Cambridge Scholars Publishing The Museum in the Digital Age: New Media and Novel Methods of Mediation

The current “digital revolution” or “digital era” has affected most of the realms of today’s world, particularly the domains of communication and the creation, safeguarding and transmission of knowledge. Museums, whose mission is to be open to the public and to acquire, conserve, research, communicate and exhibit the heritage of humanity, are thus directly concerned by this revolution. This collection highlights the manner in which museums and curators tackle the challenges of digital technology. The contributions are divided into four groups that illustrate the extent of the impact of digital technologies on museums: namely, exhibitions devoted to new media or mounted with the use of new media; the hidden face of the museum and the conservation of digital works of art; cultural mediation and the communication and promotion of museums using digital tools; and the legal aspects of the digitalisation of content, whether for creative purposes or preservation. About the Author Régine Bonnefoit received her doctorate at the University of Heidelberg, Germany, in 1995, before obtaining her post-doctoral lecturing qualification at the University of Passau, Germany. She previously served as an Assistant Professor at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland, and as Curator of the Fondation Oskar Kokoschka in Vevey, Switzerland. Since 2008, she has held a professorship at the University of Neuchâtel, Switzerland. Melissa Rérat is Adjunct to the Director of the Master’s program in Museum Studies and Lecturer on New Media at the University of Neuchâtel, Switzerland. Her doctoral thesis studies the legitimation of artistic video. After having participated in the SNSF DORE research project “Crystallisation-spots of Swiss art in the 1970s: Aarau―Geneva―Lucerne”, she published a study dedicated to video art by women, entitled L’art vidéo au féminin (2014).