Many museums strive to eliminate all potential for confusing the visitors. That goal may sometimes work against the interest of the visitors and the interests of the museum, suggests this report: “Delightfully Lost: A New Kind of Wayfinding at Kew,” Natasha Waterson and Mike Saunders, paper presented at the Museums and the Web conference, April […]
Tag: museums
Word of the day: Thanatourism
There appears to be a strong new trend in cultural tourism called grief tourism or (my new favorite word) thanatourism. The Grief Tourism blog lists categories of thanatourism in which one can specialize, including battlefield, cemetery, ghost, Holocaust and prison specializations, as well as sites of murders, natural disasters and terrorism. A recent history museum […]
Museums, paranormality and the (un)real world
Museums often have difficulty defining their roles and niches in the 21st century. Apparently one problem raising its head lately is the issue of dealing with swarms of paranormal investigators interested in tracking departed spirits in historic properties, all under the rubric of what is oddly called reality TV. It’s apparently a real-life problem for […]
The gentleman’s least favorite museum
The Disillusioned Taxonomist writes: Guzelyurt Museum of Nature and Archaeology is my least favourite museum of all that I have been to. I admire the fact that northern Cyprus has a museum dedicated to its natural and historical treasures, but I can’t help but feel a little disheartened by the way the specimens look, and […]