Designing Postdigital Curators: Establishing an Interdisciplinary Games and Mixed Reality Cultural Heritage Network

Abstract

As digital technologies have become more integrated in museum and cultural heritage contexts over the past decade, digital museums enter a new phase of coming into their own. This opens up opportunities for the incorporation of cutting-edge multiplayer gaming technologies and immersive mixed reality (MR) systems. To support nuanced and original engagement with the newly pervasive nature of the digital in museums, an interdisciplinary group of international researchers, designers, and museum professionals have established a new network: the Designing Digital Heritage Network (DDHN). The network operates to support research, design production, interdisciplinary collaboration, and the development of innovative new pedagogies and programs to ‘design’ the postdigital curators of the future. This paper outlines the mission and vision of the DDHN, and suggests initial directions for future research in the postdigital heritage field focused on interdisciplinary, performative, and game design approaches to production and exhibition.