2. Motivation:
Our experience of heritage/art/culture is
progressively mediated by digital applications
delivered on mobile platforms.
Embedded in our everyday life
Every use of heritage/art apps (and indeed any
kind of technology) subtly changes/shapes our
own sense of heritage/art/culture and so forth.
Evaluating how we experience
heritage/art/culture with or through
technology is fundamental in understanding
heritage experience(s) at large.
3. A ‘wicked
problem’:
How do we experience
heritage / art / culture with
or through mobile
applications?
How do we evaluate the
‘felt experience’ of
heritage/art apps?
8. Rock
Art on
Mobile
Phones
Research project at Newcastle University
Funder: Arts and Humanities Research Council
3 web apps for 3 rock art sites in rural
Northumberland + a desktop site
Launched in Lordenshaw (near Rothbury) in July
2011
Participatory design approach
7,011 sessions (71.89% new sessions); 5,059 users;
at least 290 new users in-situ
10. Using the
app to
discover rock
art panels
I liked the sense of discovery.When
you're looking at-you've got the
little map and you actually find the
things. [i.e. rock art panels]
And some of those things are quite
hard to see, when you're actually in
front of the rock. (P1)
In some weird way it almost
becomes like a little adventure to
find it, you know? We became, like,
really determined to find it, kind of
like, “Where is it? I gotta find it”, so
I think people will look for it if they
know that one's there. (P3)
11. Integrating
the app in
the
exploration
of cup and
ring marks
Yeah, it wasn’t immediately
obvious to me where the ring
marks were.You could see
one clearly and that was
because of the first picture,
you knew what you were
looking for.They are quite
good representational of the
rock you’re looking at – you
tell by the shape of the rock
where you are. Even though
it’s not on the rock before you
go to the map, but when you
look at the map it’s much
more obvious
where the
ring patterns
are.
And you find
quite a lot
of them. (P1)
12. Recognising
own internal
responses in
the dialogic
content of
the app
P4:When she was saying, ‘That could be, I think that
was more ritual or, you know, in the woods,’ but he
was like, ‘Ah, but if you think about it, the wood
wouldn't have been here-‘ rather than, ‘definitely
wasn't’.
P3: Absolutely.The fact that, like, she was making
comments about things that I had already made
comments on, you know, just like what you said – “I
can't believe it, people were here, making some of
these things six thousand years ago”, that literally, 15
minutes beforehand, so when I heard her say it I was
just like, ‘There you go’. So, it makes it feel like
people are up there with you, even if someone’s up
there by themselves, you get the sense that there are
two other people there, you know?
14. Connection
with the
landscape
The heather – was out, purple, gorgeous. So much about
the individual elements of the land. So, like the gorse. Kept
stepping around it, and the ferns as well. All these
elements have their own look and personality.They stuck
out to me clearly, and the rock art was just another part of
the landscape. (P2)
15. Points of
dissatisfaction
and the
‘evaluation
effect’
The informal style of content challenged the
participants who often mentioned in the debriefing
interviews that they needed:
More content
More detailed content
More assertive/authoritative content
BUT
Not too much content so it is easily accessible in the
field
Not too authoritative content so they could still
feel that they could question and speculate about it
Some participants also felt that, surely, there was
more information than the app was letting 0n
16. Second
Moon
Art project by British artist Katie Paterson
Commissioned by: Locus+,TWAM, Newcastle
University’s Institute for Creative Arts Practice
Funders: Arts Council England, Catherine Cookson
Foundation
Part of 2013 British Science Festival
Launched in Newcastle, GNM: Hancock (August
2013)
17. It involved:
A fragment of moon rock ‘orbiting’ around the earth
for one year using commercial airfreight
An app to visualise the travels of the fragment in
relation to one’s own position and the orbit of the
moon (iOS and Android, c. 1,880 downloads)
Exhibitions of the fragment along its route
Educational activities and engagement programme
delivered by GNM: Hancock
18. Objective:
Tocaptureuser
response tothe
mobile app
componentofthe
commission
Evaluation
approach:
7 Second Moon self-selected app users
Final four weeks of the project (last orbit)
Online diary using Google docs
Open ended ‘blank’ pages + optional
textual and visual prompts
Participants were asked to:
‘live with’ the app
record a minimum of 6 entries
record a final/wrap up entry if they wished to
19. Meet Mary
andTom
(pseudonyms)
2 out of 7 diarists in the Second Moon evaluation
Mary
50 years old
Darlington
Art student with interest in art + science
(25 entries; 2,242 words)
Tom
40 years old
Majorca
Art critic and curator
(12 entries; 1,516 words)
20. Mary
Monday 25 August
How was your first visit to Second Moon?
At first sight it feels quite simplistic, but I looked at it several
times on the first day, and then I started noticing how far the
(real) moon moves in just a few hours. It gave me a new
appreciation for the distance that separates the earth and the
moon for it to be travelling so fast.
I was a little disappointed that the second moon seemed to be
stuck and not moving, but it made me curious about where it
was. Zooming in told me something about how the place
looked (where it was stuck), but I couldn't identify it with a
name - was it Canada or USA. So then I found myself googling
that latitude to try to discover which town it was in. I think it
turned out to be in Oregon somewhere - presumably waiting to
clear customs.
