A partnership with University of the Arts explored whether animation could restore some of the human context that museum objects often lose behind glass and barriers. Students translated paintings, scientific history, and collection stories into short-form interpretive videos, improving the process through repeated experimentation. The project revealed both the promise and difficulty of collaborative digital interpretation: creative technology works best when artists first understand the meaning, audience, and historical context they are being asked to animate.
Tag Archives: storytelling
2006/2016: What’s changed over ten years in #DigitalHeritage
Ten years after first experimenting with social media at the National Park Service, this reflection takes stock of how digital heritage had changed by 2016. Institutions were becoming more open, participatory, story-driven, and comfortable with technology, while individuals increasingly blended professional identity with public advocacy. The piece also asks what had been lost along the way and whether institutional adoption had kept pace with the deeper cultural changes created by networked media.
The Burning of Columbia uses digital media to commemorate history
Historic Columbia used websites, social media, and real-time historical storytelling to mark the 150th anniversary of the Burning of Columbia during the Civil War. Carrie Phillips explains how the organization defined its goals, coordinated platforms, divided responsibilities, and designed an experience that let audiences encounter historical events with greater immediacy. The project shows how digital commemoration can connect place, chronology, archival material, and public participation without treating history as a one-way broadcast.
20 years later, I finally understand what college media leadership taught me
Two decades after editing his university newspaper, Jeff Guin looks back on the newsroom as an early laboratory for experimentation, leadership, criticism, and institutional memory. Long before social media gave those instincts a digital form, the experience taught him to study what came before, preserve what mattered, challenge inherited practices, and give a new generation room to make the institution its own. The piece connects journalism training directly to his later approach to digital work.
The Earth Pyramid: Giving the world a chance to become a part of history
The Earth Pyramid project imagined a new monument containing contributions from governments, Indigenous peoples, and children around the world, sealed for a thousand years for future generations. Steve Ward describes an ambitious mixture of ancient building traditions, contemporary engineering, global participation, education, and social media. The project raises an unusually literal question about cultural transmission: what would our generation deliberately choose to preserve and communicate to people living a millennium from now?
You don’t have to be a King to find your voice
Inspired by The King’s Speech, Jeff Guin writes publicly about living with auditory-processing and speech challenges that shaped his childhood, communication style, and sense of confidence. Finding a name for the condition did not remove it, but it changed how he understood the effort required to communicate. The essay connects vulnerability with professional voice: speaking publicly can matter precisely because expression has never felt effortless or guaranteed.
Meet the Blogger: Mike Anderson of “Ancient History”
Mike Anderson uses his Ancient History blog to ask a deceptively contemporary question: what can Greece, Rome, and the broader human past tell us about the choices societies make now? In this interview, he discusses why direct online publishing suited his approach, how short-form historical writing can invite conversation, and why recurring patterns in human behavior make ancient history more than an exercise in looking backward.
What I’m about, through my daughter’s eyes
Note: this was originally published in my Hometown Heritage newspaper column, date 1-1-11 I visited Memory Lawn Cemetery in my hometown of Natchitoches, La., with my daughter this past week. And it brought hope to my world. I’ll admit, 2010 was a challenging year. It…
Marion Jensen on putting history into context with Twitter
Marion Jensen’s TwHistory project used Twitter, original source documents, and real-time reenactment to make historical events feel present. In this 2010 conversation, he explains how experiments with Gettysburg, Chancellorsville, the Cuban Missile Crisis, geolocation, and living-history interpretation pointed toward a larger idea: digital tools could connect people directly with historical sources, places, and stories in ways traditional publishing and interpretation handled differently.
Use online photosharing to visually tell the story of heritage resources
This practical introduction to Flickr treats photographs as more than illustrations: titles, captions, tags, groups, comments, and sharing can turn an image into an entry point for public interpretation. Written when online photo communities were rapidly expanding, the piece encourages heritage organizations to think about photography as networked storytelling. The larger lesson survives the platform itself: visual collections gain public value when they are contextualized, discoverable, and open to interaction.