=Paper=
{{Paper
|id=Vol-1621/paper10
|storemode=property
|title=CHEST: Cultural Heritage Experience Scrapbook Tool
|pdfUrl=https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-1621/paper10.pdf
|volume=Vol-1621
|authors=Alan Wecker,Tsvi Kuflik,Oliviero Stock
|dblpUrl=https://dblp.org/rec/conf/avi/WeckerKS16
}}
==CHEST: Cultural Heritage Experience Scrapbook Tool==
https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-1621/paper10.pdf
CHEST: Cultural Heritage Experience Scrapbook Tool
Alan J. Wecker Tsvika Kuflik Oliviero Stock
University of Haifa University of Haifa FBK-irst
University of Trento
ajwecker@gmail.com tsvikak@is.haifa.ac.il stock@fbk.eu
ABSTRACT addition we look at possible future directions.
In this short position paper, we present the idea concerning the
utility and makeup of an application to collect cultural heritage
experiences. We take a short look at what has been done in this 2. BACKGROUND
area both from a lifelong cultural heritage perspective and that of 2.1 Lifelong Cultural Heritage
timelines and memory logging visualization. The features for such
Whatever reason brings a person to the museum, they bring with
an application and possible visualizations are discussed. In
them their life experience and their past museum visit experience.
addition we look at possible future directions.
Moreover for a specific the visit they have a limited amount of
time. This is constrained in many aspects, including, the opening
hours of the museum, the time the person has available, their own
CCS Concepts attention span and that of their companions. This is a repeating
• Information systems pattern for any museum visitor. Instead of considering museum
visits as single episodes, it is suggested to take a “lifelong” view
Keywords of the museum experience. It seems particularly promising to
Lifelong cultural heritage; memory loggers, personal timelines; explore how to do this for repeated visits to the same museum,
and to museums that are quite similar or ones that are located
1. INTRODUCTION close to each other and have related exhibitions. In taking a
Since the dawn of recorded history, people enjoy to reminisce and “lifelong” perspective, we have identified four ways to view a
collect artifacts concerning their journeys and cultural museum visit, beyond the single visit view that has been the focus
experiences. Personalities such as Marco Polo and Benjamin from of most work on personalization of the museum experience:
Toledo have kept journals concerning their travels and adventures.
According to Wikipedia (entry Scrapbooking) Single museum, repeat visits: where the user, perhaps with
companions, comes back to the same museum, either to revisit the
Scrapbooking is a method for preserving personal and things that they particularly enjoyed last time or to see new things;
family history in the form of a scrapbook.
Related museums: where there is potential to link the experience
Typical memorabilia include photographs, printed media,
at this museum with previous or future visits at related
and artwork. Scrapbook albums are often decorated and exhibitions, for example groups of museums that are near each
frequently contain extensive journaling. Scrapbooking is a other;
hobby commonly practiced in many parts of world.
What is needed is to bring this idea of scrapbooking into the 21th Independent museums: which are particularly important for
century. That is, given the advent of smartphones, electronic tourists who may only be able to visit a particular museum once,
museum guides, GPS, and social media applications, how can we but they may gain more from that experience if it is linked to their
make the process of scrapbooking easier and perhaps even other museum experiences;
more meaningful for the cultural heritage experience? In Links to rest of user's life: where other aspects of the user's life
addition we wish to provide ways of looking at artifacts from both are related to the personalized experience at this museum, a
a personal and historical perspective or alternatively form a common and important case being the museum visits by school
personal and geolocation perspective. children where the links with classroom experience may be
In this short position paper, we present the idea concerning the critical to the effectiveness of learning.
utility and makeup of an application to collect cultural heritage There are important differences between these views in terms of
experiences. We take a short look at what has been done in this the need for interoperability as well as management of the user
area both from a lifelong cultural heritage perspective and that of model. The list is ordered in increasing complexity. The later
timelines and memory logging visualization. The features for such views introduce the potential for new ways to link a visit to the
an application and possible visualizations are discussed. In rest of the user's life.
