How about a system like in recent software: 'levels'. That is, the
exhibits are arranged in such a way that someone doesn't HAVE to pay
attention to any details, but they are there. I can't tell you how
annoying it is to walk through a museum and not have any idea what the
exhibits are talking about.
>I don't think museums should necessarily cater to the lowest common
>denominator. I realize they derive much needed revenue from public
>visitors and don't want to turn the dummies off, but they shouldn't
>insult the rest of us.
>> Question: Do many of you actively encourage folks (at least those
>>you know or trust!) to visit you and your private collection who are
>>not collectors/historians like us? If so, do you have fun teaching
>>them a little about old computing (or old radios, automobiles,
>>clocks or whatever your interest in addition to computers)?
I don't think the average person is interested in computer history.
Computers are not visibly works of art, like old radios. Most people
have no nostalgic memories of them except logging in to the mainframe to
update some numbers at work, or the 'do not bend...' cards. When an
average person sees an old computer, they don't say, 'remember when...'
or 'whoa, look at that disk architecture', they say,'are you crazy? What
are you bothering with this piece of **** for?'. And most modern
comuterheads are Wintel drones who don't see the meaning of a computer
without Windows (ironically, Mac users are much more aware of their
hardware).
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Received on Tue Jun 23 1998 - 16:16:45 BST