{"id":1463,"date":"2013-09-20T15:37:44","date_gmt":"2013-09-20T15:37:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/memetechnology.org\/?p=2921"},"modified":"2013-09-20T15:37:44","modified_gmt":"2013-09-20T15:37:44","slug":"presence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/archaeology\/2013\/09\/20\/presence\/","title":{"rendered":"Presence"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"

Plymouth Plantation from Boston.com (David L. Ryan\/Globe Staff\/file)<\/p><\/div>\n

In my paper last week, struggling to find a way to describe the environmental “sense (or spirit) of place” that may drive emotional engagement in (games and) cultural heritage environments, I chose to use the word “Presence.” \u00a0I first came across in Pinchbeck’s writing but I was nervous about using it, until, by coincidence, Erik Champion also used the word when he commented on this post<\/a>.<\/p>\n

There are two reasons why I hadn’t used it before, and why I’m still unsure about it:\u00a0Firstly, presence is a term used to talk about virtual environments (like games) but I’m looking to apply what I learn to real environments (cultural heritage). Secondly, I worry (as I mentioned in my presentation) that presence may encompass all (or most) of what I’m currently calling “emotional drivers,” rather than being one driver.<\/p>\n

But there needed to be a<\/em> word there, so i flippantly settled on presence, and promised myself I’d investigate it later,<\/p>\n

Later starts now, and Erik handily left me some links in a comment on\u00a0this post<\/a>. I’ve only been able to read his own co-authored “Evaluating presence in cultural\u00a0heritage projects” (2011Pujol, P. \u00a0& Champion, E.) so far the other two come from a journal Southampton doesn’t subscribe to, so I’m hoping I can fix an inter-library loan. However, this paper works quite well as a primer on what Erik calls “Cultural Presence.”<\/p>\n

Lets kick off with how they start their paper with a little bit of \u00a0history:<\/p>\n

Presence originates from the term \u2018telepresence\u2019, made famous by the computer scientist\u00a0Marvin Minksy in a 1980 paper of the same name (Minsky 1980). From\u00a0around 1991 (the date of the first issue of the MIT journal Presence: Teleoperators\u00a0and Virtual Environments), presence has been typically defined as the capacity of\u00a0the technology to make the user feel transported into a remote place and be able to\u00a0efficiently interact with it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Of course, to be honest, it looks like it started out as, as my science adviser used to say in Civilization<\/em>, “a mainly military technology,” designed to help drone pilots in Colorado feel transported to remote mountains on the Afgan\/Pakistan border and “efficiently interact” with jihadi hideouts. But it soon found civilian uses.<\/p>\n

Archaeologists have long been using computer modelling to help visualise sites, “rebuilding” what might today be ruins, or virtually “restoring” buildings that have seen centuries of modification. The primary purpose of such models has been experimental, helping the researcher compare hypotheses. Of course once these models have been made, people want to share them, with each other and with the public. Sometime they are shared incredibly badly, even now. One of the presenters at the York Digital Heritage conference<\/a> seemed surprised that a computer model that was a outcome of a research project was, when displayed in a shop window, totally ignored by the passers-by.\u00a0But when its done well, its done with the intention of transporting the audience to a particular place and time, and that’s where presence comes in. As Pujol and Champion say:<\/p>\n

Presence is typically seen in academic research as the aim of virtual reality environments.\u00a0Since \u2018virtual heritage\u2019 is the name VR applications are given when used for\u00a0the dissemination of cultural heritage, it logically follows that in VR applied to cultural\u00a0heritage, a meaningful sense of presence is also the intended outcome.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

However they follow that up with a warning that cultural heritage interpretation isn’t just about how buildings look. They argue that to thing of virtual heritage as simply the re-creation of buildings or other “tangible” artifacts in the digital domain is to ignore the importance of \u00a0human interaction, ritual, communication, symbolism and representation and all the other intangibles that are part of culture. They also quote\u00a0Stone and Ojika (2000, Virtual heritage: what next?. IEEE Multimedia, 7 (2), 73\u201374):<\/p>\n

[Virtual heritage is] . . . the use of computer-based interactive technologies to record,\u00a0preserve, or recreate artefacts, sites and actors of historic, artistic, religious, of cultural\u00a0significance and to deliver the results openly to a global audience in such a way as to\u00a0provide formative educational experiences through electronic manipulations of time\u00a0and space.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But here is where I begin to worry about the idea of presence. Because I’m not convinced that “the use of computer-based interactive technologies … to\u00a0provide formative educational experiences through electronic manipulations of time\u00a0and space” needs<\/em> to be about immersive virtualisation.<\/p>\n