2.2 Visualizing Timelines and Memories
Data surrounds each and every one of us in our daily lives,
Copyright © 2016 for this paper by its authors. Copying permitted for ranging from exercise logs, to archives of our interactions with
private and academic purposes. others on social media, to online resources pertaining to our
hobbies. This data, by its nature, has a temporal dimension.
Visualization is an important aid in examining temporal issues.
This is especially true when examining personal events. Over the 3.1 Features
years substantial research attention was invested in visualizing Through these features we can allow the visitor to reflect on,
temporal events and their interrelations, including, also personal, analyze and organize his lifelong experiences, whether they are
lifelong events. Recently, Huang et. al [3], claim that given the repeated visits, related visits, independent visits, or visits
enormous potential for using the enormous personal data that connected to personal interests. Below we describe the individual
surrounds us, and in order to use these data to understand features and their characteristics and then, how they need to be
ourselves better and make positive changes in our lives, integrated in order to provide a holistic view.
Visualization (Vis) and Visual Analytics (VA) offer substantial
opportunities to help individuals gain insights about themselves, 3.1.1 Personal Timeline
their communities and their interests. However, designing tools to One of the fundamental ways that we can organize the scrapbook
support data analysis in non-professional life brings a unique set information is according to the person's individual timeline.
of research and design challenges. They investigated the People tend to remember things as part of their life-flow. (need
requirements and research directions required to take full reference) Thus in addition to raw dates, people might be
advantage of Vis and VA in a personal context and developed a interested in birthdays, anniversaries, starting new jobs and other
taxonomy of design dimensions to provide a coherent vocabulary significant life events. Many personal scrapbook applications such
for discussing Personal Visualization and Personal Visual as Facebook and Google Photos use timelines to organize user
Analytics. While reviewing the current research trends of personal information.
data analysis, they pointed out Enabling Exploration for Curiosity,
Supporting Awareness for Action, Taking Care of Family and 3.1.2 Focus of Interest
Reflecting on Communities as domains where research on Another, complementary, way of organizing cultural heritage
application of visualization and visual analytics focused. They experience information could be according to different historical
noted that the main challenges of VIS and VA are that the tools categories or subcategories which we call "focus of interest". A
developed need to Fit in Personal Routines and Environments, focus of interest is a broad enough subject context to encompass
enable the users Recall of Relevant Context for Reasoning, numerous sites and exhibits and at the same time not too general
Defining Appropriate Baselines for comparisons, System design to have too much content, that would not allow perusal. It also
issues, Privacy and Sharing Issues, Integrating Computer Assisted should be a subject that genuinely interests the user. Each
Analysis and Evaluation of such tools/systems. Thiry et al. [4] event/visit/exhibit could be placed in the context of the focus of
considered the idea of timeline for exploring personal memories. interest timeline. For example if someone is interested in
They explored how the timeline metaphor offer a framework for Abraham Lincoln the information could organized as being
authoring, and examine how timelines can be used to underpin connected to Lincoln's birth, childhood, education, lawyer, run for
meaning building in relation to personal content. They report governor, run for Senate, run for Vice-President, early years of
findings from a study of how older people authored digital presidency, the civil war years, and the assassination. Another
timelines about their personal histories. They have shown that for focus of interest could be the Spanish-American War or American
older adults, a tension could be seen between the timeline as a History; as a default a general history could be used as the
form of legacy, and as a vehicle for interacting with others in the organizing timeline.
present. The timeline format has been shown to provide a useful
background for the gradual building of a personal record, but its 3.1.3 Social Aspects
constraints can also be inhibiting. Thudt et al.[5] also looked at Humans are social beings, when we reflect we sometimes want to
the timeline metaphor for visualizing personal events. They see family and friends in different situations. We also like to
defined visual mementos as visualizations of personally relevant share such experiences (see the popularity of media sharing
data for the purpose of reminiscing, and sharing of life applications such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc… A
experiences. Drawing on research on autobiographical memory scrapbook application should allow users to share information and
and on the role of artifacts in reminiscing, they identified design search for information based on social aspects. For example, a
challenges for visual mementos: mapping data to evoke person could be interested in seeing what media related to a
familiarity, expressing subjectivity, and obscuring sensitive details certain exhibit that he is looking at contains family members or
for sharing. To understand whether people’s subjective views on friends.
