Museum of the Essential and Beyond That

The project of the Museum of the Essential and Beyond That ( http://www.art=
eonline.arq.br ) consists of the creation of virtual architectures: a muse=
um with its libraries and galleries that have no brick-and-mortar counterpa=
rts. It is common for real museums and libraries to have websites, but the =
process underway in our "museum" is rather uncommon. A museum that does not=
exist in the real world, and whose architecture and collections are formed=
by a string of digits: 01010101. Is it just an electronic clearinghouse fo=
r bits and bytes?



Cyberspace can eliminate distances between its occupants, although it is me=
rely canceling out a symbolic distance through digital communication. What =
does cyberspace look like? What does a museum with all its galleries and li=
braries look like out in cyberspace? A "cyber-museum" is a spatial-temporal=
shape built up through movement: transportation and communication. During =
the process of creating a virtual museum, we cannot overlook the paths peop=
le follow through information and that this must be a place where informati=
on is shared intensively by all its visitors and participants.



The museum started out as a "work in progress": so is it architecture of in=
formation? But it is also an imaginary two-story pixel-building with a base=
ment. The building's architectural design can be changed at any time, wheth=
er by constructing another story or changing part of its shape - a Niemeyer=
design [6], constellation, space station, Piranesi engraving [7]: creative=
interface?. This museum was conceived as an open structure in which inform=
ation is spread out in a number of spaces; a machine that can travel infini=
tely in all directions.



Everything is always perfect in the virtual cities found on the Internet, b=
ut the Museum's space does not work that way. Instead, its operations aim a=
t fulfilling the dictates of the principle of reality. For example, tragedy=
and its esthetic or things we really do not want to think about, have been=
shifted (with a touch of morbid humor) to the basement. Bit by bit, we int=
end to place some problems in the Museum building, because we do not intent=
it to become an aseptic parody of a real museum. We predict the need to re=
store this cultural machine once it has become the victim of its own succes=
s and the enormous number of visitors it attracts. Every once in a while, a=
room or gallery could be shut down for repairs. The Museum's order could a=
lso be disturbed by power struggles involving both political power and that=
of feudal corporations, so common in institutions of this kind.

The fact is that this project, justifying the beyond that in its name, is f=
ast becoming a cultural center where a mouse click offers both a museum and=
a place for creation and communication where the visual arts are joined by=
music, filmmaking (animation), poetry, books and audiovisual research. "Th=
is characteristic is related to the aim of modern-day art, which is to embo=
dy in its works certain new forms of beauty that could only emerge through =
the reconvergence of all techniques" [8] and technologies… Since its ince=
ption, at the Museum of the Essential and Beyond That, this reconvergence h=
as been present in its watchwords: communication, information, multidiscipl=
inarity, multiculturalism and mobility. Science and technology embracing ar=
t to protect it and give it the necessary conditions for life and growth.



While browsering the museum do not forget to press the button NEWS. Maybe =
you want to participate of the Project ATTIC.



Thanks for your kind attention,



Regina Celia Pinto