[13710] in Public-Access_Computer_Systems_Forum
FYI France: the Muse'e Cluny, online
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Jack Kessler)
Tue Jan 16 20:01:47 2001
Date: Mon, 15 Jan 2001 16:37:31 -0800
From: Jack Kessler <kessler@WELL.COM>
To: PACS-L@LISTSERV.UH.EDU
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FYI France: the Muse'e Cluny, online
I am grateful to Bob Kreiser, whose posting on H-France about the
new online Muse'e Cluny jogged thoughts in me, both particular
and general, about the digitization of "museums" and "libraries".
Herewith:
The new online Muse'e Cluny / "Muse'e National du Moyen Age", at,
http://www.musee-moyenage.fr/
is very much worth a visit, for anyone involved in museums,
libraries, French history, or digital information generally.
The Muse'e Cluny has long been one of France's most important
centers of Medieval culture, very interestingly at once a center
for Renaissance and Medieval and even Roman history, and for any
Paris visitor a must stop on "The Latin Quarter Tour".
The Roman baths were here, and thus the social and political and
to a great extent even the governmental and administrative center
of classical Roman Lutetia (1st - 3rd c. C.E.) -- before late -
Empire weakness and atrophy, and barbarian invaders, drove
survivors entirely to the "island on the Seine".
In the end of the 15th century, then, the building was
constructed as the Paris residence of the monks of Cluny under --
balletomanes take note -- "Jacques d'Amboise", their abbot of
that era (1485-1510). It is a wonderful old structure, one of the
few of the period in Paris to have retained its original layout
and surrounding gardens:
"Clos vers la ville par un mur aveugle cre'nele',
simplement perce' d'une porte charretie`re et d'une autre
pie'tonne, il est forme' d'un corps de logis avec deux
ailes en retour qui enferment une cour. Il est a` deux
e'tages surmonte's d'une haute toiture d'ardoise
interrompue de lucarnes. Une balustrade en fort surplomb
en cache le de'part. Les niveaux sont desservis par trois
escaliers a` vis. A l'inte'rieur, l'ho^tel a conserve'
ses dispositions d'origine : le volume des salles, la
circulation me'nage'e en fac,ade et la chapelle..."
Finally, to complete the "Renaissance / Medieval / Roman" trivium
available at the Muse'e Cluny, the building's early 19th century
occupant, Alexandre du Sommerard, assembled one of the country's
first great collections of Medieval art -- this was the era of
Victor Hugo's _Notre Dame de Paris_ (1831), and of the Romantic
Era's general rediscovery of much of Europe's history, including
its so - called "Dark Ages" -- which became the core of the
current Muse'e Cluny collection.
So the little Muse'e Cluny has it all, or a great deal of it, for
anyone interested in the earlier bits of French history. Plus, it
is a charming building, located on a convenient central - Paris
site, quiet and unique at least compared to the Latin Quarter
chaos and Boulevards S. Germaine and S. Michel congestion which
surround it.
The new online site for the Muse'e Cluny presents all of this,
beautifully. There is sumptuous illustration throughout, with
attractive layout and backgrounds. The home page offers:
* Le muse'e: the collections, the Roman Baths, the museum's
Renaissance building itself, its new and extraordinary "Medieval
Garden" project, a chronology, and a museum / garden plan -- so
in a single fell swoop a W3 user can take a pretty complete tour
which shows not only what the museum is like, for an eventual
visit, but also in broad strokes the substance of the history
which it contains. Any student wishing to obtain an easy and
interesting introduction to pre - Renaissance French history
might very usefully be directed here.
* Activite's: expositions and events, for adults and for children
-- every two years a new major exhibit, for example "Tre'sors
me'die'vaux de la Re'publique de Mace'doine" in 1999 and numerous
tours and workshops for adults alone, children alone, and
families together. Our own kids learned bookbinding at the Muse'e
de l'Imprimerie, in Lyon, and now maybe one springtime - sans -
kids we ourselves will learn calligraphy at the Muse'e Cluny.
* Informations: there is a bookstore -- "centered on the Medieval
Era, we offer a selection of books, including books for children,
also CD's of Medieval music, video cassettes, CDroms,
reproductions (of jewelry, scarves, sculpture casts...)" -- some
my own best starts on specific themes in French history have been
made browsing one of France's excellent museum bookstores...
* Site jeunes: the Muse'e Cluny offers an entire interactive
online site on French things Medieval, just for (young) kids --
"Un clic sur le lapin et tu retourne a` la page pre'ce'dente" --
http://www.culture.fr/cluny/
* Boutique: there is a link to the culturally - remarkable
"Museesdefrance.com : les Cadeaux d'Art sur Internet" online
store -- complete with "secure server", "club discounts",
"shopping basket", "online order tracking",
http://www.museesdefrance.com/fr/ (in French)
http://www.museesdefrance.com/en/ (in English)
-- so now from "Le Louvre museum" you can buy your very own
"Torso of Queen Nefertiti, the beautiful wife of Akhenaton" --
only 940 FRF / 124,20 USD -- and ship it to someone you love...
* Abonnez - vous a` la lettre d'information: one of the greatest
assets of French library and museum membership is the excellent
institutional "newsletter" regularly disseminated by most to
members -- in the case of the Bibliothe`que Nationale de France
their newsletter is a regular reminder not only of excellence in
printing and presentation but also of all that a library might be
in terms of outreach and community involvement, and I would
expect the newsletter of the Muse'e Cluny to be as good.