their past can be reflected in a visual representation, they
developed, deployed and studied a technology probe that
3.1.4 Location
Another important facet in organizing information could be based
exemplifies our concept of visual mementos. Their results showed
on geolocation. People can be interested in reminiscing about
how reminiscing has been supported and revealed promising new
cultural heritage experiences according to which countries/places
directions for self-reflection and sharing through visual mementos
they visited. Using location provides the user with a more
of personal.
complete experience.[1] Geolocation has the attribute of being
3. SYSTEM DESCRPTION hierarchical, e.g. you have continents, countries, cities,
Given the importance of lifetime cultural heritage experience and neighborhoods, streets, buildings, rooms; which can be exploited
the usefulness of visualizing timelines and memories, it might be by visualizations
advantageous to use visualizations and timelines to enhance the
lifelong cultural heritage experience. In this section we discuss 1)
what features we envision for such a system, 2) what are possible 3.1.5 Visit
visualizations and 3) how can we gather information for this In addition to the information concerning different ways to
system. organize the information, there is the need to see the mementos
themselves. One aspect that needs to be determined is how deep in
the hierarchy does the visit reflect. Does the visit scoped to the
entire museum or to goes down to the level of single exhibits. The
mementos people are interested can be videos, pictures, audio neighborhoods. In addition through the use of colored pins or
clips that pertain to a particular exhibit. In addition links can be stars, the user can follow his personal timeline of visits to a
shown concerning connected or associated media that is particular area. The example below uses the same "Lincoln"
appropriate to the particular visit. example as the previous overview. (Figure 2)
3.1.6 Integration of Features
All the above describe specific features that need to be integrated
in order to provide a good representation of the personal
experience. The personal timeline may be the basis for
representation, however, personal timelines may be linked
according to social links, locations and visits. The individual
items may also be tagged and linked according to various foci of
interest – individual and social ones.
3.2 Visualizations
Using the mantra for Information Seeking “Overview first, zoom
and filter, then details-on-demand.”[2], we describe two overview
views with how they can zoom and filter, and then one "detail on
demand" view. While true the task domain is not exactly
Information Seeking, there is in reflection an aspect of organizing
and seeking specific memories.
3.2.1 Matrix View
In this overview we present visits in a matrix on two axes. The x- Figure 2. Map View
axis represents the person's own timeline. The y-axis represents 3.2.3 Visit View
the "focus of interest" that the user is interested in. By zooming in In this view "details on demand" the particular media associated
or out we allow the user to get a narrower or broader focus with a visit can appear. Information such as date of visit, who was
depending on the number of items they wish to peruse. If the use it with can appear on the details page. In addition links can be
wishes he can choose to zoom in and look at one particular listed in this view to venues at this location, previous visits to this
historical period or a particular trip. He may decide to site, and other visits with the same people. See Figure 3 for an
collapse/expand certain years by use + - widgets. The importance example of such a view.
of this type of view it allows the user to see items from both a
personal perspective and a historical perspective. In the example
below (Figure 1) we see the focus of interest is Abraham Lincoln.
The visitor visited the Ford Theater in Washington DC in 1985,
Union Square Station in Washington DC, Virginia in 1990, The
Lincoln log cabin in Illinois in 2000, Gettysburg, Virginia in 2005
and most recently the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC in
2010. This view gives the person firstly his personal view, but in
addition provides extra information concerning historical dates
and how does that fit in with his cultural heritage experiences.
Figure 3. Detail View
Figure 1. Matrix View
3.2.2 Map View
In this view the primary axis is that of location. The view can be
hierarchical allowing the user to zoom in to the level of individual
3.3 Gathering Information 5. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
There are two categories of gathering information for such a tool. Thanks to Joel Lanir for interesting conversations and pointing us
One would be explicitly, that is by having the user consciously to a number of references.
direct the tool to add specific photos, audio recording to the
scrapbook. In addition the user would explicitly state which 6. REFERENCES
cultural heritage visit they wish to add to the scrapbook.
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scrapbook is a lifelong activity, how does one keep the
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