Your clothes make a statement, as do the objects you surround yourself with when engaging in living history or reenactment- from cups and knives to boxes and seating. -Dan Rosen
My Dearest Bride pointed me to this Facebook page from Old England Grown New. The post In Defense of Stuff is interesting to me because over the years we have debated this topic repeatedly.
The author of the post, Dan Rosen, makes some excellent points. I would, however, cast his ideas slightly differently. He mentions in a previous post that the goal of interpretation is to connect people to the concepts being interpreted. I would add that the most human manner to do this is via story. Stories are so pervasive that we are not able to opt out of telling a story. If you don’t give your visitors something to blend into their personal narrative they will bend what you display so that it fits. This works so well that people forget they are doing it. It’s the ‘right stuff’ that makes magic tricks work.
Dan is correct that objects tell stories. He points out very well that each object in a display will tell a part of the story discerned by the audience. He correctly notes that if you group things together that are interesting to you, or perhaps that you find cool, you will tell the story of your interests; and that probably won’t serve the goals of the site or event—unless of course, it’s all about you.
When we first applied the techniques of presentation building to living history, we spent months debating how to craft our story. We developed a framework that divided the message into supporting categories. Then we identified how to illustrate each category with objects we had or could acquire. The presentation of categories with nothing in our inventory to represent them was deferred until they could be acquired or made. For instance, we identified Metis style beadwork as an important camp differentiater for our display, but learning the techniques and acquiring the materials took lots of time.
After we had organized the display, we discovered the power of mission or objective statements. We wrote one for the display and reprioritized everything again. Don’t do that; it’s wasteful. Start with a clear statement of what you hope to accomplish then develop the supporting categories. When you have the categories it will be easier to decide what’s important.
A simple mission statement, or if you prefer, statement of objectives, describes the: who, when, and why of your display. I suggest leaving the where to the site as it’s very difficult to change locations in the minds of visitors. But you can be the judge of that.
Here is an example of the mission statement we use for our living history display:
We interpret the life of a Hudson’s Bay Company couple, married in the fashion of the country, trapping and trading in the Snake Country during the second quarter of the nineteenth century.
This tells us what everything in our display WILL directly support. Support is provided by these categories: dress, demeanor, language, shelter, trapping, trading, transportation, women’s roles, food, and other lifeways. To tell the complete story something from each one of these categories is represented in a historically accurate, culturally appropriate, and economically correct manner. This means that fur trappers are not found driving around in troikas, even though troikas existed during the same time period. It may also mean that even if it was historically accurate and culturally appropriate, a silk shirt might not be appropriate for one of your economic stature.
A historical anecdote appropriate to each is extracted from the literature. It’s even better to compare and contrast your representation with other familiar representations of the same category. For instance we compared an HBC camp to an American fur trappers camp; what cues will differentiate them?
Of course alternative categories could have been chosen. The variety in story emphasis is part of the beauty of creating these displays. No two are the same and multiple presentations of the same information can make different connections in the same visitor.
Also, it’s up to you to decide which portions of your story will come from objects and which portions from verbal or other sources. There are some connections best made by talking to people and others from displaying objects. Some connections are best made through smell (the smell of baking bread evokes memories and connections for me) and some through touch. Developing the connections is where experimentation and creativity are exercised.
However I would caution you to be truthful in the materials and techniques of your display objects. If you cut corners with them, or with the clothes you wear, it can come through as dishonesty in the message. You may reach some folks, but others will be put off or confused.
Oh, and don’t think that your display and story has to come together completely before you can tell it. Good interpretive stories will change over time and location. They evolve and grow. The story should change with the visitor; age and background make changes vitally important.
This is just the thinnest skin of the topmost layer of display development. The use of color and texture will be important. The arrangement of the objects so that the audience’s eyes are drawn to important objects in succession is a complex art.
In a future post I’ll connect interpretive display development directly to creative writing and Shawn Coyne’s Story Grid. In fact, it may be that Shawn’s Story Grid provides a better tool for program development than our methods. I’m not good enough at the Story Grid to compare them.
Lastly, I’m an interpreter not a reenactor, while the techniques are similar there are significant differences in application. If you are reenacting, some event decisions will be made by the coordinators— for instance your characters presence in particular scenes. This means you may have to more strictly conform to outside requirements for dress, dialog, and accouterments.