Chair: Dr. Ng Bee Chin

“Le geste retrouvé” a 3D storytelling of stone tools

Laura Longo

The paper deals with an innovative approach to the identification and characterization of function on grinding stones used to processed plant in order to get staple food at the dawn of modern humans colonization of Eurasia. The items are part of the archaeological and anthropological collections of the Kunstkamera Museum in S. Petersburg (Russia). The first achievements is “bringing to life” museum collection forgotten since “long time” (excavations dates back to the early XX century) by using innovative, non invasive analytical techniques like the potential contribution of 3D investigation, at various levels of detail and resolution, to the identification of such traces and residues. The second goal is the reconstruction of ancient dietary habits of humans at a crucial stage of human evolution. The third purpose is to demonstrate how present diseases related to food might find interesting explanation by investigating the roots of dietary breadth within museum archaeological collection. The reconstruction of old gestures and the related behavior by means of cultural heritage study can contribute to place museum collections under differ light, playing an actual social role. The paper is reporting functional analysis demonstrating compound technologies related to the systematic use of grinding stones in order to process plant resources since the Aurignacian (early Upper Palaeolithic).

The issue of processing plants like USOs, fruits and seeds, to get highly energetic staple food might be of interest in seeking for behavioural strategies carried out by Anatomically Modern Humans during the first waves of Europe colonization. Analysing the stone tools comes be one of the direct investigations on behavioural modernity of the new species with evident positive feed-backs on their nutritional capacity and hence on the demographic performance.

The functional analysis includes wear-traces, experimental reproduction and residues analysis of the working surfaces of the grinding tools. Portable scientific equipment – brought in by the Cyprus Institute team – had been used for noninvasive, non-destructive analytical techniques, a laser-scanner for 3D measurement of the micro-topography, and a digital microscope for investigation of microscopic traces. The identification and description of use-wear traces was carried out by means of the innovative application to wear-traces analysis of the combined potential of the Digital Microscope (Hirox KH-8700) and Electron Scanning Microscope (SEM, FESEM). Both lower magnification stereomicroscope (macro MX-G 5040 Z) and metallographic microscope (OL – 140 II) optics and functions were used during museum selection of the samples.

Keywords: Collections, Microscope, 3D Digital storytelling

Evaluation Study of a Snack Box for Children Designed to Prompt Discussion about Natural Heritage at Museums

Laura Gottlieb and Xinglin Sun

Using food in a museum café to engage visitors with its content is a relatively unexplored area for museums. A specially designed snack box could create a suitable context for discussion about natural heritage for school children in museum settings. The prototype Snackbox was designed and produced for children with the aim to teach them about a natural history topic. An evaluation study of the Snackbox consisting of four group sessions with children (age 6) was conducted together with a session facilitator at a preschool. The study looked at whether a) the learning activity in the snack box stimulated discussion about the chosen natural heritage topic. b) the activity needed a facilitator to drive the discussion and engage the children with the topic. Lastly, it looked at the benefits and limitations of using food in combination with a learning activity. The Snackbox created a social environment for the children to discuss the questions and answers of the learning activity. The facilitator played an important role in bringing focus to the natural heritage during the discussion.

Keywords: evaluation study, prototype design, natural heritage, natural history museum, museum café

Between scents and memory: three exhibition design case studies experimenting with the olfactory dimension

Laura Miotto

Olfactory experiences are powerful triggers of personal memories and can play an important role in connecting audiences to intangible heritage. This is recognized by museums seeking to move beyond the dominant visuocentric exhibition paradigm, broadening the spectrum of sensorial stimuli on offer. However, the delivery of olfactory experiences in a museum presents important and unique challenges, largely related to the odorant’s physical nature, which impose constraints to the design of experiences that can reach the visitor with impact and efficacy. Here, we present an olfactory delivery device designed to address these issues, which was prototyped and implemented over a 10-year period as an integral element of a display dedicated to the culinary heritage of Singapore. The device was also utilized in two other exhibitions, with radically different purposes: in one case as an element of the indigenous natural and cultural heritage, and in the other as a comparison tool to provide an intuitive illustration of progress. The diverse subject matters covered, and the different approaches to the delivery of olfactory stimuli demonstrate the versatility of the olfactory device in a range of exhibit settings. The case studies presented indicate that olfactory experiences can be effectively integrated in local museums, but their inclusion demands additional processes and specific consideration. Growing interest in this area of exhibition design, consistent with a global trend to transform museums into multisensory environments, makes this an important field for further research.

