For my seminar on Cultural Heritage, I brought the cohort to The Hunt Museum in Limerick City, to explore this topic in context. We were first given a presentation to help us understand the topic of Cultural Heritage, and this was followed by a tour of The Hunt Museum with a docent. The museum houses the private collection of John and Gertrude Hunt. I'll let The Hunt do that for themselves: (*click on the picture below to go to The Hunt's website!*) We were taken on a tour by our docent, with the cohort consider my instruction to think about how a piece in the exhibition could be made more interactive. They could choose either our favourite piece, or a piece that could lend itself to an interesting display of interactivity. I decided that it would be pedagogic practice for me to participate fully, included demonstrating the thinking behind my design decisions, so I selected a Roman figure. In the Roman section of the exhibition stood a small, jade-coloured figurine with a case seen below. The figurine was a Roman man with his hands clasped in front of him, wearing a barbarian robe and a band on his head. Although the museum says that it is difficult to date this piece, they have placed it between the 4th and 5th centuries, with its accompanying case dated to the 17th century. Although the tour with the docent was informative and enjoyable, not everybody wants to attend a guided tour. Also, some of the pieces being spoken about may not be of interest to the individuals on a standard tour, and a visitor may want to know more about the pieces not spoken about. Each docent has their own style, likes and dislikes, therefore each tour may be different depending on your guide. For example, our docent did not speak much about the Roman and Egyptian sections, but these were the sections of most interest to me. However he did speak for an extended period about the sections that depicted Christianity, Jesus, and the Saints, which may not resonate with or interest someone of little to no religiosity. As there was little information given orally and visually regarding certain artefacts, it can be difficult for some visitors to get an appreciation of the various aspects of collection. All of this is to say that a standard guided tour may not suit some museum visitors. This is where my idea comes in.
I developed a storyboard to articulate how I envisioned The Roman Guide would operate in the museum. The storyboard depicts a history student, Amy, touring the museum. As she comes to the Roman section of the museum she sees a new interactive feature; The Roman Guide. Amy is interested in the artefacts present in the Roman section, so decides to use The Roman Guide to learn more about these artefacts. When she first picks up The Roman Guide she puts sees the screen saying 'I am The Roman Guide'. She follows the instructions on screen, which tell her to put on headphones if she would like to hear the stories of the artefacts. The Roman Guide then introduces himself as Avitus, a Roman senator from the 5th century, and tells her that she will hear about the artefacts from his perspective by pointing his head to the NFC tags of the artefacts she wishes to learn about. She points Avitus' head to the first artefact, and the screen Avitus is holding begins to play a short video, with Avitus narrating. Amy continues to explore the artefacts in the Roman section using Avitus as her guide. Once she is finished in this section she returns Avitus to the museum so that he can guide the next visitor through his time. The Roman section of the museum is next to both the Egyptian and Greek sections. I thought therefore that instead of The Roman Guide being the sole interactive guide for the entirety of the museum, the Eye of Horus Amulet, or indeed the Figure of Horus could explore the Egyptian section and the statue of a male figure could explore the Greek section using the same method as The Roman Guide, as I think this would give a more authentic experience of each era.
0 Comments
|
Author: Kim O'SheaThis page will be used to post my assignments from taught modules in UL over the course of my master's prgram. Head over to my portfolio page for a look at some of the work I have done in my undergraduate program of Digital Media Design! Archives
April 2019
Categories |