1 Content

2 Design

3 City Branding

4 Narrative Story Telling

5 Testing

discovery archeology

Camilla Zucchi

1.Content.

INTRODUCTION“Information is a fundamental element of knowledge. It lives and is actualized as a result of communication processes between individuals and the world around them”.

AUDIENCE“Information is the reaction of a user to the content of a mes-sage..” Hooper-Greenhill

During my earlier academic career in Italy I studied archaeology and content development. Thanks to my BA experience and my specialisation in archae-ology, my expertise has been research, curating the documents and materials to be shown in museum environments and exhibitions, publishing and edit-ing.I have developed content for these specific areas of studies, in which the historical facts, sustained by the archaeological discoveries, are the main ele-ments to communicate to the audience.

Why did I decide to start the MACPFNE course and narrative environments?

I kept on asking myself how come we could not get people interested in what we showed, even if when talking to them about what I was actually doing, the less informed of friends, would be fascinated by the archaeological process, but knew nothing about it.I was wondering if the big amount of information was in itself enough or there was more to it.

Displaying the process

Why narrative environments?

After this first year I realized better that “content” is part of something to be told to an audience. The way it is told and the “where” are fundamental to this process and have to be kept well in mind whilst developing the latter.I then experienced working for a curatorial company called Artakt.

At Artakt I practised content development in a broader field of knowledge such as art and science.The company develops pioneering exhibitions and research projects within the fields of art and science; I was interested in working with them because of their innovative approach.

I understood their methodology and attitude to col-laboration in different projects. As part of the pro-cess, we researched a topic of interest connected to current issues in culture and facts. We understood then to whom or to which event, museum, exhibition or publisher would be fitting to address it to. In particular, I was asked to collaborate with the curator Tereza Wells on the development of the proposal “Born Today” for the Wellcome Trust in

Knowldege

processtraditional archaeological display

London.Tereza had written the proposal previously giving a general overall view of the topic; it had to be then redesigned according to the specific event-exhibition it would take place in.The general proposal was focussing on the concept of “birth”, tackling the key issues concerning child-birth in the areas of medicine, society, culture and

the arts. The scope of the exhibition would feature pregnancy, especially the later stages, childbirth and the period immediately following the latter.The Welcome Trust approved it as a series of events, whilst in Italy, Mr. Vittorio Bo, a publisher and curator, was interested in developing it in an event-exhibition to take place in Italy.

My interest and main questions were on how the content of the general and also of the site-specific proposals would be developed, what was the story they wanted to tell and the eventual lay out.

I noticed that in the redesigning it there was no par-ticular ”story” to be told; Tereza developed the key issues on a knowledge-based methodology, accord-

ing to the most important topics related to birth.Also for the site-specific proposal, Tereza shortened the previous proposal and adapted it to a series of events for the Welcome Trust.

My interest was in what role the audience would have.According to the space-site-context how does the story-narrative of the proposal change?How does the content adapt and change according to the design?

After interviewing Tereza and collaborating with her, she told me that the audience for her is a secondary agent to consider because of its diversity especially in museums. There was no real need to focus on it at a first stage of content development.

For the design side of the projects, the curators at Artakt collaborated with a firm of exhibition design-ers, but they do so when the proposal-content is already layered out and generally displayed.

These personal reflections and experiences have brought me to deepen and understand better the relationship between content development, context-space and audience.

My main question is how the content could reach more efficiently the public/audience if developed whilst keeping in mind the context-space, design and audience from an early stage.

“The museum message is formulated through the conscious creative intention of the exhibition author. Nevertheless, the message reaches the visitor partly transformed by the numerous possible communica-tion processes taking place between the museum objects and the people. Beginning with the entire basic content and on to the specific features of particular details, the message depends on the level of the social context of the environment in which the exhibition is installed.” ( Hooper-Greenhill).

the proposal

where is the story?

2. Design..

Introduction

“People as social beings have been closely connected with their physical environment. They are influenced by the experience of the social environment in which the exhibition takes place, as well as by the tradition, the culture, and all the relevant rela-tions”Hooper-Greenhill.

As my background does not directly include design, I started approaching space-design during my first year on this course.I did touch the subject in a number of occasions in my previous academic career, but never worked on specific projects.

Many people have asked me how come a curator is on a design course and I was not expecting the two fields to be so far apart.Initially, it was not easy; I found myself working on projects in which I could not clearly understand what my role, I had to understand new concepts and ap-proaches such as storytelling, narrative into space and co-design with the audience.

I found myself having to col-laborate with professionals from very different back-grounds from mine such as design, architecture, art and psychology. I have gained many positive outcomes during this experi-ence, I have learned a new approach to collaboration and work. I have understood that we all have different ways of thinking and approaching a project, but that gradually we have gained a common methodology by creating “nar-rative environments”. I have also been able to see and understand all the different moments of the development of a project and have a more complete view of it.We are trying to create environments-spaces that tell stories and the content of these stories is made not only by research materials to display but also by the space the story takes place in, by the audience we address it to and by the context.