You see, I very much enjoy the model of “Infinite Possibility” set out bu Pine and Korn (2011) in the book of the same name. Their claim is that Digital Technology offers so much more than Virtual (or even Augmented) Reality. We should, they argue, be thinking in terms of all the possible combinations of the variables of the Reality (Time, Space and Matter) and the equivalent variables of the digital Virtuality (for want of better words: no-time, no-space and no-matter). The diagesis of a computer game, or VR model, is a function of these three no-variables, as it is made of bits of computer code. But run that virtual world through a pair of VR goggles, or even a humble Tom-Tom navigator, and you suddenly have Augmented reality (Time and space, but no-matter). Conversely, use a wii-controller to \u00a0are intmanipluate a computer game and suddenly you find yourself in the realm of no-time and no-space, but with matter – what Pine and Korn call Augmented Virtuality.<\/p>\n

Superimpose a different time (or no-time) on \u00a0space and matter, and you have what they call warped reality:<\/p>\n

Such reality-based time travel happens whenever experiences simulate another time… such as Renaissance Fairs and living history museums (Plimouth Plantation, Colonial Williamsburg, and the like) or transport us … even into the future (albeit a fictional future) such as at, yes, Star Trek<\/em> conventions.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In these warped realities, a cultural heritage audience is able to participate in the construction<\/em> of realities that\u00a0capture objects and processes of scientific, social or spiritual\u00a0<\/em>value <\/em>[and presents them]\u00a0as accurately, authentically, and\u00a0engagingly as possible. <\/em>Places like Plimouth Plantation share their work\u00a0\u00a0in a sensitive,\u00a0safe and durable manner to as wide and long-term an audience as possible,\u00a0to provide an effective and inspirational learning environment\u00a0that best communicates the intended pedagogical aims.<\/em> Every italicised statement here actually comes from Pujol and Champion’s summary of what every good Virtual Heritage project should be. And yet Plimouth Plantation and its like a currently entirely analogue creations, and that no-one would consider applying the word “virtual” to. I think, and Pine and Korn imply, that digital technology has the potential to greatly enhance warped reality experiences, without making them virtual. I’d also argue that cultural “presence” occurs in these warped reality spaces, and yet … and yet, can it only apply to Virtual worlds?<\/p>\n

Handily, Pujol and Champion have a crack at unpicking the definitions of\u00a0presence for me. Starting with the idea that the ideal is a sense of being there, or blanking out the digital mediation of screen and controller, they touch upon immersion as a product of field of view and optical resolution. They also briefly summarize the idea that the human component of the system is likely to respond to the affordancies offered by the VR according to their interests, if the virtual component can in turn respond in a realistic way. They touch upon co-presence (sharing the VR with other users) before arguing that social presence (interacting with other users and virtual agents) is vitally important idea in the “potential<\/em>\u00a0[their emphasis] convergence between the presence and cultural heritage fields.”<\/p>\n

So already we can see that the concept of presence is a very complex and even\u00a0ambiguous construct: there are several definitions based on disparate theories, which\u00a0focus on specific aspects or give different names to the same concept, partially overlapping\u00a0or even contradicting each other. Therefore, the conventional notion of presence\u00a0as the sensation of \u2018being there\u2019 is a highly simplified way of expressing an\u00a0internal perception of the environment and of ourselves in relation to it. A more\u00a0comprehensive explanation would be that the sense of presence results from the\u00a0interaction of various factors. These factors depend both on the system (immersivity,\u00a0visual accuracy, real-time physical and social interactivity, invisibility of devices,\u00a0consistency of the content) and on the participant (perception, attention, empathy,\u00a0engagement, meaningfulness or relevance of the content, control, suspension of disbelief).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

They go on to try and define “cultural presence,” citing and earlier work by Champion (2005,\u00a0Cultural presence. In: S. Dasgupta, ed. Encyclopedia of virtual communities ad technologies) to suggest\u00a0that “cultural presence corresponds to the feeling that people from\u00a0a specific culture occupy or have occupied a virtual environment and transformed it\u00a0into a culturally meaningful place.” This is something I recognise from what the National Trust tries to do in the places it looks after. But, they say, such “environments represent a\u00a0palimpsest in which past social interactions are layered and carved into the fabric of\u00a0the environment. Although visitors can see \u2018culture\u2019, they cannot participate in it,\u00a0either due to a lack of culturally constrained creative understanding or because the\u00a0originators have long since passed away.”<\/p>\n

