Archaeological knowledge, virtual exhibitions and the social construction of meaning

Costis Dallas

«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2007, Supplemento 1, 31-63

Abstract

The author makes some general observations on the scope of various approaches to archaeological virtualisation, with particular reference to virtual exhibitions. He examines some interesting fully dynamic, evolving case-studies and, linking the historical development of archaeology to that of different kinds of archaeological knowledge, he highlights the possibilities offered by hypermedia applications on the World Wide Web not only for public communication, but also for archaeological meaning construction and mode of representation. The overall discussion points include virtual exhibition in the context of virtual museums, the notion of virtualisation and some ideas on content, formal representations and affordances. At the same time, the author laments the fact that virtual exhibitions are still fledgling, unstable practices, ignored by the majority of the archaeological public and, at the same time, by most mainstream archaeologists and most archaeological museums. Further work requires unification with relevant research and practice in Information and Communication Technologies, but also further reflection and research on the production of archaeological meaning through virtualisation.

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