Digitalizing World Culture. Modes of Digitalization within the Museum of World Cul-ture

Abstract

The thesis investigates the renovation of outdated museum objects through the use of digital media and argues that this process is mirrored in two recent trends within the museum world, namely re-enchantment and digital databases. Influenced by Actor-Network Theory, the thesis asks 1. how the digital media is arranged in local networks through what it defines as modes of digitalization, 2. how re-enchantment and digital databases are determined by those ar-rangements and 3. how those arrangements are held together, both separately and jointly with-in a single museum. These questions are answered through a careful case study of the Museum of World Culture in Gothenburg, where the two investigated trends are emerging through nascent arrangements of digital media. The study is comprised of several interviews, observations and extensive document analysis. The study shows that limits between analogue and digital, and between object and medium, are depend upon local arrangements or modes of digitalization. It argues that the current trend of mediating the museum, equates the museum identity with characteristics usually ascribed to different media. It also argues that the integrity of the Museum of World Culture can only be sustained through the relative failure of its two competing modes of digitalization.