Keywords: Olfaction, Museum, Exhibition design, Intangible heritage, Memory

Mapping the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Ethnic Communities: Designing an Interactive Cultural History of Koreatown

Dr. Kristy H.A. Kang

This paper presents the interactive online cultural history “The Seoul of Los Angeles: Contested Identities and Transnationalism in Immigrant Space” (http://seoulofla.com/). Informed by interaction design and urban studies, this project examines and visualizes the sociocultural networks shaping immigrant communities and how local neighborhoods negotiate a sense of place within an increasingly globalized space. Geographer Doreen Massey recognizes space not as a static entity but as the product of interrelations from the immensity of the global to the intimately tiny. These interrelations are part of a story, an interpreted history that changes and develops over time. One could recognize cultural heritage in a similar way – as dynamic and part of a narrative trajectory that is not merely frozen in a romanticized or essentialist past. Much of what constitutes the dynamics of ethnic community formation is intangible as it is largely a lived experience rather than one that is necessarily documented or archived. As such, this project serves as a digital archive and platform for community storytelling that enriches our understanding of the city and the often intangible narratives that create a sense of place.

Currently, Los Angeles has the largest population of Koreans in the United States living outside of Korea. Nicknamed the “L.A. district of Seoul City”, most visitors understand Koreatown as an extension of Seoul. But, what most people may not know is that the majority of inhabitants who comprise its residential and working class population are not Korean, but Latino. The everyday space of this community is inhabited by a mix of immigrants coming from Mexico, Central and South America, and other parts of Asia including Bangladesh. These networks of nationalisms converge in the urban space of Koreatown. This contests predominant conceptions of ethnic enclaves being understood as homogenous and makes us re-imagine what we think we understand about them–they are increasingly becoming polycentric in complex ways.

Combining design, documentary and issues in contemporary media studies including global/local relations, ethnic and urban studies, this work uses new media and mapping to create greater awareness of our built environment and the peoples who populate it. Mapping is a dynamic system that changes according to the shifts in culture and community that characterize any geographic place. How can this system be visualized in order to read a space with newly informed imaginations? What kind of urban interfaces could be designed to communicate with the spaces we move through and what overlooked stories could be uncovered in order to enrich our understanding of cities and the intangible cultural histories embedded in them? Such questions are explored in this project.

Keywords: interactive, cultural history, ethnicity, urban studies, mapping, koreatown, los angeles

New Media Interactive Design in Museum Exhibits

Danyun Liu

As the notion of museum education develops, the exhibition in museum is gradually separated from the original single, static and fixed display form that simply highlights the exhibited objects and transforms to vivid, interesting and diverse exhibition form. By making use of instructive education that integrates active participation, experience cooperation and game playing, that is, creating interesting experience for audience by concentrating on the theme or applying various new media approaches to show collected and exhibited objects, it changes the relationship between the museum and audience – “being viewed” and “viewing”. It has become the most effective active spreading educational method in museums now. By analyzing the interactive exhibition cases and studying the new trend, the paper summarizes the new method of new media interactive exhibition design, hoping to enlighten and help designers who engage in interactive experience exhibition in museums.

Besides the physical museums, more and more Virtual museums are being created, allowing us to enjoy famous works at high resolutions online. This has led many people to think that visiting museums is a time-wasting activity. Through investigations on many interactive media areas in museums, we realised that the museums’ previous exhibition designs of making the exhibits the “centre” of the design often failed and were unable to achieve the intended effect. Although most current museums do have many touch-screen devices installed to allow for direct interaction with the audience, questions like “What can we do to attract audiences?” or more specifically, “How can we encourage the younger generation, who love to surf the net, to come down to museums to learn?” have become the keys of the current development of the museums. “How can we increase the amount of direct interaction with the audience?” has also become an important point of consideration for people-oriented museums.

