This Ain’t grandpa Tilden’s Interpretation
History should Be Useful
When it comes to interpretation, visitor outcome is the key. We can see how effective our storytelling is by observing whether it helps visitors make better decisions in their own lives. The past shouldn’t just be some static curiosity. What we do tomorrow is deeply influenced by what other people did yesterday; we can learn from the mistakes of the past to make better tomorrows.
This sense of continuity is something that any good interpretive experience needs to highlight and encourage. We don’t simply talk about the past because it is there. The stories we choose to share need to be relevant. But relevant means more than just “pertinent.” It means that someone can use them in their daily life.
In my work with the National Park Service, I’ve tried to encourage this. I’ve partnered with organizations like the International Coalition of Sites of Conscience and MuseumHack to introduce new and innovative techniques for story-telling and social conscience into interpretation.
As a project lead and editor of the NPS’ “Foundations of Interpretation - Competencies for the 21st Century,” I’ve helped embed this motivation toward visitor action and engagement in the profession’s working definitions.
Say “No” to Walking Lectures
One of my favorite statistics comes from a report by Marc Stern and Robert Powell, “Identifying best practices for live interpretive programs in the United States National Park Service.” Stern and Powell did some groundbreaking research into how park rangers told stories and how the way they communicated influenced their effectiveness.
They found that the least effective way to help visitors change their behaviors in the real world - known as behavior intention - was to present as what they called a, “walking encyclopedia.”
But they found that park rangers used that mode of communication a staggering 75% of the time.
The fact that these interpreters were choosing the least effective means of communication the most often has been a huge wake-up call within my understanding of the craft.
But if we don’t just lecture, what should we do?
History is a Team Sport
Inviting visitors to express and engage within historic places is an amazingly more effective way to help them become stewards.
Society has been shifting for decades towards a more democratic form of communication where titles and pedigree means less than amazing ideas. Visitors are not just hoping for ways to express themselves when they visit powerful places, they’re outright expecting it.
In spaces where touch is explicitly barred, visitors do it anyways. Part of that is because they’re begging for some way to viscerally interact with the past.
History spaces need to evolve into spaces for expression as much as education. Gone are the days when the institution is the only expert in the room. The museums that are leading the charge toward participation and expression - chiefly Nina Simon and her Of/By/For All revolution - have been proving just how successful cultural institutions can be when they hand visitors the microphone.
The Visitor as ORACLE
One of the most exciting concepts we discovered while experimenting with the International Coalition of Sites of Conscience and their facilitated dialogue models was the idea of a question with no “right” answer.
It’s not a hypothetical. It’s not a “what if?”
It’s bringing the visitor’s own lived experience into the narrative - inviting them to inject their personal history into the history of a place.
I love to use these types of questions to develop an “analogy of experience.” This is a way to help visitors feel empathy for the people of the past. If someone in a site’s story felt dejected, I might ask the visitors, “What’s a time in your life you felt like everything was hopeless?” then offer them the space to share.
Developing these questions can be an amazing exercise, but deeply challenging. So we built an acronym to remind interpreters the key elements of a good dialogic question: ORACLE.
The Only Right Answer Comes from the Lived Experience of the visitors. With ORACLE questions, visitors can express themselves on a topic we’re all experts on: our own lives.
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