Co-constructing cultural heritage through a web-based interactive digital narrative

Abstract

Cultural heritage institutions (CHIs), educators, and the creative industries are increasingly using digital media to engage audiences in new ways such as through edutainment and gamification. The Internet and social media have increased access to information and public participation in digital narratives, and CHIs are beginning to increase their focus on storytelling. This PhD explores how digital media can be used not only to engage and educate, but to foster the co-construction of cultural heritage narratives. Two key challenges are which media and modalities can/should be used to create a purposeful non-fiction IDN and how can public participation be incorporated while avoiding the issue of ludonarrative dissonance. A transdisciplinary approach is used to develop creation and evaluation frameworks for non-fiction IDNs which will be tested on the use case of the UNESCO World Heritage Australia Convict Sites.