With the introduction of new media styled experiential interactive designs, besides improving the multi-dimensional experience of the audience, by making use of multimedia tools and equipment, we are able to add in interesting topics for the audience to ponder upon during the exhibition. We are also able to make use of the quick spread of new media to guide and increase the amount of interaction among the audience and also between the exhibits and the audience. For example, Taiwan’s National Palace Museum makes use of an “Along the River during the Qingming Festival” monopoly game to attract younger audiences. Through this educational and interesting video game familiar to people of all generations, youths were able to immerse themselves in the experience, and learn about the essence of traditional Chinese culture. Another example is the Vaso Art Gallery, which made some of its works into puzzles, laying every set in front of its original art work to allow the audience to piece the pieces back together. These games will allow the audience to feel a sense of achievement upon participating, while providing entertainment at the same time. As the audience carefully observe the original art work, it is possible for the experience to be both fun and educational.

Keywords: New Media, Interactive Experience, Intelligent Exhibition, Museum

Chair: Hedren Sum

Reforming the Representation of the Reformation. Mixed Reality Narratives in Communicating Tangible and Intangible Heritage of the Protestant Reformation in Finland

Lauri Viinikkala, Laura Yli-Seppälä, Olli I. Heimo, Seppo Helle, Lauri Härkänen, Sami Jokela, Lauri Järvenpää, Timo Korkalainen, Jussi Latvala, Juho Pääkylä, Kaapo Seppälä, Tuomas Mäkilä and Teijo Lehtonen

This paper introduces a case in which cultural heritage is communicated by combining historical narrative with Mixed Reality (MR) technology. The art of representing intangible heritage and making abstract and complex transformations comprehensible with MR technology is being discussed through a case example. MR application Sanan seppä (“Wordsmith”) represents the history of the Protestant Reformation in Finland (1527 onwards). The application has been implemented inside the Turku Cathedral in Southwest Finland. The application offers a set of short scenes appearing in different places inside the Cathedral. Technically, the app runs in a tablet computer, and it is based on a 3D game engine. Bluetooth beacons are used for coarse positioning, and 3D point cloud technology is applied for markerless tracking. The app supports social media services and includes links to background information about the characters and events within the story.

We argue that MR technology is more than well suitable for communicating both tangible and intangible cultural heritage. In our case example we examine how different kinds of cultural heritage connected with the reformation can be visualized and made more comprehensible. In practice, this means combining the Turku Cathedral, objects within it and digital elements with MR enables showing how the reformation has affected both Finnish culture and material surroundings.

The changes inside a church space – the tangible proof of changes brought by reformation – are rather easy to depict but even more immaterial things like customs or opinions can be made visible. With the help of the 3D characters the Sanan seppä application shows how the reformation could have affected the everyday life of people from different backgrounds. Thus the MR application makes the past appear more polyphonic than in more traditional ways of mediating the past. Reference material from various sources has been used when creating the application, and users of the application are provided with information about the sources used.

Keywords: mixed reality, augmented reality, tangible cultural heritage, intangible cultural heritage, reconstructions, fictionality, reformation

Prototyping collaborative (co)-archiving practices – From archival appraisal to co-archival facilitation

Elisabet M. Nilsson

The research theme Urban Archiving is part of a multi-disciplinary research project called Living Archives at Malmö University, exploring archives and archiving practices in a digitized society. One of the aims is to create design activities dedicated to exploring, and prototyping possibilities for future digital archives in various contexts, such as cities.

As argued by Derrida (1995, p. 4): “[e]ffective democratization can always be measured by this essential criterion: the participation in and access to the archive, its constitution and its interpretation”, which is a statement serving as starting point for the research presented in this proposed paper. How can we involve the underrepresented in contributing to our archives, and in sharing the story of our times from their point of view? The aim of the research activities presented is to explore and prototype alternative forms of collaborative (co)-archiving practices for involving more people in generating archive material. The focus has up to now been on underrepresented, marginalised communities living in our city, but also on recently arrived newcomers. The methodological approach is design research. Principles and methods from the fields of participatory design are applied implying that prototyping and design interventions are part of the process. A series of interventions in collaboration with artists and/or students has been conducted resulting in a collection of co-archiving practices:

