Julia GÖKE
Doctoral researcher at the C²DH
JULIA WORKS ON THE PROJECT ‘CLOUD NATIVE SHARED AUTHORITY: A.I. ENHANCED PUBLIC PARTICIPATION IN DIGITAL HISTORY‘ UNDER THE SUPERVISION OF GERBEN ZAAGSMA
What if an exhibition is a conversation between curators and the visitors?
This question lies at the heart of Cloud Native Shared Authority, which reimagines exhibitions as collaborative spaces where visitors actively participate in shaping narratives. In a nutshell, my work is to build a mobile application. Using that application, visitors can annotate their thoughts, share experiences, and comment on displayed items and topics. This input can then be analysed using natural language processing and give curators valuable insights to dynamically improve the exhibition. In essence, the exhibition evolves as a direct response to public engagement and turns visitors from passive consumers into active collaborators.
This project seeks to push boundaries, combining human collaboration with machine learning innovation to create an exhibition space where visitors not only learn but also critically engage with the content, shaping it in real-time. By fostering this dynamic interaction, we can turn exhibitions into living conversations, enhancing both visitor experiences and curatorial practice. The historical “age of abundance” extends beyond researching new data, it must also involve allowing more people to actively engage with history by enabling new ways to participate in its curation. This approach democratizes the narration of history through fostering a sense of ownership and engagement and by giving the curators the freedom to fully embrace their audience.