After my working experi-ence for an exhibition design company called N!30, based in Milan, I finally started to recognize this new and more compelling approach I have gained and how this has changed my work.I am starting to understand what my role could be.

hog + pleasure

lamb + shame

lion + love

bull + rage

narrativeenvironments?

X3

X3

X3

story into space

content design

3. City Branding..the context

Introduction

“Information is a fundamental element of knowledge. It lives and is actualized as a result of communication processes between individuals and the world around them.”

“ At different times and in different social relations the same mu-seum material can therefore emit different museum messages and create different communication patterns of understanding by individual subjective creative acts. We must not forget the influence of different social spaces within the different informa-tion topias have been developed. The museum exhibition as a communication pattern brought about by the formal topia of the information space represented by the museum as an institution. Consequently, the museum environment and the context influ-ence the understanding of the message..”“ Each subculture, culture or social community has its own ways of thinking which determine the rules within the communication pattern..”Hooper-Greenhill

Why city-branding?

“ The DNA vision” consists of two words. “DNA” means identifying what is the essence and the uniqueness of a city, “vision” wants to use this DNA to position a city in the future.The DNA is nei-ther a marketing strategy, nor a brand. It is a nar-ratively defined definition of a city, its unique-ness captured in a strategic narrative. The DNA is a platform

for defining and identity for a city and its positioning among other cities on international scale.

The next step is pacturing the unique core of a region in a vision or “story”. The story is the stepping stone for all activities of the patterns; they provide

a framework while allowing individual interpretation in messages and images. So the vision becomes reality.”Perm DNA Vision, Arthesia AG. Zurich.

During my first year on the course I was offered to work on a project for the city-

branding company Arthesia, based in Zurich.This further experience had a big influence in my content development thinking process and it sug-gested possible topics to be develop this year in my major project.I realized that some strategies and thinking process-es used by the company could be applied also to projects for museum and exhibition environments. As mentioned in the above definitions, the knowl-edge transmitted through content is part of a com-munication process.The communication process targets an audience, who receives it in different ways according to their social and cultural background, to the space in which it is set and the cultural context of the muse-um-exhibition it takes place in.Thus I realized how the “context” of the space and audience are important elements to keep in mind whilst developing the content.As mentioned above, the DNA of a city-place means identifying what is the essence and the uniqueness of it, represented within a strategic narrative. As part of a first stage of exhibition-museum proj-ects, I think that the understanding of the DNA of the place-site in which the exhibition takes place, and of the audience it will attract, could be of great impor-tance.

Whilst understanding the DNA, desk, social and action research are fundamental to the process - by brainstorming all this information and also the soft “location” qualities - a key element of the DNA narra-tive is defined through a metaphor. This key world-concept is the starting point for stra-

tegic thinking and the understanding of the story we want to tell.If, whilst developing content, we could have a key

metaphor to define the different contexts, the lay out of the “story” and also the design, the exhibition could be more focused and communicate better to the audience.

city identity

4,Narrative and storytelling..

Introduction

A methodology

“Narratology is the theory of narratives, narrative texts, images, spectacles, events; cultural artefacts that “tell a story”.Such a theory helps to understand, analyse, and evaluate nar-ratives.A theory is a systematic set of generalized statements about a particular segment of reality..”Bal M.

When I started the course I discovered for the first time the concept of Narrative Environments and Narrative Theories as a methodology. I enrolled because I wanted to learn how my content could be displayed in different ways, but I was not expect-ing to be actively engaging in collaboration projects that focused on places that are somehow able to tell stories.Initially, I could not understand how a story could be put into space, or how stories in books and films

could relate to an exhibition, museums or retail spaces. After several projects and working experi-ences I have seen how these theories and ways of thinking have changed my methodology and ap-proach…

Narrative and Storytelling

“Narrative remains a particular method of repre-sentation, and like perspective, it is not a neutral or natural system, its effect is to ‘place’ its spectator/listener both psychologically and ideologically.Because these narrative conventions have become dominant cultural norms this process of placement

is largely unconscious. Its invisibility allows the dominance of a convention to become integral to the fusion between social order and culture”Le Grice M.

If we think of a book or a film, or any narrative structure, the lay out can be closely related to our “narrative environments”, as parts or elements of an unfolding story. A narrative environment is a deliberate structuring of

NarrativeEnvironmants

a space and of communication. No environment, object or image is neutral and narrative environments are created by an author/designer for a specific meaning.Often the narrative environment is the context for a story to be told.A story is a selection of events deliberately struc-tured to communicate a message. By designing space for a specific user-visitor-experience that unfolds throughout space and time, we are also tell-ing a story.A story takes the reader-user through several pas-sages from one stage to another. A narrative envi-ronment takes the audience on a journey and devel-ops a scenario-narrative that the user experiences.

