A Digital Savvy History: Interactive and Entertaining

In my digital history course, and in the field of public history in general, ideas of all encompassing digital libraries with embedded metadata that can link the researcher to just about every query with acute detail seems to be just on the brink of reality. When we discus the future of history and what it means to the public, we are constantly in search of new ways to present material – be it in order to strike a certain cohort’s interest, to make it maybe more entertaining, more encompassing, more detailed, more organic, more comprehensive, more personal, more interpretative, and less passive. Ok, breath!

Recently I’ve been discussing the possibilities of presenting history through a sensory stunning display. This, building on the ideas presented by Patrick Stewart, is an immense diorama used in an online interactive advertisement for Halo 3. Handcrafted figurines, machines, and settings, complete with smoke from tanks, explosions, crevices and visions of agony make up this battle/memorial. A linear camera takes the viewer through the display with stops along the way for video mock histories (for the purpose of the game, of course), personal anecdotes, and descriptions of characters, weaponry etc.

Now is where we build further. Imagine this type of setting, but on even more steroids than was given to the simple virtual exhibit to develop such an assemblage of creativity and handiwork. Imagine the possibilities that are presented by such a simple use of a diorama and cameras. But, and here’s the kicker, just for fun (and, of course, with an immense resource base, and as Patrick would put it, with a lot of caffeine) lets start adding on interesting ways to make this more of a total experience.

For an example, I will use the Seven Years’ War in North America – of course, wars don’t necessarily have to be the basis for an exhibit-tour-website-game etc; we could just as easily make this an adventure in the Klondike gold-rush, or maybe a companion to the voyages of Captain Cook, so on and so forth.

Using GIS we could create an interactive map allowing the viewer to search throughout the site to pull out menus on specific times and spaces. Embedded in each selection would be interactive videos - be it actors, animation etc. - telling a specific anecdote, story, or adventure in motion. Within these pull down menus could be search bars that connected the user to a digital library, collections, artifacts, primary sources... Anything and everything digitized and available would be connected and ready, without having to be stored within the site, allowing the site to focus mainly on the Flash, multimedia, and story.

This could be an RPG experience as well. As you move through the map, you move down into a setting, not unlike the Halo 3 interactive ad. Selecting on a character, you would have the ability to manipulate his direction and movement to survey different events. You march with a militia through the interior in real time; you are given examples of what it may have actually been like through animated videos as you cross certain points. All the while, events are progressing throughout the map. Wolfe and his British fleet are slowly moving down the St. Lawrence toward Québec City to attack Montcalm and the French.

Fast Forward to Québec City. You zoom in using GIS to select among a series of positions and times offered. Perhaps you are now a member of the watch at the citadel on the eve of the Battle of the Plains of Abraham. There’s the soft hum of a violin in the background, and as you tour through the citadel, you select different scenes to view videos etc. Not only would it be giving a narrative, but it would also allow the viewer to move on a microscopic level to experience a large breadth of information and events. Like a game, you could potentially spend a great amount of time manipulating a character towards an end point, all within the historical framework. Furthermore, at the users disposal would be a vast array of online tools to connect them to existing information.

As you may be able to tell, this would be very complicated and time consuming, to say the least. But, to imagine it and realize the possibility is intriguing.

The possibility to move about a map, like Google Earth, zooming in, selecting a space, then moving about the space on a microscopic level, interacting with characters and artifacts is unending. It could be complete with displays of films - i.e. Canada, A People's History - or games and actions that direct towards a goal that mimics an event – be it social/micro-history orientated or larger.

Like the McCord tool, you can select images, artifacts, maps etc. and add them to a folder or sub-screen (similar to a tools/items menu in a video game) to create your holdings. From here, you can build a profile of items of interest and create a database of intentions that would direct you to areas within the site that are related to the items you’ve chosen.

And, if we’re doing all this, let’s make it a social forum as well. With an RSS feed, you can monitor when someone has posted a comment, link, source, or added new elements. Imagine, and of course it would involve very savvy actors, but the ability to build on the elements within the map to broaden it by both time and space. For example, starting off with just New France, one could develop information on pre-contact, creating such sites as Cahokia or Stadacona. Then, spatially, add more to the west, opening up the canoe routes towards Superior and Hudson Bay. It could be endless, really.

Although the chances of a site like this materializing in the near future are unlikely, the idea summons endless possibilities to presenting history in new and interesting ways. Although some would shudder at the idea of history outside of the traditional and academic mediums, the reality is that many in the public sphere enjoy history on a level that is often in line with entertainment. If history, therefore, can be expressed accurately, complete with interpretations and reflections, then why not embrace and develop mediums that present it in this fashion, not as a replacement to established methods, but as an alternative to the ways in which we access and relate to the past?