From Meaning-making to Meaning-sharing: Participatory Interpretation in a 3D Virtual Heritage Site

Abstract

Recent advances in digital heritage have led to participatory interpretation that enables the creation of content provided by individuals as well as content from official cultural institutions. Although researchers have developed systems supporting participatory interpretation, little is known about how people experience participatory interpretation that is socially generated. To investigate this, we developed a mobile Virtual Reality application called MyInterpret and conducted a user study with 17 participants. The study results showed that user-generated interpretation significantly improving user experience, participants created and perceived user-generated interpretation differently from the official interpretation, and social features were used for engaging with user-generated content. We outline the implications of our work for curators and designers, and discuss how they may benefit from considering `participatory interpretation' in the future.