“So narrative is a method by which events - real or imaginary - are given coherence through the repre-sentation of sequential connections.Like perspective the form of coherence constructed by narrative is only one particular method by which temporal events and their ‘casual’ relationships may be represented (modelled).Le Grice M.

The benefits of applying a narrative to environments are to potentially:

-Articulate space and time together-Harness metaphor and aesthetics to meaning-Apply complexity in message and form in a way people can grasp easily-Draw on a huge range of theory to work out and reflect upon your position-Be creative in developing user experiences.

STORY

“Underlying the formal structures of narrative are the complex processes of the identification between the audience/viewer and the represented characters - acting vicariously for and on behalf of the viewer in the ‘play’ - and the psychological/ideological effect of the story resolving the moral dilemmas of the subject in society through its narrative resolution”.Le Grice M.

The story or plot is a scheme of events in the ‘ca-sual’ sequence in which they are taking place. Narrative or narration:

“The classical narrative is constructed through the representa-tion of characters who interact with each other through a series of incidents depicted in a social or natural environment.” Le Grice M.

The narration itself is more complex than the plot. It may record the disclosure of these events, through representing recollections, premonitions or separate exclusive viewpoints - flashbacks, jump-cups, paral-lel actions - and may incorporate the represented subjectivity of the narrator or even act on the subjec-tivity of the reader.

“Narrative subsequently becomes a model by which experience is interpreted, becomes a filter for the life experience outside the cinematic.”Le Grice M.

5.Testing.

PREVIOUS PROJECTSREDESIGNED AND REDEVELOPED

Playing with the content:“The Grenoble museum”“Born”

FROM THE OBJECT TO THE NARRATIVE“Yellow lines”

COLLABORATING WITH THE MARKET ESTATE PROJECT

COLLABORATING WITH ANTONIOnarrative as a methodology for content development and collaborative projects.

DISCOVERING ARCHAEOLOGY”

Exhibition proposalBy Camilla ZucchiContent developer-archaeologist.Email: vyolet83@yahoo.it

INTRODUCTIONFurther to challenging my previous experience as an archaeologist, researcher andcontent developer the development of this Major Project has enabled me to researchand understand better the diversity of approaches for the content development for narrativeenvironments and museum exhibitions in particolar.By focusing on the process of content development, I intend to outline a methodologythat will help me define a new approach to it, both as a core to my major project andas a possible new career path. This will be based on the research material developedin my previous BA archaeological thesis analysed from a particular audience’s pointof view and developed in view to become a “Travel-ling exhibition” who’s contextwill change with the different countries it could travel to.As a practical outcome I will test and record my ap-proach to content and develop anexhibition proposal from it, based on a methodology inspired by narrative theoriesencountered during the MACPFNE.Because of time and other limiting factors, the main proposal will remain theoreticaland will range in scale between an event, a focused experience or a fuller proposal foran exhibition within a theoretical location such as existing museums.

BOWL CY5 FROM SALAMINA

I have decided to use one of the Archaeological

Bowls analysed in my BA thesis,“Iconography and Iconology of Isis thenurisher on Middle Eastern bowls andrazors”, as content for my proposal.I have chosen, one of the bowls, the Cy5from Salamina as an example of “materialculture” and would like to imagine apossible exhibition-installation that wouldshow the archaeological process appliedto it.The topics of analysis will be, the geographicaland historical context ofdiscovery, the use and material function and the nar-rative on the bowl (iconologyiconography).MethodologyI would like to apply the narrative theories and Nar-rative Environments experiencegained during this year on the course as a possible methodology of analysis and display.By understanding the three elements of the story of the Bowl, I would like to showhow these could be narrated in three different ways.Each topic will be shown in a different way as part of the installation.

context

the practical use

FACILITIESI have chosen London and Milan as sites for my installation.I would like to understand the DNA or identity of

these cities related to the audience.By understanding the DNA I will comprehend the site-specific metaphor that couldhelp me in the strategic thinking and development of the content.

ichonologyand iconography

Italy

London

As part of my story-telling I have chosen as possible audience, young people aged between18 and 25 years of age, the less interested in histori-cal and archaeological museums.By understanding the DNA of the two city audienc-es, I will use the metaphor-key conceptas a design guideline

PRACTICAL STEPS

WHERE

The understanding of the DNA metaphor could also be useful for understandingwhat spaces-places are more used/of interest for young people in London andMilan; I would like to place my exhibition-event in one of these and then test ifthe audience gets interested and develop a space-device to understand their levelof interest.

WHATFrom the same understanding of the DNA context and metaphor, the design guidelinecould be based on this understanding.By analyzing which are the areas of interest in the Arts field, I would like to direct the design of the nar-

rative according to it.OUTCOME

As a practical outcome of my proposal and my re-search, I would like to ask threeartists-professionals from Italy and the Uk, chosen according to the interests ofthe different audiences, to interpret one of the topics of my story and narrate it their own way.

the Leonardo da Vinci “S. Giovanni Battista” exhibition

in Milamcase study

where