⎚㕁ᷕ⽫ http://www.twcenter.org.tw/f02/f02_1.htm
㛶㮷㔯⊾屉ᾅ⬀ᾖ⽑ ᷕ⽫
⚳䩳㔁做屯㕁棐 http://data.nioerar.edu.tw/mp4.html
⚳䩳⎘⊿喅埻⣏⬠⁛ http://folkarts.tnua.edu.tw/ 䴙喅埻䞼䨞
⚳䩳⎘⊿喅埻⣏⬠⺢䭱 http://arcsv.tnua.edu.tw/ 冯⎌帇ᾅ⬀䞼䨞
⚳䩳⎘⊿喅埻⣏⬠喅埻 http://mam.tnua.edu.tw/ 埴㓧冯䭉䎮䞼䨞
⚳䩳⎘⊿⣏⬠㮹喅 http://www.ntpu.edu.tw/gifa/ 埻䞼䨞
庼ṩ⣏⬠⌂䈑棐⬠䞼 http://www.museumstudies.fju.edu.tw/ 䨞
⚳䩳⁛䴙喅埻ᷕ⽫ http://www.ncfta.gov.tw/ V V
⃫㘢⣏⬠喅埻䭉䎮䞼 http://etds.yzu.edu.tw/etdservice/bl?from=DEPT&d 䨞 eptid=D0009004002
ᷕ⍇⣏⬠㔯⊾屯䓊䞼 http://web.cycu.edu.tw/heritage/ 䨞
忊䓚⣏⬠㬟⎚冯㔯䈑 http://www.ghhr.fcu.edu.tw/wSite/mp?mp=565101 䭉䎮䞼䨞
⋿㈽䷋喅埻⭞屯㕁棐 http://www.nthcc.gov.tw/chinese/06feature/03artist .asp
⋿厗⣏⬠伶⬠冯喅埻 http://ca.nhu.edu.tw/front/bin/ptlist.phtml?Category V 䭉䎮䞼䨞 =1
⚳䩳暚㜿䥹㈨⣏⬠㔯 http://140.125.168.74/chc/ V ⊾屯䓊䵕嬟⬠䲣⍲䞼 䨞
⚳䩳㔯⊾屯䓊ᾅ⬀䞼 䨞ᷕ⽫䯴⁁嗽
⚳䩳⎘⋿喅埻⣏⬠⌂ http://giccrmo.tnnua.edu.tw/releaseRedirect.do?un 䈑棐⬠䞼䨞 itID=205
⚳䩳⎘⋿喅埻⣏⬠⎌ http://giccrmo.tnnua.edu.tw/releaseRedirect.do?un 䈑䵕嬟䞼䨞 itID=205
⚳䩳ᷕⰙ⣏⬠喅埻䭉 䎮䞼䨞
⣏䧣❽伶埻棐 182 ⎘⊿ⶪᷕⰙ➪ http://www.csh.taipei.gov.tw/
⎘⊿⚳晃喅埻㛹 http://www.artistvillage.org/
⎘⊿㇚㢂 http://www.taipeieye.com/
ⶪ攟⭀恠喅㔯㱁漵
䈗ⵢ埿⮷∯⟜ http://www.ifkids.com.tw/theatre/
厗Ⱉ∝シ㔯⊾⚺⋨
⚳幵㔯喅㳣≽ᷕ⽫
⚳⭞枛㦪⺛ http://www.ntch.edu.tw/front/index V
⚳⭞㇚∯昊 http://www.ntch.edu.tw/front/index V
⎘⊿ᷳ⭞ņ溆⎘⊿ http://www.taiwanfun.com/north/taipei/dining/0404/ V 暣⼙ᷣ柴棐 0404HouseTW.htm