* Envoyez une carte postale e'lectronique: it's free! (for now)
-- but it also doesn't work (for now) -- four beautiful tapestry
images, from the Muse'e's famous "La Dame a` la Licorne", plus a
nice book illustration and an image of some remarkable goldwork,
all of which you can send to friends from the online site just by
"tap'n clique" -- although as of this moment the results come out
blank, testing on Netscape _and_ IE browsers _and_ on AOL...
-- and finally, on the Muse'e Cluny site, most interestingly and
"very French",
* Prochains concerts de musique me'die'vale --
"L'Heure Musicale" -- lunchtime concert / demonstrations
-- "Fridays at 12:30 and Saturdays at 4pm, the Ultreia
Ensemble offers a 1 - hour concert, accompanied by
commentary"
-- and previous concerts have included --
"L'art de la vie`le a` archet -- Voyage musical du XIe au
XVe sie`cle autour des 'vie`les a` arc', instruments
tre`s repre'sentatifs de la musique me'die'vale. Au
programme : chansons, balades, virelais, estampies,
motets, saltarelles... "
"Noe:ls -- Un re'pertoire inattendu de Noe:ls me'die'vaux
du XIIe au Xve sie`cle"
"Carmina Burana"
-- makes you wish you were in Paris...
Now a small, more general, note:
"Museum" or "Library", or does it matter?...
My wife and I will be taking two "young adult" scientists on
their first trip to the famous "hands - on" Deutsches Museum in
Munich next Christmas. Our eldest is 21, an engineer who
gradually is becoming interested in things like "MEMS /
MicroElectroMechanical Systems", which are increasing in
complexity, shrinking, and even being introduced into the human
body -- those little robots which will swim through your
bloodstream and clean out all the bad stuff -- and inexorably are
coming to replicate and even replace the various miracles of
biology.
And his brother is 19, a biologist who gradually is discovering
"Neuroscience", where algorithms modelled originally on human
brain activity -- "Switch the lights 'on' then 'off' then 'on'
again, Professor Von Neumann..." -- began some time ago to point
back toward the body ("feedback"), and increasingly now point in
both directions ("neural networks", plus various "things
fuzzy"...).
And our two kids -- or at least people in their respective
disciplines, bioscience and mechanical engineering -- now say
that those two subjects, which formerly were so different in
concern and approach as to be considered nearly antithetical,
nowadays find their traditional definitional barriers breaking
down, and their efforts even combining.
Imagine: "MicroElectroMechanical Systems", which clean your blood
-- inside you after you have swallowed them in a little pill --
governed by algorithms patterned on your own brain's "neural
networks"... it's a new world...
So, if engineering and biology can do this, now -- drop the old
barriers and blend together, in all sorts of un - traditional
ways -- how about museums and libraries?...
Our family "engineer" always has loved the "hands - on" aspects
of museums, when these have been available. He grew up near San
Francisco's very "hands - on" "Exploratorium", and he loves the
working machine exhibits at the Science Museum in London. His
brother, our "biologist", also has loved anything "hands - on"
since he was very small, in his case about animals -- he has put
many of his few years into volunteering at local nature centers
and at our city zoo, and into complex peer - level relationships
which he maintains with our two dogs.
So if all the textual and visual information offered by museums
gradually becomes available via the World Wide Web -- as the
already - excellent online sites of the Science Museum and the
Deutsches Museum,
http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk
http://www.deutsches-museum.de
and many other museums all around the world, and now Paris'
excellent Muse'e Cluny / Muse'e National du Moyen Age site,
http://www.musee-moyenage.fr
all attest -- and if these all become linked to one another and
to the great and growing number of online "digital" and other
libraries, what is left that is _not_ online, for libraries and
museums to offer?
No I _don't_ know what part of what I am saying here is irony and
what part sincerity -- I'll let you know in about 10 years, when
we see what part came true -- but in the meantime at least bear
with me / think about this / "jouez le jeu" -- current trends do
seem to be leading in these directions...
It is the _tactile_ experience, the "hands - on" stuff, which
always has attracted our own two children the most, in any
museum. Bored adults may spend hours ambling past dimly -
recognised oil paintings hung on gallery walls -- poor lighting
and security measures and museum guards all won't let you get
close enough even to tell whether they are oil, much less touch
them, so they might as well be "digital" -- but children won't
put up with this, children need the "tactile".
Perhaps once the digital revolution is over, and all the museums
are online and all the book texts are digitized and all the books
are hermetically sealed - away into preservation storage
facilities, the "museum" and "library" places which do survive
and prosper will be the "hands - on exhibits" and the "children's
rooms". Looks like that's the current trend, anyway.
But I'll know more myself in December. In the meantime I hope
everyone here will enjoy the "online Muse'e Cluny". And, at least
_until_ everything is digital, do still try to get to Paris to
see the "real" thing there, as well: it is a beautiful old
building - within - a - garden -- a sane island in the middle of
the Latin Quarter madness -- and as of last summer, anyway,
hoardings mounted on its encircling walls proclaimed the imminent
construction of the large and decorous "medieval herb garden" on
the grounds within -- let's see them digitize _that_!
-- and yes, I _know_ that someone has been teaching computers to
smell and be smelled (I suppose kids like our own two, the
biologist and the engineer, working together) -- but those
particular algorithms are a long way, yet, from "medieval herb
scents" and the heart of Paris.
Happy 2001.
--oOo--
FYI France (sm)(tm) e-journal ISSN 1071 - 5916
*
| FYI France (sm)(tm) is a monthly electronic
| journal published since 1992 as a small-scale,
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| scale "information overload", by Jack Kessler.
/ \ Any material written by me which appears in
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--hjlm--