• Eat a Memory: through the act of cooking and eating, memories are performed, shared and stored in various formats. A joint meal in the form of a potluck is applied to access and record new and diverse histories of people and places.
• Plant your History: explores how urban gardens manifest the cultural heritage of neighbourhood communities in collaboration with urban gardening communities.
• Memory Game: a card game working as a framework for collecting, storing and sharing memories. It is developed in collaboration with an artist collective and played together with community members.
• Soil Memories: an act of collective storytelling and archiving practice intended for looking at soil as medium-generating multi-layered urban data.
• Mosaic of Malmö: a student driven project exploring co-archiving practices for capturing five different senses: smell, colour, face expressions, voices and memories, for sharing cultural heritage.
• Designing an archiving practice using comedy: a student-drive project exploring comedy as a way of generating stories about cultural heritage and identities.

In this proposed paper the co-archiving practices listed above will be contextualised and reflected upon, and serve a contribution to the conference section on ways of accessing intangible heritage resources beyond traditional methods. Since our co-archiving practices allow for the involvement of many senses beyond words, we argue that they assume a democratic and an inclusive approach generating archive material in a highly structured, but still personal and open way. Next step is to put these co-archiving practices into action and in collaboration with a public archive continue to explore how we can democratise the access and participation in our archives – and in the end, in writing our common history.

Keywords: co-archiving, underrepresented communities, design research, participatory design, prototyping, intangible cultural heritage, activist archivist

How the Web impacts Intangible Heritage – a Nanyin Case Study

Steven Wu, Herminia Din and Jean Tsai

This paper explores the impacts of the global web and, in particular, social media on the performing arts. Specifically, Siong Leng Musical Association which champions Nanyin musical theatre in Singapore is selected to anchor the discussion. The paper will examine SLMA’s web involvement under subheadings, namely: a) Reach: effectiveness of official websites and other virtual presence set up by followers; b) Engagement: virtual audience participation in social media sites; mobile accessibility; c) Augmentation: innovative blending of web-based services to solve operational issues of publicity, collaboration and fundraising. Overall transformative impacts to transmission, sharing, collaboration, informing and education are also discussed. NT (“southern music”) is listed in the UNESCO List of Intangible Heritage. NT has historical links to China’s Fujian/Minnan province. In recent years, the Chinese government has been taking a lead through policy that integrates the work of provincial authorities, society, schools and research institutions on promoting and preserving NT. Over the centuries, migrant

NT (“southern music”) is listed in the UNESCO List of Intangible Heritage. NT has historical links to China’s Fujian/Minnan province. In recent years, the Chinese government has been taking a lead through policy that integrates the work of provincial authorities, society, schools and research institutions on promoting and preserving NT. Over the centuries, migrant artistes had brought NT to foreign soils. As a result, this theatrical art is still being performed by artistic troupes located far beyond its country of origin. For example, the Siong Leng Musical Association (SLMA) was founded in 1941 to preserve, develop and promote Nanyin and Liyuan Opera in Singapore. Whilst NT is being re-interpreted by diaspora artistes in different parts of the world, it continues to draw inspiration from its origins. Current limitations of

Current limitations of stage and cinematic delivery are discussed. With the rapid adoption of web technologies in the cultural sector, the SLMA’s web strategy is examined to support the thesis that intangible heritage is being transformed by online technologies in terms of accessibility, inclusion and preservation. Social media sites such as Facebook have attained global memberships of over one billion people of all demographics. Facebook, Google and Youtube provide multiple means for their members to form subgroups and search for shared interests. Members are also allowed to upload content to these sites for sharing. With their large databases and interlinks collectively built up by diverse participants, these social media serve as both historical repositories as well as platforms for new discourses. The paper will be anchored on real life inputs from performing groups including SLMA and their fan bases.

The paper evaluates SLMA’s strategy and execution against an “idealised” set of transformative activities – transmitting, sharing, informing, educating, collaborating and administrating. Arguably, the fusion of technology with art for inclusion, accessibility, participation and delivery is a natural, perhaps even necessary, step forward in the future development of theatrical arts.

Keywords: Nanyin, Siong Leng, UNESCO, Reach, Engagement, Augmentation, Transformation, Safeguarding, Social media, Web services