A third space: reconsidering issues of neutrality and accessibility in the virtual art museum

When the European Institute for Comparative Cultural Research called museums to create ‘third spaces in which different groups can share a similar experience of discovery’ (2008, p. 124), it was making the assumption that these spaces can be neutral, democratic, accessible, and thus universal. Such assumptions have been applied to the virtual as a third and seemingly neutral space that museums were found lacking. However, the fascination and preoccupation with the virtual, as the panacea to issues of democracy and accessibility, needs to be reconsidered and challenged. This article questions the neutrality of and degree of accessibility to the virtual space within the framework of Bourdieu’s theories and by examining the processes of construction and use of virtual art museums.