Two of EID’s blog post installments in October and December 2020 (Putting Interpretive Design Ideas into Practice Phase 1 and Phase 2) covered the importance of developing a clear mission driven interpretive framework, with specific holistic outcomes for the visitor, based on key site essences. This set the stage for our upcoming third post on describing the interpretive offerings at an Invitation Station that will invite the visitor to participate in the essence driven immersing experiences. The key word here is…Invitation!
As Mike and I put the finishing touches on Phase 3 about our interpretive planning and design project at Métis Crossing, I made a point of revisiting the Interpretive Design and the Dance of Experience book for more inspiration and instigation.
When I found myself corner tabbing, starring and highlighting sections in the book again, I thought, “Why don’t I bring some of Steve Van Matre’s declarative positions forward for our blogging community to digest and ruminate on.” All the quotations that follow in this post derive from Van Matre’s challenging and creative viewpoints, directly pertaining to the concept of interpretive invitations which form a critical part of our upcoming third installment. This post will flesh this concept out as a necessary precursor.
What is an interpretive invitation?
An invitation is a request for the visitor to get involved and to do something mentally and physically that will enrich their personal dance of experience. The interpretive medium chosen must reach out to the visitor helping to get them underway in experiencing the site’s purpose. With this preliminary definition in mind, I hope you are primed to ponder and to have your thoughts and methods challenged? Are you ready to absorb and maybe even say “Hmm” occasionally?
Get ready for a ride with interpretive author – provocateur Steve Van Matre.
Let’s raise the bar…
Van Matre summarizes on page 240 of the book:
“The ultimate goal of interpretation is experiential transformation.”
The methodology to get there is a marriage of the structure developed in previously described Phase 1 and 2, with the design of invitational experiential interactions. Let’s unpack this concept of invitation and the preparation of visitors to continue experiencing a site on their own. Have a pen handy or your keyboard close by because you will probably want to capture your thoughts before they fade away.
“As interpreters, we want to turn the dance of experience into a dance of love for the visitors. The aim is to love our jewels [heritage site], not just recognize them. People value what they understand, and love what they feel, so we want to guide them in moving from value to love in their dance with a place. To love something is to cherish it, support it, return to it, and that is what we want in interpretation. We begin by inviting the visitors, ‘Come, dance with us,‘ but along the way, we pass them off to ‘dance with the jewel’ without us.” (page 240)
You may want to read these quotes over a few times slowly and methodically (remember at the beginning I talked about ruminating). Please, take the time to really grapple with what Van Matre is proposing, as it is a slight whack on the side of the head. So here are a few more morsels to consider on invitation in the interpretive experience…
“An interpretive experience needs to be offered with an invitation and some practice beforehand or it will struggle to reach its goal.” (page 222)
“An invitation is usually a request to attend something. The most successful ones have a personal feeling about them. If every interpretive tool was designed in the same way, it would change interpretation from an often passively informational medium into an active engaging one.” (page 196)
“We need invitations not opportunities. An opportunity is a suitable time or circumstance while an invitation is a specific request to be somewhere. By its very nature an invitation is designed to attract. It says someone wants us. An invitation reaches out while an opportunity is just there.” (page 196)
What Part Should We Play in the Visitor Experience?
Once again, Van Matre has a perspective that demands some more mind churning and note taking.
“How we see ourselves professionally shifts our focus. As interpreters, we are not presenting opportunities for enrichment, we are inviting people to do enriching things. This makes us proactive coaches... An interpreter is a coach for visitor experience.” (page 196)
“Guides offer a menu of opportunities, interpreters extend invitations. “
Photo credit: Bill Reynolds
(Note: Van Matre’s use of the word “zoo” below could be interchanged with other types of heritage sites)
“It [guiding] is the difference between going to the beach and going to the zoo. People go to the beach realizing no one has set something up for them. It’s a recreational area for what they will do on their own. There may be some facilities, some amenities, but the activity there is something people arrange primarily for themselves. Going to the zoo is different. People expect to find things on offer there. They know people at the zoo think about the visitors’ experience and want to share the work of the zoo with them. Just remember this is not directional guiding; it’s experiential guiding. In a way it’s saying, ‘I will aid you in getting ready, sharing some things that will be helpful, and practicing them with you when needed. I will even set off with you to make sure you’re comfortable, but then you’re on your own.’ This is guiding as coaching, not leading.” (page 128)
“All interpreters are guiding, but all guides are not interpreting.”
How Shall We Best Communicate?
