‘If you were a wizard, what would you do?’ – Exploring potentials for DIY approaches

for cultural heritage professionals

Introduction •  DIY toolkits enable cultural heritage professionals

create interactive exhibitions [1] [2] •  DIY approaches using technology may be an

attractive alternative to hiring experts •  Little research considers how DIY approaches

using technology can support the practices of cultural heritage professionals

•  This research uses a co-design methodology: involving cultural heritage professionals in the design process, in contrast to other research that involves the visitors [3] [4]

Outcome The mind maps below illustrate the outcome of the workshop.

DIY interactive exhibitions with narratives for cultural heritage professionals

Ideal technology:

Durable: Connections not stable in littleBits

Subtle: Participants would prefer technology that was not too large and easily fitted into their design

More flexible: Higher levels of customization in technology

Enhance real: Ideas that the participants gathered suggested they would rather technology enhanced the physical space rather than the virtual one

Laura Maye Laura.Maye@ul.ie

Objective •  Identify how DIY approaches using technology

can assist cultural heritage professionals in creating interactive exhibitions with narratives

Method: Workshop §  Four participants (interns from the Hunt museum,

Limerick, Ireland)

§  Participants’ task:

1.  Pick an exhibit from the museum;

2.  Brainstorm methods for the visitor to interact with the object, and how the narrative behind the object should be portrayed to the visitor;

3.  Using paper materials and technology (littleBits), create their design in 3D;

4.  Reflect upon design

Materials

Brainstorm

Future work Explore further practices of cultural heritage professionals through co-design methods:

1.  Identify other practices cultural heritage professionals undertake that DIY approaches through technology can support

2.  Identify how DIY approaches through technology add value to their work

Acknowledgements I would like to thank my supervisors, Dr. Gabriela Avram and Dr. Luigina Ciolfi, for their support. This research is supported by the Material Encounters with Digital Cultural Heritage (meSch) project (2013-2017) and receives funding from the European Community’s Seventh Framework Programme ‘ICT for access to cultural resources’ (ICT Call 9: FP7’.-ICT-2011-9) under the Grant Agreement 600851.

Mind map for texted technology Participants brainstormed and chose to derive a narrative for the Ballyscullion cauldron. Their idea was to create a trail, where visitors follow spiders laid around the museum to the cauldron. At the cauldron, visitors would see bats flying around and a cat telling them about the origins of Halloween.

After brainstorming, participants began making the mock up design from paper materials. They chose to portray the story of Halloween through a paper replica of the Ballyscullion Cauldron. The visitors would follow the spiders to the cauldron, where a cat would tell the story of Halloween.

After building the paper prototype, the participants used littleBits to bring the

technological aspect of their exhibition to life:

-  Motion Sensor For detecting visitor presence

-  - Slider to control volume of cat’s “voice”

Mind map for ideal technology. Stars represent quotes from participants.

Applying technology to mock up

Reflection

If you were a wizard, what would you do?

Realistic bats and cat

Spiders that spin webs

Ways to randomize cat’s narrative

How did the technology limit you?

Bulky (spiders and bats)

Large for what we needed

Paper Materials littleBits: technology for non experts to create circuits

Building paper mock up

Conclusion littleBits can be used by cultural heritage professionals to create small scale interactive exhibitions with narratives

Based on observations and the reflection, participants would have preferred:

1.  A technology that is more durable

2.  A technology that is more subtle

3.  A technology that is more flexible

4.  Use technology to enhance physical space rather than virtual space Participants gave their thoughts on how technology should work for them

References [1] Ardito, C., Buono, P., Costabile, M. F. Involving end users to create software supporting visits to cultural heritage sites. pp. 157 -- 162. (2011)

[2] Openexhibits, http://openexhibits.org/what-is-open-exhibits/

[3] Taxen, G. Introducing Participatory Design in Museums. pp. 204 – 213. (2004)

[4] Rossou, M., Kavalieratou, E., Doulgeridis, M. Children Designers in the Museum: Applying Participatory Design for the Development of an Art Education Program. pp. 77 – 80. (2007)