So, is the previously mentioned “social presence” the key? Possibly not. Pujol and Champion briefly look at chatrooms, virtual communities and video games. The social interaction in chatrooms is fleeting and non-permanent. Virtual communities on the other hand, “do establish\u00a0rules and elements of identity; nonetheless, their limited virtuality and transient\u00a0ubiquity ironically prevents them from owning a sense of cultural place, where\u00a0identity is expressed and recognized through dynamic processes that are materially\u00a0situated.” (Hmmm Second Lifers may disagree – see my forthcoming report from Decoding the Digital). Of the three, they think, games have the most potential for social presence, because of their interactivity and exploration, virtual agents and (sometimes) co-operative play. Game mechanics though, can sometimes get in the way of cultural learning.<\/p>\n

They summarise their discussion of cultural presence with the following:<\/p>\n

So\u00a0cultural presence in the cultural heritage field is not limited to the reconstruction\u00a0of a place; ideally it would also encourage empathy, interaction and collaboration\u00a0to enhance awareness and understanding of past or foreign cultures. So\u00a0for\u00a0cultural presence, \u2018presence\u2019 is the means and \u2018culture\u2019 is the goal. Unlike the test\u00a0environments of typical presence research, virtual heritage projects should not aim\u00a0at the fidelity of representation of the world in general, but towards a cultural context,\u00a0containing not only objects and active agents but also the inter-relationship of\u00a0their situated beliefs and values. Hence, presence becomes a \u2018being \u2013 not only\u00a0physically but also socially, culturally \u2013 there and then\u2019.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Which is interesting, because in that whole paragraph virtual reality isn’t once mentioned. Is it taken as read? Or is it not required?<\/p>
\"\"<\/a> \"\"","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In my paper last week, struggling to find a way to describe the environmental “sense (or spirit) of place” that may drive emotional engagement in (games and) cultural heritage environments, I chose to use the word “Presence.”  I first came … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a>\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":337,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[848],"class_list":["post-1463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-uncategorized","column","threecol"],"yoast_head":"\nPresence - Archaeology Blogs<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/archaeology\/2013\/09\/20\/presence\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Presence - Archaeology Blogs\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In my paper last week, struggling to find a way to describe the environmental “sense (or spirit) of place” that may drive emotional engagement in (games and) cultural heritage environments, I chose to use the word “Presence.”  I first came … Continue reading →\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"http:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/archaeology\/2013\/09\/20\/presence\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Archaeology Blogs\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-09-20T15:37:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.boston.com\/news\/local\/breaking_news\/side1122_plimouth.JPG.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Matthew Tyler-Jones\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Matthew Tyler-Jones\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"9 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\\\/archaeology\\\/2013\\\/09\\\/20\\\/presence\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\\\/archaeology\\\/2013\\\/09\\\/20\\\/presence\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Matthew Tyler-Jones\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\\\/archaeology\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/a61d3a83f159c463727cd087c1ce643e\"},\"headline\":\"Presence\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-09-20T15:37:44+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\\\/archaeology\\\/2013\\\/09\\\/20\\\/presence\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":1805,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\\\/archaeology\\\/2013\\\/09\\\/20\\\/presence\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\\\/\\\/www.boston.com\\\/news\\\/local\\\/breaking_news\\\/side1122_plimouth.JPG.jpg\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\\\/archaeology\\\/2013\\\/09\\\/20\\\/presence\\\/\",\"url\":\"http:\\\/\\\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\\\/archaeology\\\/2013\\\/09\\\/20\\\/presence\\\/\",\"name\":\"Presence - Archaeology Blogs\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\\\/archaeology\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\\\/archaeology\\\/2013\\\/09\\\/20\\\/presence\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\\\/archaeology\\\/2013\\\/09\\\/20\\\/presence\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\\\/\\\/www.boston.com\\\/news\\\/local\\\/breaking_news\\\/side1122_plimouth.JPG.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-09-20T15:37:44+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\\\/archaeology\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/a61d3a83f159c463727cd087c1ce643e\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\\\/archaeology\\\/2013\\\/09\\\/20\\\/presence\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\\\/archaeology\\\/2013\\\/09\\\/20\\\/presence\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\\\/archaeology\\\/2013\\\/09\\\/20\\\/presence\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"http:\\\/\\\/www.boston.com\\\/news\\\/local\\\/breaking_news\\\/side1122_plimouth.JPG.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\\\/\\\/www.boston.com\\\/news\\\/local\\\/breaking_news\\\/side1122_plimouth.JPG.