Cultural computing: exploiting interactive digital media

Abstract

The Web site of the Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery at the University of Glasgow had to respond to a number of imperatives. First and foremost, it was to make the collections available to schools in the most remote areas of Scotland as a complement to their curriculum. It then had to highlight an extremely diverse collection ranging from archaeology to zoology, with side trips including the voyages of Captain Cook and the house of world‐famous architect and designer Charles Rennie Mackintosh. The solution was found by using a mix of interactive technologies in an innovative and imaginative way. James Devine is head of Education and Digital Media Resources at the Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery. He has spearheaded a wide variety of innovative multimedia projects focused around the Hunterian collections, including an award‐winning Web site, and, with colleagues in the Computing Science Department, has developed new applications for leading‐edge technologies. More recently, he led field expeditions to Knossos in Crete to create Quick Time Virtual Reality tours of the Minoan palace complex on behalf of the British School of Archaeology in Athens and the Greek Ministry of Culture. Ray Welland is head of the Department of Computing Science at the University of Glasgow. His main research interest is in software engineering and, more particularly, in its application to the creation of large, multi‐authored Web sites.