Geographic space in museums: Considerations towards a spatio-temporal supported exhibition

Abstract

Today, a huge variety of museum exhibitions exist, offering an overwhelming amount of artifacts and information. The presentation methods involved vary from very traditional designs that simply display artifacts behind glass accompanied by a card describing the object to a combination of multimedia and virtual reality installations. Although space and time characteristics are given to all artifacts, regardless their origin or nature, the deliberate use of this information is far from common. This information provides, however, plenty of opportunities to incorporate geographic space within an exhibition concept. This contribution will give an overview of the relationship of museums and geographic information, explore the possibilities of geographic space in museums and present a concept for a numismatic exhibition entitled “The Empire of the Huns in Central Asia and India,” which will be hosted at the Kunsthistorisches Museum (KHM) in Vienna, Austria (URL-3).