Creating an Interpretive program - Part 4: Making Connections

An example: a live demonstration of a team of draught horses

in harness would be a good technique of illustrating a subtheme

of transportation methods that in turn serve to highlight how life 

has changed on a farm over the years.

This month's topic is building connections, in particular, the connection of the Message to the visitor. This is done by using interpretive techniques, also called methods or services. The methods provide opportunities for visitors to grasp the message from different angles using different techniques to illustrate the subthemes and the Primary Interpretive Message that make up the message.

To review: Primary Interpretive Messages come from resource significance. They are over-arching and broad, and often are told as stories. Story is a powerful vehicle to convey meaning as it is central to nearly every society. It is the very basis of Interpretation; from start, to middle, to the end, and on to the gift store. Crafting the Primary Interpretive Message as a story is crucial to program creation, so take care in making one. The subthemes connect the Primary Interpretive Message to the methods that will be examined shortly but are also derived from the resource's significance. They are in narrow scope that support the message. Think of them as examples of the main argument or using parts to describe the whole. Out of the subtheme comes the methods in which you make the connection with the visitor. To be honest, this is the fun part because this will be where you can be creative with what you do with your visitors, like demonstration, role-play, or participation, but also simpler things like humor, story-telling, facilitated questioning, and others. However, going into detail of the Interpreter's Toolbox is not the point of this month's post, but to talk about how techniques are used to illustrate the story and tell your message effectively is.

This also takes some crafting and some evaluation of the resource, as not all interpretive techniques are right for using; some will be more effective than others in one situation but not in another, and too much of the same thing is boring. With this in mind, take some time evaluating what technique works best for the situation to present the resource in its best light. Overloading the visitors with point after point, subtheme after subtheme, in a dense wall of information is not going to help them; do no more than five and keep it simple. To be relevant you also must allow opportunities for the visitors to make their own emotional and intellectual connections to the resource. The connections do not have to be simultaneous; aim for a intellectual connection in one subtheme and technique and an emotional one on the next. Managing to get two into a connection is great too, but there must be an evaluation of whether a method is good to use or something else needs to be changed.

Here is an example to coincide with last month's example of black troops raised at Fort Scott. Since we are working not in person but over a blog, I have ready use of the YouTube Videos to use as a method to highlight a subtheme. Videos are hard to incorporate while doing a program in person, since they use audio and visual media that might be unavailable, broken, or there may not be enough room where the presentation is being given. Could displaying it on a tablet be appropriate if the group is small? What if it is a large group? These are issues to also be considered. Provided in the link below is the opening sequence from Steven Spielberg's 2012 film Lincoln. The point I want to make by showing the clip is to highlight the 2nd Kansas Colored Regiment in battle, the the public eye, and potential impact on history. First, the clip is too long. I would edit it, but it's not my video. Is it worth trying to edit it for my purposes? Is that legal? It's rather violent for younger audience; will that be a problem? These are some of the things that must be addressed before implementation. If I had the bright idea to show this without first evaluating it, it could possibly be a disaster, or at best, a great interpretive tool, if I used it right.

Making an intellectual connection with a resource might sound vague. What does that look like? Some ideas as to what an intellectual connection might be would be to provoke insight, discovery, curiosity, and recognition of patterns and relationships, i.e., getting an audience member to say, "I never thought of it like that!" Emotional connections are harder, at least for me, and include wonder, sympathy, concern, grief, and so much more. Interpretation is to provoke, which is more of an emotional response than a intellectual one, and as such is probably the more important than the two. However, both should be stimulated.

"Some of us was in the 2nd Kansas Colored, we fought the

Reb[el]s at Jenkin's Ferry last April just after they killed every

Negro soldier they captured at Poison Springs. So at Jenkin's

Ferry, we decided we warn't takin' no Rebs prisoner..."

- "Pvt. Harold Green" from Spielberg's Lincoln

Going back to the clip, what are the intellectual connections that can be made if using this clip for interpretive purposes? Knowledge and understanding, for example. "Aha, I just learned about the 2nd Kansas Colored; they were first mustered in at Fort Scott, the second regiment of black men to join. It looks like they also participated in the assault on Fort Fisher as part of the USCT." "Did this interaction of Lincoln and these troops actually take place or was it done for the film?" - an example of curiosity. If I chose to lead with this clip as an introduction to the black regiments raised at Fort Scott I might make a cliffhanger of this scene and save it toward the end of my tour to provide both an intellectual (information) and emotional (dramatic release) connection. Emotionally, the clip shows that war is ugly, that there was injustice, but ultimately hope in the Union cause and the cause of freedom as the last lines of the Gettysburg Address were spoken back to Abraham Lincoln by a black soldier. So is this method an excellent choice to use with visitors in a program? In my opinion, no, unless I can edit it. It might be better to investigate another method to reach the visitor, like an excerpt of the script or Living History, or an image, but including any of these would lose a lot of emotional impact. I included it because my medium is different; I am communicating using the internet where I can use video much more easily to illustrate points than if I were in person.

Making people make connections destroys interpretation. Telling people what to think is not interpretation, so make sure that you do not make connections for them in a such ham-fisted manner. Picking the right method brings the visitor in connection with that subtheme, and in turn, to the Primary Interpretive Message.  It is more like guidance than instruction. Discovery for oneself with some guidance is the goal.