⸤䋭喅㔯ᷕ⽫
⎘⊿ⶪ㓧⹄⭊⭞ḳ⊁ http://www.hakka.taipei.gov.tw/02hakka_building/f V ⥼⒉㚫⎘⊿ⶪ⭊⭞喅 amily-1-4-1.asp 㔯ᷕ⽫
婈⑩㚠⸿㔎⋿⸿ B2 喅 㔯䨢攻
䳓喌⺔
ᾉ佑℔㮹㚫棐
㕘准⎘ http://www.novelhall.org.tw/
勱Ⱉ埴棐
⚳䩳⎘⊿喅埻⣏⬠⯽ http://portal2.ntua.edu.tw/~d03/ 㺼喅埻ᷕ⽫
ᷕ⚳㔯喅⋼㚫喅㔯ᷕ⽫
䲭㦻∯⟜
➢昮㴟㲳㔯⊾喅埻棐
⚳䩳⎘䀋喅埻⣏⬠喅 http://portal2.ntua.edu.tw/~d03/ 㔯ᷕ⽫㺼喅⺛
ḅấ喅埻棐
㕘匲㔯⊾喅埻ᷕ⽫ http://www.chccc.gov.tw/
䪡ⷓ喅埻䨢攻
㖶㕘䥹㈨⣏⬠喅㔯ᷕ⽫
㱁㷾⢊喅埻㛹 http://www.safulakart.com/
⃫㘢⣏⬠喅埻ᷕ⽫ http://web2.yzu.edu.tw/yzu/art/chinese/web/news. htm
叔傥䥹㈨⣏⬠∝シ喅 http://friend.vnu.edu.tw/meworksv4/meworks/page 埻ᷕ⽫ .aspx?no=37933 183 ⢊㕘喅埻䓇㳣棐 http://www.ush.com.tw/lishin/about_art/art_life.php
⚳䩳ᷕ⣖⣏⬠喅㔯ᷕ⽫ http://www.ncu.edu.tw/~ncu7195/
攟⹂⣏⬠喅㔯ᷕ⽫
咖匟喅㔯䨢攻
Ḵ⋩嘇ᾱ⹓ņ揝忻喅 http://www.stock20.com.tw/ V 埻䵚䴉⎘ᷕ䪁
⚳䩳ᷕ冰⣏⬠喅埻ᷕ⽫
⎘ᷕⶪ㔯⊾⯨ᷕⰙ➪
㜙㴟⣏⬠喅埻ᷕ⽫ http://fineart.thu.edu.tw/~fineart/center/homepage. htm
忊䓚⣏⬠喅埻ᷕ⽫ http://www.artcenter.fcu.edu.tw/
▱佑揝忻喅埻㛹
⛇⹓捖⣂≇傥㔯⊾⯽ 㺼棐
⚳䩳暚㜿䥹㈨⣏⬠喅 埻ᷕ⽫
⚳䩳⎘⋿喅埻⣏⬠喅 尉喅㔯ᷕ⽫
⚳䩳ㆸ≇⣏⬠喅埻ᷕ⽫
ⲹⰙ䥹㈨⣏⬠喅埻ᷕ⽫
⋿㿃䷥䇢喅㔯ᷕ⽫ http://tyart.tnc.gov.tw/ V
⎘⋿䷋Ἓ慴捖喅㔯ᷕ⽫
唕⢇㔯⊾⚺⋨
⎘⋿䷋⊿攨悱㜙昮㔯 ⊾ᷕ⽫
崘楔㿐䓘⚺喅
檀晬ⶪ䩳ᷕ㬋㔯⊾ᷕ⽫
檀晬ⶪ楩Ḵ喅埻䈡⋨
渿䘬伶埻䨢攻
檀晬䷋㓧⹄㔯⊾⯨沛 Ⱉ⚳䇞䲨⾝棐
ᷕ㬋喅埻棐
⎘㜙喅埻㛹 http://www.ccl.ttct.edu.tw/ch/aioshow.aspx?path=1 00&guid=4dee8665-bc19-4527-b4d0-714fd1cb37 d7&lang=zh-tw
剙咖❶❋㔯⊾∝シ䨢攻
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