The potential of digital storytelling in cultural heritage has been widely recognized as an effective technique for communicating heritage interpretation to the public. In this paper, we explore its application in a "dark heritage" setting—a cultural heritage site associated with death, atrocity and human depravity. Although literature within the field of dark heritage emphasizes a fascination with death as the main (if not sole) motive for visiting, according to some studies and the visitor study we performed in the context of our work, motives are in fact varied, and include a desire to learn and understand the history presented and an interest in having an emotional heritage experience. Borrowing from education, we use the notion of "essential questions" as a tool to lead to a deeper understanding of human nature. Following a user-centered design methodology, we develop an interactive digital storytelling experience for the Criminology Museum of the University of Athens. The resulting experience is adapted so as to be tested on-site and through the web. We conclude the work with our insight on guidelines for sites with similar characteristics as well as addressing open issues and challenges for the application of digital storytelling in dark-heritage contexts.
Approaching “Dark Heritage” Through Essential Questions: An Interactive DigitalStorytelling Museum Experience
1. Approaching “DarkHeritage” Through EssentialQuestions: An
Interactive Digital
Storytelling Museum Experience
Akrivi Katifori1,2,KlaoudiaMarsellaRestrepoLopez1,DimitraPetousi1,Manos Karvounis1,2,Vassilis
Kourtis1,2,Maria Roussou1,YannisIoannidis1,2
1National Kapodistrian University of Athens
2ATHENA ResearchCenter,Greece
MW19
3. What we do
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Explore concepts aroundDigital
Experiences for Cultural Heritage
InteractiveDigitalStorytelling CollaborativeExperiences
FacilitatedDialogue VirtualVisitingasa SchoolActivity
4. Storyboard
→ Easy to use
→ Templatebased
→ Allows for branchingnarratives
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10. The founder's vision
• Intrigued by the criminal’s mind
• Seeking a deeper understanding of the
human nature
• Founded the criminology museum asa
placefor research and knowledge transfer
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Ioannis Georgiades
founder ofthe museum
12. User Study
• “Open Day” event*
• Observation of the guided tours given by experts
• 137 visitors briefly interviewed
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*happeningonce ayear
photo:KlaoudiaMarsellaRestrepoLopez
13. User Study
• Most ofthe visitors (86%) fully met
their expectations
• Comfortable with the scientific
terminology
• All stayedmore to browse through
the gallery freely
• Fewfelt discomfort with some of the
exhibits
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31.39%
8.76%
0.73%
8.03%
24.82%
0.00%
5.00%
10.00%
15.00%
20.00%
25.00%
30.00%
35.00%
What visitors didn’t like
Smallspace
Littletime
Notenoughinfo
Lackoftech
Other
Other explained:
• lack of curatorial work
• closed to the public
• lack of accessibility measures
14. Whybuild a digital experience?
By building a digital experiencewe…
• make the museummore open to the public
• apply a new museological approach that will foster meaningful interactions with the museum
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Main reason:
• Uni Staff can’tcope with the demand for museumvisits
19. ”Theexhibitstelltheirstories”
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• Therole of illegal substancesand the “misfits” of
Athens in the early 20th century
• Counterfeitand fraud
• Guns and organised crime
• Death penalty and the use of guillotine in Greece
• [much more …]
20. On-going evaluation
• 14 visitors tried the experience, so far
• Positive feedback in general, but surely no conclusive results
• Most prominent problems
• Difficult to navigate and locate the exhibits
• Immediate focus on the app feels restrictive
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21. Outcomes
Essentialquestions…
• inform the experience concept and scenario
• help with the selection of interpretation material
• promote visitor engagement through reflection anddialogue
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22. Future Work
• Test possible solutions on navigation issues
• e.g.boards + QR/NFC
• Test the experience with groups of visitors and promote dialogue through the essential
questions
• Incorporate evaluation tools into the digital experience
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23. MW19
Thanksto the Criminology Museum staff and collaborating experts:
• Dr. Maria Stefanidou-Loutsidou
• Dr. Constantinos Moraitis
• Dr. Zoe Sakki
• Dr. Sotiris Athanasellis
Partly funded by:
Notas del editor
Related to ”dark tourism” (or “black tourism” or “grief tourism”) which sometimes include entertainment activities, as opposed to cultural heritage
Small museum
Situated inside the Faculty of Medicine
Part of the Laboratory of Forensics and Toxicology
GUILOTINE
GUILOTINE
Georgiades was a gun enthusiast, avid collector of crime scene evidence and Olympic Fencing medalist in the 1896 Athens Olympic games, as well as a dedicated researcher and philanthropist.
closed to the public
limited to no museological work
just a few labels here and there
stories behind the objects remain hidden to the potential visitor
The museums approach
strong awareness among the Board members (who also serve as guides when tours are programmed) that shocking material is not to be blatantly exposed to the general public
emphasis on academic presentation, leaving the human stories behind the exhibits silent, mostly due to the limited time of the guided tours and to a shortage of personnel
The above scientific approach, consistent with the founder’s vision, seems to be a conscious direction for the museum, ensuring a clear decision for fostering historical understanding and institutional education, without directly responding to the present fascination for the macabre.
Staff (Forensics and Toxicology researchers) is overwhelmed by the demand for guided tours
Grant Wiggins, Jay McTighe (2005)
Relatable to personal experiences, views of the world and issues that feel relevant to people’s lives
Open-ended, i.e., there are no right or wrong answers
Intellectually engaging and able to spark meaningful discussion among a group of people
Requiring high-order thinking: analysis, inference, debate
Relatable to personal experiences, views of the world and issues that feel relevant to people’s lives
Open-ended, i.e., there are no right or wrong answers
Intellectually engaging and able to spark meaningful discussion among a group of people
Requiring high-order thinking: analysis, inference, debate
Selected exhibits, seen from different perspectives:
What is the role of the exhibit in criminal science?
Anecdotal stories about the exhibit
General reflections for the essential questions related to the collection and particular exhibit
Difficulties with finding users to try it, since we have to enrol the staff in the process, which is not ideal.
Will try to incorporate evaluation tools into the app to catch random visitors.
Navigation can be solved non-digitally by marking the exhibits with boards. QR/NFC to be used if proved to be helpful.
We’ll try having them wondering freely, before handing them the app.