At first I thought the app would be better if it named the places
where second moon has stopped or was travelling over. But
then I decided I quite enjoyed trying to figure that out for
myself.
21. Mary
Sunday 31 August
I’ve been checking the app, but keep forgetting to log
into the diary (would be good if I could get to the
diary from the app and just do it immediately).
so some of the following entries as remembered days
later - and maybe a bit mixed up in terms of where
the moon and second moon were. But my feelings
and thoughts are accurate.
22. Mary
Thursday 4 September
Second Moon is flying over China - just north of
Nanjing. Makes me think of all the lovely people I
met when I lived in China.
[...]
23. Tom
Thursday 4 September
I’ve placed my iPad on the desk and left it
there with the app running, as a second
screen or maybe a window. It sits to the
right of my computer. […]
On the iPad, the Second Moon flies over
some Chinese region. I’ve zoomed in so I
can see the land, the cities, rivers and
lakes.The aerial view scrolls slowly while
the pulsating white circle stays firmly in
the center of the screen. It feels like
looking at a landscape, and for some
reason, it is quite relaxing, like looking out
the window of an airplane.
24. Mary
Wednesday 10 September
How long did you spend with the Second Moon App
today?
Not long - It has started to repeat itself. I’m looking
for some new insight.
25. Mary
Saturday 13 September
I travelled to the north of Scotland and it was good to
see my position moving on the map!
(I think this second moon experience has reminded
me that I’m a traveller by nature, and sitting still feels
like missing out on all the things there are to see and
experience)
26. Mary
Second Moon has now landed.
How would you sum up your experience of the Second Moon
App?
I think I’d sum up my experience as one of gaining perspective.
It’s been interesting to stand so far back from the earth and
think about the movement of the moon around our planet and
our planet in the solar system, and our solar system in the
vastness of space. I can begin to see how some people obsess
about the idea of finding other life out there ...its impossibly
sad, and scary to think that we are alone.
It’s also given me perspective on the busy way we lead our
earthbound lives, and the odd ways in which we carve up this
planet into territories and languages and tribes. In the grand
scheme of the universe whatever we do on a daily basis is
pretty meaningless!
Thanks for giving me the opportunity to take part...and best of
luck with the project.
27. Tom
Second Moon has now landed.
How would you sum up your experience of the Second
Moon App?
When I first installed the app, after watching it for a while I
closed it and never opened it again because I thought “I had
seen it”, just as when you watch a painting or another type
of artwork and, although you may be fascinated by it, there
comes a moment when you tell yourself that’s it, ok, I’ve
seen it, and then you move onto the next thing.
I was wrong when I came to the same conclusion watching
Second Moon for the first time. After writing this diary (the
best I could, given that my travels turned out to be more
distracting than inspiring for this experience) I have
understood that I was not looking at an artwork, in the
sense of something finished (as most artworks are: the result
of a process), but that I was witnessing an event.
28. The ‘diary
effect’
Stimulated participants to do repeat use of the
app over 2-4 weeks
Diary format engender a special kind of
attention – self-reflection and imagination
Diary prompts catalysed specific direction in
people's interest (deep interest vs. peripheral
use)
HOWEVER
The diaries allowed us to see the ‘felt experience’
of the app in action
29. 5 lessons
we learnt
about apps:
Heritage/art apps cannot be all things to all
people
Good usability ≠ meaningful experiences BUT
meaningful experiences require good usability
People make sense and appropriate technology
throughout their experience – scaffolding
people’s experience with technology enhances
their heritage/art experience
Mobile apps do not fragment/distract from the
heritage/art experience, unless they are
‘designed’ to do so, or they are bad design.
Experience of heritage/art apps is made of
‘micro-moments’ – experience of heritage/art
with or through apps extends beyond these
micro-moments.
30. Tensions and
opportunities in
evaluating the
‘felt experience’
ofmobile
heritage/art apps
Opportunities
The evaluation process is an extension of the
meaning making process through the recounting
of the experience – this is not a weakness of
experience-driven methods.
Capture change as a result of sense making
The boundaries between evaluating and
studying are blurred – evaluation is not the end
of a process
Tensions
Resist the ‘value reduction’ approaches to
evaluation of art/culture/heritage
Capturing the sensory and embodied aspects of
use requires commitment
The research /evaluation methods themselves
are reflexive – ambiguity
31. WithThanks
to:
RAMP project: Dr Aron Mazel, Dr Debbie Maxwell
AHRC (AH/H037608/1)
http://rockartmob.ncl.ac.uk
Second Moon project: Ms Rebecca Farley
ACE, NICAP, Locus+,TWAM
Notes de l'éditeur
Wicked = resisting resolution
Situated: dependent on the given context
Discoverability of rock art
Sites: Neolithic - Early Bronze Age; approx. 1600 rock art panels - abstract motives, ‘ring and cup’ marks; best-documented regional collection
Imparting information about science and art
Relation between our continually revised anticipation and actuality that creates the space of experience (p49, wright)
Shorter diary = 122 words
Kate
38 years old
Newcastle upon Tyne
Design researcher
(8 entries; 1,638 words)
