VIRTUAL London Heritages Conference
Abstract
As we increasingly engage with heritage sites through digital and technologically enabled immersive experiences, the perceptible qualities of such spaces take on different, heightened, effects, and collapse boundaries between private and public encounters. This paper explores these effects by tracing ideas of intimacy in digital space using theoretical and methodological approaches of embodiment, autoethnography, and comparative analysis of case studies. Included within the studies are the Glasgow Tenement House Museum, the Sir John Soane Museum, and Dennis Severs’ House. The paper suggests that the meanings of digital intimacy emerging from this study might prove to be a useful working characterisation in the context of heritage and museum studies and demonstrates this through a speculative future design proposal. However, as more individuals engage in virtual spaces, the boundaries between private and public spheres become increasingly complex, prompting researchers to explore digital intimate relationships. This paper analyses digital intimacy through the lens of embodied theory and self-ethnography, using case studies and comparative analysis of the Glasgow Tenement House Museum, Sir John Soane’s Museum, and Dennis Severs’ House. By critically examining the principles and working models of intimacy in museums through speculative design, the paper aims to provide insights into the evolving nature of digital intimacy in the context of heritage and museum studies.
Haitang is a PhD researcher at the GSA, School of Design department. Her research explores how systemic cycles within virtual museums intersect with modern personal daily life. She employs spatial ethnography to investigate the future forms and possibilities of museums in virtual reality.