Digitisation versus authenticity: towards digital representation of museum artefacts (Published)
Educating and engaging museum audience in contemporary times have become imperative considering the increasing persistent information society which has brought about the need for museums to utilize new methods of disseminating information. Digitisation therefore has become the new instrument for access and preservation in museums but can be perceived as a threat to authenticity. Loss of authenticity of artefacts through reproduction could result in the loss of connection between the audience and the artefacts otherwise known as aura. The object value with respect to authenticity and aura will be discussed in this paper in relation to digitisation. A theoretical approach will be used in exploring how authenticity can be used as a tool to validate digitisation of artefacts used in the representation of culture.
Keywords: Authenticity, Culture, artefacts, aura, digitisation, reproduction