Material Experience Framework in Cultural Heritage

Abstract

To make sense of a cultural heritage (CH) artefacts, we can analyze them through various lenses, by for instance focusing on the pictorial/textual content, the medium, and/or the (historical) context. In the design of a cultural heritage experience, stakeholders make choices which and how such insights get represented, and how they relate to the interactions users have with or through a (digital) medium. These choices - and its effects on the overall experience - often remain underlit, specifically on the role of an artifact’s material experience. Therefore, I propose an approach to analyze the material experience of a CH artefacts, on the sensorial (i.e., how people sense materials), interpretive (i.e., meanings evoked by materials), affective (i.e., emotions elicited by materials), and performative (i.e., actions elicited by materials) level (Giaccardi and Karana, 2015). This characterization is exemplified with a case study on (historical) pop-up and movable books. I also present two extended reality prototypes, designed to explore how this material characterization - clustered into material qualities - could be used to inspire novel interactions, with aim to enhance 1) the material experience of, and 2) the narrative engagement with a pop-up and movable book. Reflecting on this design exercise, I argue that we need to apend existing frameworks and tools, to support designers in ‘choreographing’ – and evaluating - experiences across different experiential levels and analytical lenses. As a starting point, I propose a preliminary framework, supporting designers to articulate the role of materiality in the to-be-designed (digital) experience. Finally, I argue that the focus on an artefact’s material experience can open up avenues to operationalizing the concept of “experiential authenticity” (Penrose, 2020), moving beyond striving to be ‘as-realistic-as-possible’.