Exhibits bring Malacañang’s museum into the digital age

By Nickky F. P. de Guzman, Reporter

THE EFFECT of technology in arts, particularly in the digitization of physical contents, has resulted in endless debate: is the availability of digital artworks good or bad? Among museums all over the world, the question is whether technology will encourage more visitors to come and see the actual artworks or it will discourage them given that they are easily available for viewing online.

Such was the apprehension of Presidential Museum and Library (PML) director Edgar Ryan S. Faustino, before he finally said “yes” to the digitizing of some of the PML collections.

At the project’s press launch on July 5 at Malacañan Palace, he said: “It was my great fear that the public will not be interested to go to the museum since they can already see the most interesting artifacts on their phones or laptops.”

PML has partnered with Google Arts and Culture to come up with two online exhibits called Malacañang as Prize, Pulpit, and Stage and Relics of Power: Remembering the Philippine Presidents, which can be viewed by downloading the free “Google Arts and Culture” mobile application. Viewers with Internet access can have a 360-degree virtual tour of PML’s two floors, which includes Kalayaan Hall, the oldest original part of the Palace, and see some snippets of the country’s history.

The virtual PML can be viewed using one’s phone or via desktop. Mr. Faustino agreed to the project because, after all, technology has its benefits. He said: “Despite these [worries], I was convinced that it was noteworthy and deserving of support. I was completely solved with the paradigm shift. For those who have no means to see it in person, it is a virtual educational tour,” he said.

The palace, including Kalayaan Hall, was built in 1921 during the American colonial era as the Executive Building. Today the original structure is a wing of the Palace. Designed by Ralph Harrington Doane, the neo-Reinassance style building is home to some of the museum’s valuable possessions. The online exhibits include records of the 1936 press conference where amendments on the modification of length of the presidential term of office and the restoration of the Senate, among others, were announced. Also on view online are memorabilia from past presidents likes Corazon Aquino’s Time magazine sculpture (1987) and Fidel V. Ramos’s bust (1998).

“In this way, we preserve these invaluable artifacts and structures for our progeny while letting those who are separated by oceans and thousand of miles share the experience of the PML while also getting to know Philippine history,” said Mr. Faustino.

Still, everybody agrees that nothing compares to the physical object. Google Arts and Culture program manager Pierre Caessa said: “The technological online experience and the actual should be separated. They connect but they are not the same experience. My personal opinion is going online is a way to prepare your visit and say ‘Alright, I am going to see that particular art.’”

Google Arts and Culture works with more than 1,000 institutions in 70 countries, providing them with a platform for more than 200,000 artworks and a total of six million photos, videos, manuscripts, and other documents pertaining to arts, culture, and history — all of which are easily available on the Internet for free.

Mr. Caessa added, “If, for example you want to visit the Met (the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York), which is huge, it will help you locate the exact [piece of] art you want to see. It can help you complement the experience but what it cannot do is bring the emotion. That’s the reason why I need to go and spend time to go there. The premise is that it will [whet people’s] appetite [for art], and more and more [people] are going to museums. I am not saying that Google is responsible for that, but I hope that it is a contributor.”

Malacañan Museum is not the only local museum to see the benefit from going online. Jeremy Barns, the director of the National Museum, told BusinessWorld at the sidelines of the event that technology has increased awareness and appreciation among the public.

“Whenever we have virtual images [in the National Museum] and put them on the Internet, what we see is that the awareness leads to appreciation, and the appreciation leads to more people wanting to see the actual [work],” he said.