Eastern Mediterranean University (EMU), Facuty of Architecture Dean Prof. Dr. Uğur Ulaş Dağlı published a message for “18th May Museums Day” and “18-24 May Museums Week”. Prof. Dr. Dağlı made the following comments in her message:
“With the closure of public spaces due to the Covid-19 pandemic, online space and activity sharing has increased. In keeping with this opening, museums started to organize virtual tours. Parallel to the world, if contemporary museums could be opened in our country, perhaps we would be developing ideas on museums where the concept of contemporary has changed and turned into a virtual state
As the EMU Faculty of Architecture, for the last 10 years we have urgently pressured our cities for the construction of contemporary museums, especially City Museums. In addition, we have developed many concrete suggestions and projects for our city Famagusta. Unfortunately, the world has undergone a different transformation / change before we could realize these projects; with social distancing reshaping all areas. Of course, this transformation / change is currently reconstructing cultural and artistic activities. Cultural and artistic activities will perhaps enter a different formation permanently. These activities are being tried to be constructed in a digital environment in different ways, considering the artist-audience relationship online. In parallel with this, museums are reconstructed as virtual museums and opened to the transportation of museum lovers.
Virtual museums are handled with a traditional museum approach, and are constructed on certain concepts around certain topics. With the pandemic, the virtual museum approach is generally formed by modeling the existing exhibition halls or museum structure in to three dimensions. In other words, the physical museum experience is turned into a virtual experience; the museum lover is experiencing the museum through the screen. In addition, collections are exhibited in different formats on the internet and presented in an interactive manner. In the direction of this new period, we can design our Virtual City museums for our cities in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. Unlike the general approach across the world, we can build virtual museums first. In the normalization period, we can turn the virtual into physical. As the EMU Faculty of Architecture, I would like to convey that in collaboration with other units at the university and the Department of Antiquities and Museums, we are ready to create the FAMAGUSTA VIRTUAL CITY MUSEUM. I wish you all a happy World Museum Day.
