c. Editions At Play/Google Creative Lab (2017)
In the last decade electronic books have grown immensely in popularity and in recent years the Literature world has started to produce interactive ebooks that play with the invisibility of digital through the use of software such as geotagging, remote access, copying and sharing. What would happen then if a Library were to try and exhibit work such as this? Traditionally, books are displayed in cases, closed or open to a certain page, they are treated as an artefact and their objectiveness is displayed alongside object labels serving to address their content and legacy in society. In this short essay, I wish to explore the limitations/potential of these digital technologies in offering alternative forms of engagement via participation in displays and argue against treating digital content in the same way as physical materials.
We now live in a digital age. Indeed, Frith and Kalin (2016) argue that new digital technologies are so intertwined within our daily life it has become the norm to create our own archives of memory by using applications such as Foursquare and Facebook, which offer services to ‘check in’ and record travel. This is not a static archive, ‘by actively cultivating the routes they track or the places they record, people show how identity can be shaped through the accumulation of certain memories of place and mobility’ (Frith et al, 2016, p. 51). Hence, as we can alter, manipulate and delete our experiences online, we in essence have the power to curate how we would like to be seen by others. A potential problem suggested from this might be that we now feel less need to savour the value in a specific moment as it is able to be instantly captured digitally, thus capturing it this way might be a shallow experience, the study ultimately argues more research should continue (ibid).
In Mobilising connections with art Ross, Knox, Sowton and Speed, C. (2019) critically reflect on the Artcasting research project, which utilised day to day uses of mobile technology to experiment with ways of recording data and reviewing how visitors ‘cast’ their experiences onto artworks in galleries. Through the use of an app (as an object to think rather than to buy) visitors were asked to choose an artwork and ‘cast’ it geographically to a map, adding their comments for doing so. Ross et al suggests that utilising a mobile app moves toward methods of collaboration and coproduction by connecting people imaginatively to art, sometimes directly and other times ephemerally. Overall it was suggested that these digital experiments could be helpful for colleagues in the cultural sector to push towards a site of real exchange. The project (and it’s critical reflection) also explored aspects of authority and implied a potential shift from institutions being the sole voice of a piece of work, addressing a larger issue that taps into how big societal challenges of inquiry, openness and inclusion should be reflected in institutional spaces.
Editions at Play, a partnership between Visual Editions and Google Creative Labs to experiment with new ways of engaging with digital books, is a relevant example of how digital technology is currently functioning in our society and is not merely a gimmick but here to stay. Their short ebooks are playful and promote viewers to recognise hidden digital mechanics. A selection of examples include All This Rotting, where text is coded to react to gestural actions, making words and sentences gradually disappear and in turn creates a new story by form of dissociation; Breathe, which uses geotagging and remote sharing to incorporate the user into a ghost story, one made more haunting through including personal details of the user’s location and camera and Entrances & Exits, which uses the street view interface from Google maps to tell a love story through real locations existing in the world.
These experiments all rely on the idea of using digital technology to enhance a user’s emotional connection to a story as well as their potential for imposing meaning onto objects through association. Perhaps the best example that encapsulates themes of ownership and self reflectivity is A Universe Explodes, where blockchain technology allows users to edit and pass on the book to another, creating multiple copies, the story that was originally about the disintegration of a parent’s world is thus digitally edited to nothing. To try to exhibit an ebook like this as an artefact would to be a disservice in that it’s objectiveness, unlike a physical book, is hidden. Whereas books are bound in physical material, digital books move across various devices, their mobility asks for a participatory act instead of an objective one.
Perhaps when exhibiting born digital content we should then should consider the effectiveness of a designated space that invites participation as part of the exposition. Kidd (2014) suggests the museum (or institution) in the new media age is conflicted between ‘internalism’ and ‘externalism’, i.e. the want of an institution to sustain their historical voice (and tradition in displaying collections) but also to throw it off in favour of a new and contemporary approach. With this in mind, Kidd suggests a reinvention of consumption, remixing the institution itself to perhaps try to find a balance between both, however, a certain bend on the institution’s behalf would be necessary to achieve this, ‘If museums and galleries want to genuinely embrace the affordances of remix, they would do well to relax their understanding of their own authority, and their assessments of who and what constitutes creativity’ (Kidd, 2014, p. 134).
In conclusion, from briefly exploring the the new opportunities afforded through digital technology as an alternative form of engagement, I would suggest that our thinking and approaches should change with regard to displaying digital content to be considerate of digital’s basis of mobility and participation. Instead, an alternative method for displaying ebooks that challenges traditional display methods should be employed. I acknowledge to do this would be to remix a Library’s method of traditional display, which, although requiring a big readjustment of thinking and practicality, would be ultimately beneficial in helping visitors engage with Literary heritage, which has already embraced digital as a viable method of delivery.
Crouch, D. (2015) ‘Affect, Heritage, Feeling’, in Waterton, E. and Watson, S. (eds). The Palgrave Handbook of Contemporary Heritage Research, London: Palgrave Macmillan pp. 177–190. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137293565_11.
Editions at Play (2020) A Universe Explodes Available at: https://editionsatplay.withgoogle.com/#!/detail/free-241 (Accessed: 22 February 2020).
Editions at Play (2020) All This Rotting Available at: https://editionsatplay.withgoogle.com/#!/detail/free-rotting (Accessed: 22 February 2020).
Editions at Play (2020) Breathe Available at: https://editionsatplay.withgoogle.com/#!/detail/free-breathe (Accessed: 22 February 2020).
Editions at Play (2020) Entrances & Exits Available at: https://editionsatplay.withgoogle.com/#!/detail/free-entrances-and-exits (Accessed: 22 February 2020).
Editions at Play (2020) Our Books Available at: https://editionsatplay.withgoogle.com (Accessed: 22 February 2020).
Frith, J. and Kalin, J. (2016) ‘Here, I Used to Be Mobile Media and Practices of Place-Based Digital Memory’, Space and Culture, 19(1), pp. 43- 55. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1206331215595730.
Kidd, J. (2014) Museums in the New Mediascape: Transmedia, Participation, Ethics. Surrey: Ashgate Publishing Limited.
Ross, J., Knox. J., Sowton, C. and Speed, C., (2019) ‘Mobilising connections with art: Artcasting and the digital articulation of visitor engagement with cultural heritage’, International Journal of Heritage Studies, 25(4), pp. 395–414. DOI: 10.1080/13527258.2018.1493698
Stewart, E. and Kirby, V. (1998) ‘Interpretive Evaluation: Towards a Place Approach’, International Journal of Heritage Studies, 4(1), pp. 30–44. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13527259808722217.
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