Media Stories: An Integrative Storytelling In Physical And Virtual Spaces

Otmar Moritsch, Technisches Museum Wien, Austria
http://www.tmw.at

Session: Interface Design

The development of multidimensional storytelling embedded in physical exhibitions is investigated by the example of the new permanent exhibition medien.welten, at the Technisches Museum Wien (Vienna), which deals with history of media.

Starting from traditional exhibitions with physical objects and artefacts displayed with printed text and pictures, the extension and integration of a virtual exhibition layer with digital objects and multimedia will be investigated systematically. Within the virtual layer, a two-dimensional ordering structure related to topic and time allows following stories in vertical and horizontal lines. The two dimensions make it possible to organize the stories not only according to one specific topic in chronological order, but also according to a specific time period with a topic order. Each element in this two-dimensional matrix also has inner dimensions, i.e. spaces with digital objects, for deeper levels of detailed stories and further digital exhibition spaces. The system allows access via the Web with individual user profiles.

The embedding of a scientific publication platform, which is directly connected to the matrix structure, allows an interactive forum for topic-related contributions. The multi-user system also allows external experts to produce and edit content in the publication area. The whole system has recursive cycles where the content generated by the contributions in the publication platform can be used by curators to extend any of the physical or virtual parts of the exhibition system.