Storyspace

Abstract

In a curated exhibition of a museum or art gallery, a selection of heritage objects and associated information is presented to a visitor for the purpose of telling a story about them. The same underlying story can be presented in a number of different ways. This paper describes techniques for creating multiple alternative narrative structures from a single underlying story, by selecting different organising principles for the events and plot structures of the story. These authorial decisions can produce different dramatic effects. Storyspace is a web interface to an ontology for describing curatorial narratives. We describe how the narrative component of the Storyspace software can produce multiple narratives from the underlying stories and plots of curated exhibitions. Based on the curator's choice, the narrative module suggests a coherent ordering for the events of a story and its associated heritage objects. Narratives constructed through Storyspace can be tailored to suit different audiences and can be presented in different forms, such as physical exhibitions, museum tours, leaflets and catalogues, or as online experiences.

Digital Cultural Items in Space: The Impact of Contextual Information on Presenting Digital Cultural Items

“…The benefits of providing contextual information, both contextual and physical, [55], provides participants with the opportunity to engage in meaning-making as they engage with the DCI and the elements provided by SIT. In essence, participants were self-motivated, exploring the DCI on their own terms, discovering connections and forming relationships in accordance with the visitor-as-curator model encouraged both in analogue and digital museum experiences [15].…”

“…DCIs also provide tools for building narratives, an avenue of research explored by many scholars studying digital cultural heritage. Much work has been undertaken to better understand the role of narrative in learning and meaning-making [9] [30] and has been applied to cultural heritage, with scholars exploring how connections between DCIs might support narrative, and therefore learning [55] [54] [35] [36], as well as the direct application of narrative, as a teaching aid [53] [33]. While our study did not intend to communicate a specific narrative, we observed that given the opportunity, visitors will provide their own narratives, as they engage in meaning-making.…”