The Social Production of Heritage through Cross‐media Interaction: Making Place for Place‐making

Abstract

The living relationship between intangible and tangible forms of heritage, as well as natural and cultural heritage, is a situated one, always in place. Information and communications technology (ICT) is opening up new ways of experiencing and thinking about heritage by allowing for cross‐media interaction. By combining different media and technologies, cross‐media interaction supports the social production of heritage and creates ‘infrastructures’ that act as places of cultural production and lasting values at the service of a living heritage practice.

Keywords:

• Community
• Cross‐media Interaction
• Heritage
• Participation
• Place
• Social Production

Notes

[1] Malpas, Place and Experience.

[2] Malpas, this issue.

[3] Kalay et al., New Heritage.

[4] Munjeri, ‘Tangible and Intangible Heritage’; Lowenthal, ‘Natural and Cultural Heritage’; Davis, ‘New Museologies and the Ecomuseum’.

[5] Benedetti, ‘Virtuality and Reality in Enterprise's Museum, Art Museum, Archeological Sites’.

[6] Munjeri, ‘Tangible and Intangible Heritage’, 13.

[7] Plumwood, Environmental Culture; Rodman, ‘Empowering Place’; Schech and Haggis, Culture and Development.

[8] Kato, ‘Community, Connection and Conservation’.

[9] Setten, ‘Farming the Heritage’, 74.

[10] Kirshenblatt‐Gimblett, ‘Intangible Heritage as Metacultural Production’.

[11] Dourish, ‘Re‐space‐ing Place’; McCullough, Digital Ground.

[12] Erickson, ‘From Interface to Interplace’; Harrison and Dourish, ‘Re‐place‐ing Space’; Dourish, ‘Re‐space‐ing Place’.

[13] McCarthy and Wright, ‘Technology in Place’, 920.

[14] Dourish and Bell, ‘The Experience of Infrastructure and the Infrastructure of Experience’; Brewer and Dourish, ‘Storied Spaces’.

[15] Dourish, ‘Re‐space‐ing Place’, 304.

[16] Ciolfi and Bannon, ‘Designing Interactive Museum Exhibits’; Heath et al., ‘Crafting Participation’.

[17] Parkes and Thrift, Times, Spaces, and Places.

[18] Moore and Golledge, Environmental Knowing.

[19] Plumwood, Environmental Culture; McCullough, Digital Ground.

[20] http://www.muvilo.it/

[21] http://www.thesilence.org/

[22] Giaccardi, ‘Cross‐media Interaction for the Virtual Museum’.

[23] Locative media are based on technologies for geographical mapping and positioning (e.g. GPS‐equipped smartphones); tangible media are based on the manipulation of physical objects over computational surfaces (e.g. interactive tables).

[24] Giaccardi, ‘Cross‐media Interaction for the Virtual Museum’.

[25] Despite the requests, the number of sound cameras available restricted the number of participants. Those enrolled included writers, engineers, scientists, managers, designers, educators, therapists, musicians and college students, whose ages ranged from 20 to 62 years.

[26] Giaccardi, Freeston, and Matlock, Community of Soundscapes: Results and Evaluation, Internal Report, University of Colorado at Boulder, September 2007.

[27] A soundscape in SOL is the sonic equivalent of a digital photo album, but more immersive and interactive, and annotated with several descriptors.

[28] Fischer, ‘Distances and Diversity’.

[29] Hall, Representation, 3.

[30] Giaccardi, ‘Collective Storytelling’.

[31] Giaccardi et al., Community of Soundscapes: Results and Evaluation, Internal Report, University of Colorado at Boulder, September 2007.

[32] See, for example, the design of the Hunt Museum (McCarthy and Ciolfi, this issue) and the studies conducted at Tate Britain (vom Lehn et al., ‘Engaging Constable’).