This cluster explores ways that the past is re-imagined, interpreted and commemorated through affective and immersive performance of heritage.
Affective, embodied and immersive experiences are part of individual and communal acts of remembering, feeling, reminiscing, recalling, engaging, re-visioning, and even refuting and erasing the past. This cluster seeks to contribute to understandings of the history of heritage in medieval and early modern Europe, and importantly extends this to the contemporary period and the shaping of modern Australia. Crucially, we seek to historicise the nexus between heritage, performance, affect and digital technology as a relatively new area of scholarly inquiry.
The cluster interrogates various registers of embodied emotion in historical narrative(s) presented at heritage sites, which in turn inform interpretation for tourist audiences as well as historical scholarship. Embodied and performed heritage takes place in diverse landscapes, heritage sites and built forms, as well as institutional repositories of cultural heritage such as museums, libraries, and festivals. This cluster also aims to examine the role of digital cultural heritage, particularly installations targeted at user interactivity and immersion.
This research cluster aims to:
- Interrogate the way heritage is ‘made’ and ‘mediated’ through affective, embodied performance and movement in physical, digital and virtual heritage spaces;
- Research the role of three-dimensional visualisation technologies in the production of immersive and interactive cultural heritage;
- Draw together academics, curators, artists and heritage professionals to develop new networks and conversations across disciplines and industry partners;
- Establish a system of mentoring and support for researchers and postgraduate students;
- Arrange workshops/ symposia/ conference panels on the theme of affect, performance and immersion in cultural heritage; and
- Create scholarly and publicly accessible outputs.
Industry Partners
GML Heritage
International Scholarly Partners
Sound Heritage: Research and Interpretation of music in historic houses
Collaborating Scholars
Dr Jacqueline Fox (University of Tasmania)
Dr Christine Cheater (University of Tasmania)
Dr Rose Gaby (University of Tasmania)
Dr Jayne Knight (University of Tasmania)
Dr Kaz Ross (University of Tasmania)
Dr Karen Hall (University of Tasmania)
Jon Addison (History Curator, Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery)
Professor Simon Palfrey (University of Oxford, UK)
Dr Sandra Fay Hudd (University of Tasmania)
Professor Jeanice Brooks (University of Southampton, UK)
Mr Brian Shanahan (National University of Ireland, Galway)
Cluster Outcomes
Marchant, Alicia. Historicising Heritage and Emotions: The Affective Histories of Blood, Stone and Land from Medieval Britain to Colonial Australia, Routledge, Routledge Studies in Heritage Series, forthcoming, June 2017. Contributions from Cluster Members: Sarah Randles, Susan Broomhall, Jane-Héloïse Nancarrow, Jon Addison, Alan Maddox.
‘Interactive Digital Technologies for History and Cultural Heritage: A Roundtable Exchange’ at the 11th Biennial Conference of the Australian & New Zealand Association for Medieval and Early Modern Studies, The University of Wellington. 7-10 February 2017.
‘Shifting Emotions: Affect, Performance and Immersion in Cultural Heritage’, a Panel presentation at the 11th Biennial Conference of the Australian & New Zealand Association for Medieval and Early Modern Studies, The University of Wellington. 7-10 February 2017.
Work in Progress
Proposal being gathered for a special Journal Issue for Parergon, on ‘Affect, Performance and Immersion in Medieval and Early Modern Cultural Heritage’ to be edited by Alicia Marchant and Jane-Héloïse Nancarrow. Details to be confirmed.
In planning for a symposium on ‘Affective Heritage: Loss, Change, and Renewal’ in partnership with GML Heritage.
Early stages of Linkage Grant planning for with GML Heritage.
Press
‘Some Stories Last More than a Lifetime’: Emotions, Temporality and the Ghost Tours of Port Arthur, Tasmania - CHE Blog, 28 October 2016
‘Three cheers to the old apple tree!’: Affective Performances of Heritage in a Tasmanian Apple Orchard - CHE Blog, 11 August 2016
'Emotions in 3D: digital modelling at the museum' - 15 April 2016
Image: ‘Who’s afraid of the Long Dark Winter?’ The tradition of Wassailing, practised in the southwest of the British Isles in the early modern era and even earlier, is performed annually at the Tasmanian Huon Valley Mid-Winter Fest to scare away the evil spirits that could lurk and do damage to the precious apple trees.
Photo by Kymberly Plischke, used with permission of the Huon Valley Mid-Winter Fest.