Abstract
The emergence of heritage science as an interdisciplinary field of studies over the past couple of decades coincided with a surge of research into audience engagement, politics of display, storytelling and co-creation. Arguably, what remains missing is a study that brings these two hitherto largely distinct fields of studies together. This article focuses on storytelling as a narrative device to increase audience engagement with displays and exhibits, and proposes that by using VR, museums in fact create an ‘other space’, a heterotopia which is especially suited to engaging viewers with difficult stories. The article explores one case study, that of ‘The Eye as Witness: Recording the Holocaust’ travelling exhibition, as a project that has been purposefully designed by a regional UK museum with access to limited resources that is rethinking its story-telling strategy. By drawing on a collaborative approach that brings together experts from museums and universities, and by harnessing the potential of interactive digital technologies, in particular VR, as an integral part of its design, ‘The Eye as Witness’ brings together traditional and innovative ways of audience engagement. The aim? To shift the focus of the museum experience away from being object-based and instead making it experience-focussed.
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Neher, G. (2022). Telling Difficult Stories: VR, Storytelling and Active Audience Engagement in Heritage Sites and Museums. In: Ch'ng, E., Chapman, H., Gaffney, V., Wilson, A.S. (eds) Visual Heritage: Digital Approaches in Heritage Science. Springer Series on Cultural Computing. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-77028-0_25
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