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\\\/archaeology\\\/2013\\\/09\\\/20\\\/presence\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\\\/archaeology\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Presence\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\\\/archaeology\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\\\/archaeology\\\/\",\"name\":\"Archaeology Blogs\",\"description\":\"Archaeology Blogs\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\\\/archaeology\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\\\/archaeology\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/a61d3a83f159c463727cd087c1ce643e\",\"name\":\"Matthew Tyler-Jones\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/b05de4152c16b059324bcceb7e15c65ec426d00af787220dcbb922248b71de61?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/b05de4152c16b059324bcceb7e15c65ec426d00af787220dcbb922248b71de61?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/b05de4152c16b059324bcceb7e15c65ec426d00af787220dcbb922248b71de61?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Matthew Tyler-Jones\"},\"description\":\"I came to cultural heritage via five years working at Midland Bank when I left school. In my free time, I volunteered as a costumed interpreter at Kentwell Hall and, with re-enactment societies, at various medieval sites around the UK and France. When, one evening, a few of us said \u201cwe could make a business out of this\u201d I left my job at the bank to go to college, first to get an Art Foundation and then to Manchester Polytechnic to join an innovative course called Design for Communications Media. I specialised in Educational Media Design, with the intention of applying what I was learning to cultural heritage. During my vacations and upon graduation I worked for the nascent company my friends had started, Past Pleasures, creating immersive living history festivals at Lancaster and Tunbridge Wells, as well as projects including: an exhibition for the centenary of the Commonwealth Institute; a design for a metafictional Sherlock Holmes exhibition in Croydon; and, a game that combined real-time investment advice from 300 year-old characters at the Bank of England Museum with a digital simulation, tracking the players\u2019 investment portfolio from the founding of the bank to its tercentenary. In 1996 I helped found JMD&Co, and for two years I also lectured on Heritage Tourism and Visitor Management and Interpretation modules for a Portsmouth University validated HND\\\/degree course at Farnborough Technical College. Subsequently, I enrolled in the new Distance Learning delivered Masters\u2019 degree in Museum Studies at Leicester University, where I became interested in the social use of space, particularly Bill Hillier\u2019s \u201cspace syntax,\u201d and the increasing futility of cultural heritage sites trying to tell doggedly linear stories in three-dimensional spaces. Although my dissertation explored models for mapping interpretation, and particularly learning styles, onto spaces, a satisfactory reconciliation of linear story and three-dimensional space eluded me. After graduation, I decided my time in the \u201csmall business\u201d end of cultural heritage was over for a while, and I left JMD&Co to join a cultural institution, the National Trust, as a Regional Community, Learning and Volunteering Manager. I brought the first National Trust iPad into use at Batemans, where, combined with a wax cylinder record player, and the help of renowned folk singer, Jon Boden, we\u2019ve returned Rudyard Kipling\u2019s voice back into his old home. However, one of the innovations which I am most proud of is the National Trust\u2019s virtual tours. Working with a small company, and a range of disabled stakeholders, we created a touch-screen based human computer interface that could also, if required, be controlled with other input devices, and allowed visitors with a variety of disabilities to fully enjoy the virtual tour. The teams\u2019 achievement was recognised with a Jodi Award for Excellence in accessible digital media in 2008.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/memetechnology.wordpress.com\\\/\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\\\/archaeology\\\/author\\\/matthew-tyler-jones\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Presence - Archaeology Blogs","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"http:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/archaeology\/2013\/09\/20\/presence\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Presence - Archaeology Blogs","og_description":"In my paper last week, struggling to find a way to describe the environmental “sense (or spirit) of place” that may drive emotional engagement in (games and) cultural heritage environments, I chose to use the word “Presence.”  I first came … Continue reading →","og_url":"http:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/archaeology\/2013\/09\/20\/presence\/","og_site_name":"Archaeology Blogs","article_published_time":"2013-09-20T15:37:44+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.boston.com\/news\/local\/breaking_news\/side1122_plimouth.JPG.jpg","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"Matthew Tyler-Jones","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Matthew Tyler-Jones","Est. reading time":"9 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"http:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/archaeology\/2013\/09\/20\/presence\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"http:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/archaeology\/2013\/09\/20\/presence\/"},"author":{"name":"Matthew Tyler-Jones","@id":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/archaeology\/#\/schema\/person\/a61d3a83f159c463727cd087c1ce643e"},"headline":"Presence","datePublished":"2013-09-20T15:37:44+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"http:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/archaeology\/2013\/09\/20\/presence\/"},"wordCount":1805,"image":{"@id":"http:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/archaeology\/2013\/09\/20\/presence\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/www.boston.com\/news\/local\/breaking_news\/side1122_plimouth.JPG.jpg","inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/archaeology\/2013\/09\/20\/presence\/","url":"http:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/archaeology\/2013\/09\/20\/presence\/","name":"Presence - Archaeology