Abstract
Paul Klee’s statement that “a drawing is simply a line going for a walk” finds new resonance in the contemporary museum context. Through digit is ation and interaction, museum artifacts are no longer static objects but dynamic “lines” undergoing continuous transformation. This paper presents The Digital Birch Bark Jar, an interactive visualisation project integrating Internet of Things and parametric design technologies. The installation translates real-time environmental data into evolving 3D forms that visitors can further materialise through 3D printing. Grounded in Don Ihde’s post phenomenological theory of technological mediation as an experiential design framework, the study demonstrates how digital generation as a process fosters imaginative connections between visitors and artifacts. A mixed methods experiment confirmed that participants engaging with the installation scored significantly higher for imagination than did those viewing traditional exhibits, validating the effectiveness of the design. Furthermore, qualitative analysis revealed a co-creative mechanism within the interaction process that was the core driver for stimulating imagination.
Keywords
Don Ihde’s Postphenomenology; Technological Mediation; Cultural Heritage (CH) Data; Internet of Things (Io T)
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/iasdr.2025.30
Citation
Li, Z.(2025) Reconnecting Museum Exhibits with the Contemporary Context Through the "Digital Birch Bark Jar": A Postphenomenological Approach to Interactive Digital Visualisation, in Chang, C.-Y., and Hsu, Y. (eds.), IASDR 2025: Design Next, 02-05 December, Taiwan. https://doi.org/10.21606/iasdr.2025.30
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Conference Track
Track 3 - Design, Art & Technology
Reconnecting Museum Exhibits with the Contemporary Context Through the "Digital Birch Bark Jar": A Postphenomenological Approach to Interactive Digital Visualisation
Paul Klee’s statement that “a drawing is simply a line going for a walk” finds new resonance in the contemporary museum context. Through digit is ation and interaction, museum artifacts are no longer static objects but dynamic “lines” undergoing continuous transformation. This paper presents The Digital Birch Bark Jar, an interactive visualisation project integrating Internet of Things and parametric design technologies. The installation translates real-time environmental data into evolving 3D forms that visitors can further materialise through 3D printing. Grounded in Don Ihde’s post phenomenological theory of technological mediation as an experiential design framework, the study demonstrates how digital generation as a process fosters imaginative connections between visitors and artifacts. A mixed methods experiment confirmed that participants engaging with the installation scored significantly higher for imagination than did those viewing traditional exhibits, validating the effectiveness of the design. Furthermore, qualitative analysis revealed a co-creative mechanism within the interaction process that was the core driver for stimulating imagination.