The Inevitable Convergence of Art and Digital Media

The American author Frederick Buechner wrote, "The life I touch for good or ill will touch another life, and that in turn another, until who knows where the trembling stops or in what far place my touch will be felt."
Education and cultural heritage professionals, individually and collectively, are approaching a giant interchange-not just a crossroads-but an interchange. Will we let the new technologies shape us? Or will we use mankind's latest set of tools to build a legacy, as best we can for future generations? Is this simply a period of controlled chaos? Or are we spiraling out of control? Has the room full of hammers gotten so big, we've forgotten what it was that was so important for us to nail down?

About Holly Witchey:
Holly Witchey is Director of the New Media Department at the Cleveland Museum of Art, and immediate past chair of the American Association of Museum's Media & Technology Standing Professional Committee. In addition, she serves as a member of the Board of Directors of Museum Computer Network, and is an AAM appointed member to the National Committee for Archives, Libraries, and Museums (CALM).
For reasons that are still unclear to her, Witchey has a Ph.D. in 15th Century Italian Painting and Sculpture. As Associate Curator of European Art at the San Diego Museum of Art, Witchey began developing content-rich projects for museums using new technologies. In 2000 she left the curatorial world to start the New Media Department at the Cleveland Museum of Art. Witchey writes and speaks about museum ethics, accessibility, and issues that have arise as a result of the use of new technologies in museum settings. She is the author of three books none of which have anything to do with new media.