With New Eyes I See: embodiment, empathy and silence in digital heritage interpretation

Jenny Kidd

doi:10.1080/13527258.2017.1341946

Abstract

With New Eyes I See (WNEIS) was an immersive and itinerant digital heritage encounter exploring the exploitation of empathy made possible in such emergent formats. Located ‘in the wild’, and timed to coincide with the 2014 Centenary of the First World War, WNEIS transformed Cardiff’s civic centre as previously inaccessible stories and archival materials were projected onto, and playfully manipulated by, buildings and the natural environment. The research that underpinned the project unearthed a hitherto untold story about the experiences and fates of those who left their posts at Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales to go and fight in WW1. Focusing on the story of Botanist Cyril Mortimer Green, and moving between past and present, known and unknown, presence and absence, participants encountered a re-scripting and multiple layering of the cityscape, and an uneasy archaeology of the museological endeavour. WNEIS foregrounded opportunities for touching, listening and feeling; as such it was a multimodal form of investigation for participants. This article uses focus group materials to explore the intersecting themes of ‘embodiment’, ‘empathy’ and ‘silence’ that emerged in reflections. It reveals an audience ready for digital cultural heritage that embraces ambiguity in the examination and negotiation of meaning.

Highlights

With New Eyes I See (WNEIS) was an itinerant digital heritage encounter funded by the REACT Knowledge Exchange Hub for the Creative Economy.1 It was an experiment in taking narrative beyond the screen or the interpretation panel, working with archival materials to tell stories ‘in the wild’.2 Timed to coincide with the 2014 Centenary of the First World War, WNEIS transformed the civic centre of Cardiff, Wales’ capital city, as previously inaccessible archival materials were physically projected onto, and playfully manipulated by, buildings and the natural environment
With New Eyes I See (WNEIS) was an immersive and itinerant digital heritage encounter exploring the exploitation of empathy made possible in such emergent formats
The project was a partnership between Cardiff University and yello brick, in collaboration with Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales (AC-NMW)

Summary

Introduction

With New Eyes I See (WNEIS) was an itinerant digital heritage encounter funded by the REACT Knowledge Exchange Hub for the Creative Economy. It was an experiment in taking narrative beyond the screen or the interpretation panel, working with archival materials to tell stories ‘in the wild’.2 Timed to coincide with the 2014 Centenary of the First World War, WNEIS transformed the civic centre of Cardiff, Wales’ capital city, as previously inaccessible archival materials were physically projected onto, and playfully manipulated by, buildings and the natural environment. As a result of that ambiguity individuals scripted other aspects of the landscape into the story, such as the poppy wreaths from Armistice Day (November 11 in the UK) that surrounded the WW1 memorial, and that became a part of their physical experience of those spaces even though we had not anticipated their presence They would not be there for others participating in WNEIS at other times of the year. Participants were very aware of this as a live space of possibility; ‘It felt like people might intrude on our experience, or we might intrude on theirs’ (FG3) They wanted WNEIS to work with the elements of discomfort and risk that the environment inevitably introduced and not to find ways of containing them, evidencing a desire to make ‘this familiar space not familiar ...

Conclusion

Notes on contributor