The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and Involve are opening an exhibit on Kristallnacht in Second Life next week. The project was inspired by a separate effort from the summer of 2007 with Global Kids on the Teen Grid that asked a group of high school students to conceive of an interactive space around the event. The teens produced a design document that Involve has now interpreted and brought to life. Users take the role of a journalist investigating what happened on the Night of Broken Glass, listening to testimony from Holocaust survivors and examining artifacts in a ransacked section of a city.
"I wanted something that when visitors went through, there was a reason for them to engage, not necessarily that they were a part of the history, but they have a reason to be there," said David Klevan, Education Manager for Technology and Distance Learning Initiatives, Division of Outreach Technology at the Museum. "I wanted them to be asking questions as they went through."
While the space is launching now to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the pogrom, Kevlan has future plans for the virtual world as well. In January the Museum will open a physical exhibit on propoganda of the Holocaust, but Second Life will host talks from historians in a lecture space attached
to the current exhibit.
Kevlan plans to complement the Museum's in-house programming with other online resources that in turn link to the virtual world. While he's interested in other applications, like installing kiosk portals from the museum to the virtual world, he has no plans there as of yet.
Involve CEO Drew Stein says the project was a labor of love that Involve executed at cost with contributions mostly from its senior developers and partners. He sees it as an evolution of work that began 15 years ago in museums experimenting wiht large-scale environmental graphics, only now the environment and the graphics are virtual. The 3D, immersive nature, though, provides a more visceral experience, he says.
"That’s one of the things we learned from the kids we worked with a year ago. There's a different sense of reality," agreed Kevlan. "That's one of the things we're hoping for that the folks that come through will not only learn more about history, but absorb it differently. When you go through the streets and see the kiosk or the newspapers hanging on windows, you absorb it. The thing for us is to how to do this without trivializing it or making it feel gamelike. You don't want them to feel like they were there, because they weren't, but that they'll know something more."
He also points to other options for museums to use virtual worlds as a space for experimental curation, and testing new experiences. For example, Involve previously worked with the Tech Museum of Innovation on a virtual exhibit contest that both promoted the museum and gave it a chance to examine new content and ways of interacting with users.
While the Holocaust Museum has previously worked in Second Life for a panel on Darfur, which Kevlan says brought in 80 or so attendees, this latest exhibit is likewise still an experimental process.
"We want to learn how visitors react to the space and use the space," he explained. "At the end of the build we do ask visitors to leave comments. The original idea at the end of the kids build was to take on the role of a journalist and file a report. We've kept some of that and we ask visitors to leave a report about what they saw and are feeling."
Likewise, while he's optimistic about the experience overall, Kevlan says he understands that Second Life projects are more about the unique elements they offer than reaching mass audiences. Instead, he's interested in building an ongoing relationship with visitors who are interested. That's something
that he feels like Second Life is strongly suited for--if done properly and with continuing work.
"As far as numbers, that's not a concern," he said. "I know enough that if I wanted to reach millions of people, there are better ways to do it. I want to see how do people learn and what do they learn in this type of environment. It's something we want to be aware of as technology moves forward. Having a programming space was also important. You need to give people a reason to come back. If you don't have live programming, there's no reason. Drew and his folks have built something very interesting, but I don't think that'll ever be enough. Second Life is a place where people gather to do things. And we want to give them thigns to do that provides them a reason to come back."
Here is an unofficial video of the original youth talking about the project:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGMH_1VnnaY
Posted by: Barry Joseph | December 08, 2008 at 10:32 AM