February 16, 2025
A Digital Museum
What would you put in a digital museum? 3D models, high-resolution scans, an augmented reality planetarium?
I started building a digital museum, and I have some questions about what belongs in one.
What would you put in it? 3D models, high-resolution scans, an augmented reality planetarium?
Working in technology, we constantly talk about design patterns, interface choices, and usability. Yet we've reached a point where these patterns are deployed at a scale that has direct, observable effects on culture itself. It's not far from the realm of possibility that art, ideas, and shared culture might eventually atrophy into a brief moment of seeing a picture and tapping "like."
The museum is my attempt to work in step with an inescapable fact: there is a digital component to nearly every action we take. I'm not suggesting this is inherently bad or that we should leave our devices behind and head out into nature (which you may very well find me doing from time to time). Rather, technology is a necessary, if not inevitable, part of modern life. The question is what we build with it.
So why a museum, rather than a blog, an Instagram feed, or a Patreon? The last few years have made me think seriously about the significance of recording contemporary events, and about rethinking the architecture of how that record is made available.
One collection I'd like to add is an album of first-hand photos my wife and I gathered starting in 2020 documenting the COVID-19 pandemic: expanses of empty grocery store shelves, pallets of hand sanitizer, public postings and signage. Paired with written accounts of experiences like remote work. These images could serve as primary sources for near and future historians. The period we're living through will likely be examined someday the way we now examine the Industrial Revolution: a mix of profound transformation and significant cost.
As for my original question... what would you put in a digital museum? There are no wrong answers. It could be photography, accounts of life events, music, or any number of subjects organized according to your own vision as curator. I encourage others to build their own. Or, if you feel inclined, mine is currently accepting submissions.