MUSEUM OF THE FUTURE

COLLECTIONS CORNER

BY: KATLYN WOODER

 Wow this video's dramatic music and special effects are going are going to be hard to live up to.

At the end of winter I can't help but think of next year, and one of the things that I don't expect to find in a profession that historically has been about history is a Museum of the Future. In 2019, this 200 million pound museum will open in Dubai. The futuristic focus of the musuem's collection will be on invention. They are set to emphasize the trends of tomorrow rather than inform people of the past. They are also going one step further in their museum programming, in that they are planning to offer support, so that people can realize their ideas. This museum is set to be a place of international change.

The act of hosting a site where the best of international invention can be seen, and ideas shared, is not a new innovation. World expositions have been happening since 1851 in London. The 1855 Paris expo showcased the architectural marvel of the Eiffel Tower, the first ever building whose parts were constructed elsewhere and assembled on location. Canada itself has hosted world expos in Montreal 67 and Vancouver 86. But the expo is a festival, something that comes together and disperses after it's done. The Museum of the Future is interesting in that it has built itself a single, stationary location, and proposes that it won't stagnate.

I can't help but wonder how they are going to collect their collection, and disperse their collections when they are no longer innovative. Is this museum going to emulate some modern art galleries. Who have no permanent collection, instead choosing to showcase exhibits where the artifacts come from multiple points of origin? What does a futuristic collection look like? How are they going to curate it? Will they be experimental in their museum practices or will the use conventional museology practice to situate the unfamiliar in a familiar setting?

I can't wait to see how this museum of the future uses technology in new ways. Hopefully one of the applications is a database or web design that makes this museum - which exists on a different continent - accessible for us here in North America.