One of the things that I pulled from Glassberg is that the American society is segmented, and those segments of society are asserting themselves. Racial, Ethnic, Gender, and Religious groups all have demands as to what they believe should be preserved and because of this, sites that have limited historical value outside of that group of people are now being preserved. It is an ascendency of sorts for these groups, but the sheer amount of sites that are being preserved is straining the abilities of the public to be able to support the preservation and interpretation efforts. Glassberg also states that these groups have viewpoints of their own, through which they view historical sites and leading to viewpoints that may not be intended.
Just as those ethnic, religious, et cetera, groups are asserting themselves and causing more sites to need preservation, so too is technology through which we view sites is expanding. The internet is a double edged sword for historical sites, in my opinion, it can expand the number of people knowledgeable of a topic or site, but it can also allow many people to ignore the existence of a site and rather just view pictures in a museum online. I believe that its a great thing that more people can see a work of art online, but I still have to bemoan that many will choose to only view it online because they are robbing themselves of the experience of viewing a work of art, or a historical site in person, but they are also taking away support from that museum. But this is an inevitable consequence of the free flow of information online, which is not a bad thing, but I fear the changes it makes to museums.
Where technology really excels though, is the creation of experiences that would be impossible in a museum, whether it is the extreme collaboration of the 9/11 Digital Archive website, a project that would have taken far more time and effort and money to be able to do in a physical form, but because of its virtual nature, it is able to reach far more people. As I stated in one of my earlier posts, things that are truly impossible in the real world is the recreation of a past environment, such as a video game like Assassin's Creed recreating the city of Rome in a manner that the player can explore and go anywhere, and that is an experience that will never be redone in the real world. Can we expand upon these ideas in a way to really teach history and engage viewers that would not normally be reached? These are ideas that would be great for us to expand upon in the future, and to create experiences that can more accurately convey the experience of the past.
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