International Conference of

Virtual Terra Mosana: Sustainable

Digital Heritage

Reality
Interactive
Narratives in
Transmedia
Cultural
Heritage Jonathan Barbara1,2 , Mads Haahr1

Experiences 1Trinity College Dublin

2Saint Martin’s Institute of Higher Education
Overview
• Virtual Reality and Cultural Heritage
• Transmedia Storytelling and Cultural Heritage
• West-Coast Approach
Tangible cultural heritage : physically bound to a space and time
Intangible cultural heritage : may be undressed of its meaning
if separated from the tangible cultural space where it originates (Bouchenaki, 2003).
Digital Accessibility
• Increasing need for digital accessibility
• as cultural heritage becomes inaccessible due to
• preservation (Trizio et al., 2019),
• natural (Spennemann & Graham, 2007) or
• human disasters (Al Azm, 2015; Ferreira, 2019), or
• worldwide travel limitations (Samaroudi et al., 2020).
 • The digitalization of tangible cultural heritage
• reconciling preservation and digital accessibility,
• A foundation for intangible cultural heritage,
• ‘the experiential aspect of cultural heritage’
(Ch’ng et al., 2018, p. v).

A New Purpose
Immersive Experiences
not limited to a single medium
use multiple delivery channels to surround the viewer with content
Transmedia Storytelling (Jenkins, 2006).
Cinema

Novel
Audience Comic

… Storyworld
VR IDN
Transmedia Storytelling in Cultural Heritage
KLUB (Holloway-Attaway & Vipsjö, 2020)
Augmented Reality enhanced children’s book series

Basaraba (2020)
expanding IDN systems
by remixing existing
cultural heritage
narratives into an
interactive documentary (iDoc).
Museums
• Use multiple media to convey their historic
information
• but have not kept up with developments in
transmedia storytelling (Mateos-Rusillo & Gifreu-
Castells, 2018).
 Attempts to use transmedia in cultural heritage contexts have used museums
as sites for technology-delivered narratives without the museum itself being
considered as one of the transmedia narratives (Corallo et al., 2019).

Mateos‐Rusillo, S. M., & Gifreu‐Castells, A. (2018). Transmedia Storytelling and Its Natural Application in Museums.
The Case of the Bosch Project at the Museo Nacional del Prado. Curator: The Museum Journal, 61(2), 301-313.
Promoting the Museum
• UNESCO recommends to protect and promote the role of museums
(UNESCO, 2015)
• highly recommended to revolve transmedia themes around the
museum’s narrative (Schärer, 2015).
VR as a transmedia narrative
• Virtual Reality as part of
the transmedia arsenal is
in its infancy
(Hergenrader, 2020)
• opportunities for
exploration.
Theoretical Framework

• ‘West-Coast’ approach
transmedia model (Phillips, 2012) Cultural Heritage
• the museum as the ‘mothership’
(Jenkins, 2014) Museum Site VRIN
• the archaeological site and its
environmental storytelling
(Livingstone et al., 2016) Consistent Narrative
• virtual reality interactive narratives Experience
for participatory involvement
West-Coast Approach
• Blockbuster as the main canon
• Extensions of blockbuster
• In same or other media
• Sequels, prequels, interquels…
• Spin-offs

• Transmedia extensions are a hindsight

• As opposed to East-Coast where transmedia is a planned endeavour
West-Coast approach in Cultural Heritage
• The ‘unintentional’ blockbuster is the tangible cultural heritage
• Site
• Artefact
• The museum is the transmedial extension
• Providing back-story
• Detail for the engaged visitor
• Using audio-visual interpretation of site and artefacts
• Recently adopting interactive digital installations
• Or is it?
West-Coast approach in Cultural Heritage
• Transmedia Storytelling is about the narrative
• The site or artefact is the story (fabula)
• The museum is the narrative (sjuzet)
• It tells the historian’s narrative of the cultural heritage
• The museum is the blockbuster
• Delivering the main interpretation of the site or artefact
• Usually hosts the original artefacts, safe from the exposed site
• Sometimes far away from the site itself in another country (e.g. British museums)
• A controlled environment that affords customisation
• While keeping the site safe from cultural contamination
The Site as a Secondary Narrative
• Limited means of narration
• to contain site integrity
• Depending on site, ability to contain interpretation may be minimal
• Mobile means of narration
• Leaflets
• Audio guides
• Smart devices
• Environmental Storytelling
• Using the site’s geography to drive the narrative
• How much agency is the visitor allowed?
• Milestone-driven tours
Virtual Reality as the third narrative
• VR representations of site for conservation purposes
• 3D models
• Laser scans / LIDAR
• Photogrammetry
• Affords different treatment from original site
• Safe modification of site’s representation
• Augmentation
• Destruction
• Decoration
• Repurposing
• Closer inspection
• Accessibility
VR as recontextualisation of Tangible Heritage
• Ability to represent artefacts in their original environment
• Augments interpretation of the artefact
• Augments interpretation of the site
• Safe for the physical artefact
• Safe for the physical site
VR as recontextualisation of Intangible Heritage
• Ability to digitally re-enact
behaviour within the site
• Redresses intangible cultural
heritage with meaning
• Augments the form of the site
with the function of the ritual
Virtual Reality as the Interactive Narrative
• VR Interactive Narratives
• Afford multi-perspectivity in case of uncertainty
• Official vs unofficial interpretations
• Personal interpretation
• Encourage repeat visits
Example Scenario: The Sleeping Lady in the
Neolithic Hypogeum

Burial site Death

Ossuary Sleeping

Fertility?

Temple Goddess
 Concluding Remarks

• Use the museum as • Use VR to safely

recontextualise the
the blockbuster artefact and the
behaviour back into its
• Do not force a site
narrative onto the • Support multiple
museum perspective with VR
interactive narratives

jbarbara@stmartins.edu