Blogs","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/archaeology\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"http:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/archaeology\/2013\/09\/20\/presence\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"http:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/archaeology\/2013\/09\/20\/presence\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/www.boston.com\/news\/local\/breaking_news\/side1122_plimouth.JPG.jpg","datePublished":"2013-09-20T15:37:44+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/archaeology\/#\/schema\/person\/a61d3a83f159c463727cd087c1ce643e"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"http:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/archaeology\/2013\/09\/20\/presence\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["http:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/archaeology\/2013\/09\/20\/presence\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"http:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/archaeology\/2013\/09\/20\/presence\/#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/www.boston.com\/news\/local\/breaking_news\/side1122_plimouth.JPG.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/www.boston.com\/news\/local\/breaking_news\/side1122_plimouth.JPG.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"http:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/archaeology\/2013\/09\/20\/presence\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/archaeology\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Presence"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/archaeology\/#website","url":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/archaeology\/","name":"Archaeology Blogs","description":"Archaeology Blogs","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/archaeology\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/archaeology\/#\/schema\/person\/a61d3a83f159c463727cd087c1ce643e","name":"Matthew Tyler-Jones","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b05de4152c16b059324bcceb7e15c65ec426d00af787220dcbb922248b71de61?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b05de4152c16b059324bcceb7e15c65ec426d00af787220dcbb922248b71de61?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b05de4152c16b059324bcceb7e15c65ec426d00af787220dcbb922248b71de61?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Matthew Tyler-Jones"},"description":"I came to cultural heritage via five years working at Midland Bank when I left school. In my free time, I volunteered as a costumed interpreter at Kentwell Hall and, with re-enactment societies, at various medieval sites around the UK and France. When, one evening, a few of us said \u201cwe could make a business out of this\u201d I left my job at the bank to go to college, first to get an Art Foundation and then to Manchester Polytechnic to join an innovative course called Design for Communications Media. I specialised in Educational Media Design, with the intention of applying what I was learning to cultural heritage. During my vacations and upon graduation I worked for the nascent company my friends had started, Past Pleasures, creating immersive living history festivals at Lancaster and Tunbridge Wells, as well as projects including: an exhibition for the centenary of the Commonwealth Institute; a design for a metafictional Sherlock Holmes exhibition in Croydon; and, a game that combined real-time investment advice from 300 year-old characters at the Bank of England Museum with a digital simulation, tracking the players\u2019 investment portfolio from the founding of the bank to its tercentenary. In 1996 I helped found JMD&Co, and for two years I also lectured on Heritage Tourism and Visitor Management and Interpretation modules for a Portsmouth University validated HND\/degree course at Farnborough Technical College. Subsequently, I enrolled in the new Distance Learning delivered Masters\u2019 degree in Museum Studies at Leicester University, where I became interested in the social use of space, particularly Bill Hillier\u2019s \u201cspace syntax,\u201d and the increasing futility of cultural heritage sites trying to tell doggedly linear stories in three-dimensional spaces. Although my dissertation explored models for mapping interpretation, and particularly learning styles, onto spaces, a satisfactory reconciliation of linear story and three-dimensional space eluded me. After graduation, I decided my time in the \u201csmall business\u201d end of cultural heritage was over for a while, and I left JMD&Co to join a cultural institution, the National Trust, as a Regional Community, Learning and Volunteering Manager. I brought the first National Trust iPad into use at Batemans, where, combined with a wax cylinder record player, and the help of renowned folk singer, Jon Boden, we\u2019ve returned Rudyard Kipling\u2019s voice back into his old home. However, one of the innovations which I am most proud of is the National Trust\u2019s virtual tours. Working with a small company, and a range of disabled stakeholders, we created a touch-screen based human computer interface that could also, if required, be controlled with other input devices, and allowed visitors with a variety of disabilities to fully enjoy the virtual tour. The teams\u2019 achievement was recognised with a Jodi Award for Excellence in accessible digital media in 2008.","sameAs":["http:\/\/memetechnology.wordpress.com\/"],"url":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/archaeology\/author\/matthew-tyler-jones\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/archaeology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1463","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/archaeology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/archaeology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/archaeology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/337"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/archaeology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1463"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/archaeology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1463\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/archaeology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/archaeology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/archaeology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}