Virtual Museums
Suzanne Beer · 2015
Virtual Museums are seen as potentially real Museums produced on digital medium as new means of representing museal objects. Trials to classify a very rich, varied and exponentially growing production exist. They fall under the difficulty of which criterion is the essential one to characterize a class of Virtual Museums which differ from instituted tangible Museums, and do not take into account other productions than instituted Museum's ones. We contribute to Virtual Museums taxonomy by renewing its classification in order to take into account the whole panorama of Virtual Museums, as they create unexpected and innovative types of Museums, through image technology kind, authorship class and museological style criteria. A museological classification shows its interest as it enhances the priority of specific museal goals for Virtual Museums. However, an intertwining of the three categories and the prioritizing of museological characterization is an important step as it puts the idea projected by a Virtual Museum in the foreground as well as taking into account Virtual Museums phenomenon innovative complexity.