Augmented Visualisation: Designing Experience for an Interpretative Cultural Heritage

The use of visualisation technologies is well established in digital cultural heritage. The earlier IT challenge of presenting material culture has largely been addressed with the production of high quality digital artefacts. A number of projects have drawn on the potential for augmented visualisation offered by mobile technologies, game engines and responsive environments. Alongside these advances is a recognition that a relevant digital cultural heritage needs to reflect contemporary interpretative practices rather than relying on outmoded systems of material science. While leading research in interpretative heritage has incorporated the hermeneutic aspects of previously lived cultures there have been less recognition of the importance of the users’ role in the formation of cultural knowledge. The paper proposes that we take a step back to investigate the processes of knowledge formation. It provokes a series of new research questions on visualizing cultural heritage knowledge in light of theoretical readings on perception and knowledge formation. It points to the need to devise alternative methods for the design and production of an interpretative digital cultural heritage. Such methods detail the generative potential of a complex process rather than the replication of a complex structure.