Brave New Worlds: Transforming Museum Ethnography through Technology, special edition of Journal of Museum Ethnography

The seven main articles in this edition of the Journal of Museum Ethnography were guest edited by Helen Mears and Claire Wintle. They were originally presented at the Museum Ethnographers Group conference in 2013, co-hosted by Brighton Museum and the University of Brighton. They testify to the diverse ways in which technology is transforming museum ethnography, through new possibilities for field research and documentation, for sharing and generating collections knowledge and - through the creation of digital models or surrogates via 3D scanning - for supporting the development of collections knowledge and conservation practices. The papers hint at the potential scope of ICTs to change the way collections knowledge is generated and shared, to create new ways of understanding, preserving and conserving collections materials and to create new models of cultural ownership and new audiences. They also raise questions about the limitations of ICTs: whether these lie in the capabilities of the existing digital tools and software, staff knowledge and skills, or the time and resources acquired to properly engage with ICTs and to make them sustainable.