“The most important factor for successful guiding in interpretation seems to reside in the use of words. Since an interpreter translates the natural and cultural language of a place for visitors who come to experience it, and much of that language is non-verbal, and since interpretation is first and foremost direct experience, an interpreter must translate the language of place through meaningful and memorable interactions, not just words. If interpreters are not extremely careful, their words will overwhelm the experience for the visitors.” (page 128)
“Good guiding implies that there are discoveries to be made by prepared visitors… Interpretive guiding should prepare visitors to make their own discoveries whenever possible.” (page 130)
Getting visitors to continue dancing (maintain their excitement) and engage with the heritage site is best done through interactions. Some common interpretive media formats are personal presentations, guided or self-guided tours, simulations, demonstrations, re-enactments, storytelling, campfire talks, guided discoveries, or portrayal of persons from the past. Just as important are the communication devices of various formats: print (e.g. signage, banners, labels, maps, brochures), exhibits, audio, video, smartphone/tablets, digital screens, QR codes, augmented reality or virtual reality. Regardless, Van Matre points out many of our media still predominantly focus on information and not invitation.
He reminds us several times about this concept/idea: “As interpretive designers we should ask over and over, ‘Where’s the invitation?’ If an offering doesn’t invite participation, then we should consign it to the library. It is information not interpretation.” (page 134) This is true for all interactive communication devices or interpretive media.
Photo credit Bill Reynolds, in Galapagos National Park- an invitation to think?
An invitation to do favourite digital pastimes close by en plein air
How Can We Set Up Invitation Stations
To extend this concept, Van Matre introduces Invitation Stations - “…where interpreters deliver the invitational interactions that prepare and motivate visitors to participate in one or more essence experiences” (whether interpreter led or not). We use the term immersing experience (essence-based) as synonymous with Van Matre’s use of essence experience.
Visitors need to feel pulled in and set up for their adventure and this can be enhanced by a carefully crafted Invitation Station. This is where they practice, and begin to absorb the designed outcomes in preparing for an extended experience. I liken it to a sampling at a farmers’ market. Visitors should then be invited to do something on their own with what they enticingly gained at an Invitation Station. Accompanying paths, both real and metaphoric ones, emanating from the invitation station should be designed for the expressed purpose of leading the participant to an immersing experience…a chance to dance deeply with the place.
Here’s one Invitation Station example from the book that Van Matre presents for Everglades National Park in Florida:
“Invitation stations for sharing essence can take many forms. A small-roofed viewing platform that’s raised to give visitors a panoramic view, could become the outpost for setting off on foot onto the boardwalk over the marsh but also the artists’ point where returning explorers record their experience. With a little interpretive legerdemain, the various signs, containers, props, even costumes, could be reversed, or turned inside out while the walk was underway, transforming the station in just a few minutes from an outpost for exploration into a retreat for contemplation.
“This latter element could be expanded upon by encouraging regional artists to create things based on the view from the overlook, then sharing them in an exhibit assembled there once a month (letting them sell their other work in the car park below. For visitors during other times, a large chalkboard could be installed under the shelter with an invitation to share words and renderings that capture the language of the place (with the board being salted on a regular basis).” (page 224)
Salting side bar: Salting was introduced earlier in Van Matre’s book referring to any time you add something that will enrich the visitors’ experience with the place. As he points out, where can YOU chalk graffiti on a back wall, arrange for an old nest to be found, stumble across the bag of an early explorer, have a door to open or find a pull - down map under the eave of a building? “…when sharing a particular place, we don’t have to rely on what is immediately at hand, we can add things to help us heighten the intensity and clarity of our messages.” (page 137)
Photo credit Bill Reynolds
These are techniques to strengthen the invitational interaction and pull the visitor into the experience that awaits. Sometimes it is just a word or phrase, other times it is an item found normally in the area but you place it in a particular spot as a focal point for something you will explain or for something you will use as a prop for a special activity. In addition, it could be an item that visitors could discover when guided surreptitiously by you, like evidence of unseen inhabitants or architectural details.
“An immersive experience without a structure for attracting and sustaining mission-driven mental engagement becomes little more than a shopping mall, recreation area, or theme park.” (page 235)
What is the Key Design Process?
As we explained in Phase 1 and 2, the key to developing meaningful, memorable, tangible, and delightful visitor experiences happens by:
determining your site essences,
knowing the processes you will emphasize,
developing an inventory of visitor outcomes, and
deciding on the messages you want to reinforce
Collecting all of this place-based evidence, then displaying it so it supports your carefully crafted interpretive plan is key to the process of designing invitational interactions.
It is so easy to skip the early, foundational steps covered in Phase 1 and 2 and jump right to the fun stuff of creating interpretive programs and choosing interpretive media. However, without the well-thought rationale of what makes your site special, what you want to accomplish and for whom, the site interpretation can’t reach its potential. This is why Van Matre placed creating interpretive experiences in Chapter Six of the book and not at the beginning.
This framework for interpretive design is what we unravelled in Phase 1 and 2 of Putting Interpretive Design Ideas into Practice. Phase 3 will look at what Van Matre calls AMORE interpretive skills as the basis for developing experiences based on invitational interpretive interactions, integrated into various media formats. See you there.