Digital Tools in the Service of Difficult Heritage: How Recent Research Can Benefit Museums and their Audiences

该提案旨在实现AHRC“文化价值”项目AH/L014424/1“体验数字世界：数字参与遗产的文化价值”的意想不到的影响。我们将与国家大屠杀中心、萨克雷医学博物馆和科学博物馆合作，以实现原始项目关于数字工具如何支持与不同受众共同制作博物馆展览和资源的发现的实际潜力。虽然这种潜力是在最初的项目中发现的，但我们现在寻求测试这可能在实践中如何工作。我们的三个合作伙伴都参与了最初的项目，目前正在根据我们的研究结果重新制定他们的数字战略，目的是扩大他们的访问者的人口统计范围，并寻找新的更好的方法来吸引访问者，特别是在探索困难的历史、具有挑战性的主题和创伤经历方面。我们的后续资金项目将使我们的合作伙伴能够实现这些目标，确保他们以一种他们自己无法实现的方式实现我们最初项目的全部影响潜力。此外，它还将产生与学术团队中其他专业领域的协同效应，这些领域在最初的项目中没有明确引用，这将以我们以前未曾设想的方式显著扩大其影响。国家大屠杀中心目前的重点是与不同族裔的小学生群体合作，在当代关于社会歧视和偏见的辩论中探索大屠杀的遗产。萨克雷医学博物馆正在开发一个关于分娩及其伴随风险的新展览，希望通过参观者的经历来了解这一展览。科学博物馆希望与残疾人支持团体合作举办一场展览，展示第一次世界大战对我们对残疾和精神疾病的理解的影响。我们将与每个博物馆合作，利用数字参与的潜力，与博物馆正在寻求接触的适当社区团体共同制作在线展览和支持数字材料，同时也为每个博物馆提供机会，学习参与该项目的其他博物馆的经验。这些案例可以为数字技术如何改变我们与遗产的接触提供宝贵的见解：经验教训可以被证明对其他博物馆、美术馆和遗产组织有用，这些组织寻求将他们的策展战略开放给新的方法、想法和经验。

This proposal sets out to realize unanticipated impacts of the AHRC 'Cultural Value' project AH/L014424/1 'Experiencing the Digital World: the Cultural Value of Digital Engagement with Heritage'. We will work with the National Holocaust Centre, the Thackray Medical Museum and the Science Museum to realize the practical potential of the original project's findings on the ways in which digital tools can support the co-production of museum exhibitions and resources with diverse audiences. While this potential was uncovered during the original project, we now seek to test how this might work in practice. Our three partners, all of which were involved in the original project, are currently redeveloping their digital strategies in the light of our research findings, with the aims of broadening the demographic range of their visitors, and seeking new and better ways to engage visitors, particularly in the exploration of 'difficult' histories, challenging subjects and traumatic experiences. Our follow-on funding project will allow our partners to achieve these aims, ensuring that they realize the full impact potential of our original project in a way that could not be attained on their own. Moreover, it will also generate synergies with other areas of expertise within the academic team, not explicitly invoked in the original project, that will significantly enhance its reach in ways we had not previously envisaged. The National Holocaust Centre is currently focused on working with ethnically-diverse groups of primary-school children to explore the legacy of the Holocaust in contemporary debates on social discrimination and prejudice. The Thackray Medical Museum is developing a new exhibition on childbirth and its attendant risks, which it wishes to be informed by the experience of its visitors. The Science Museum is looking to work with disabilities support groups on an exhibition about the impact of the First World War on our understanding of disability and mental illness. We will work with each museum to exploit the potential of digital engagement to co-produce an online exhibition and supporting digital materials with appropriate community groups that the museums are seeking to reach, while also providing an opportunity for each to learn from the experience of the other museums involved in the project. These cases can provide valuable insight into how digital technologies can transform our engagement with heritage: lessons which can prove useful for other museums, galleries and heritage organisations seeking to open their curatorial strategy to new approaches, ideas and experiences.