Innovative Interpretation for the PUBLIC

[btfire]

Re: Innovative Interpretation for the PUBLIC

Making a speech is a hard thing to do for many, and even harder to comprehend as a person with little interest in material. Any talk given to the public should focus on the person/place with an understanding of those topics above all else. The NPS unit at Appomattox had a docent give an incredible talk to the public while I visited that had almost every person, me included, in tears. This woman had an understanding of the person/place that put the visitor into her mindset and we could almost see what she described. The story was painful and real and it achieved the desired result.

We can bring a slice of the EFUBU to the public by setting up static living histories in the right places. The AG and SCAR did this in Atlanta this year. They had nothing but campaign equipment and demonstrated skirmish drill and pickets. This event was packed into a residential neighborhood on original ground. This was an opportunity to use field skills generally reserved for the EFUBU in the woods.
The real key to obtaining the goals of public interaction is the ability of public speaking. We must break the trend of being wallpaper and become the true living historians we all say we aspire to be. Find the public speakers in your group and make use of them. Rehearse the speech and know your MAN/METHOD/MATERIAL. Remember the three-legged stool and the Manifesto.

[JimKindred]

Re: Innovative Interpretation for the PUBLIC

Folks,

There is one part of this discussion that is been left out completely. How do you educate someone who does not come to your events to be educated? Individuals such as that make up the vast majority of the audience you are directing your presentation to, they are there to be entertained or to have an excuse to get out of the house. All the lofty ideals of educating the public go out the window when you look at this from the view point of those in the audience.

How much of the "education" you give them is retained long enough for them to get from the site of presentation to the parking lot? Usually at that point their thought process has turned from history to deciding to go to DQ or McDonald's.

My post may be a wet blanket on this discussion but after some 30 odd years in this hobby my experience has been that the public is not there for an education, they are there to be entertained.

[btfire]

Re: Innovative Interpretation for the PUBLIC

Mr. Kindred,
you are quite right that many are visiting for entertainment, but they are not every person. You can only educate those who want to be educated and only hope to inspire a desire to learn in those who are seeking entertainment. I doubt there are many visitors to a site who are truly seeking entertainment as there are plenty of CW themed monster truck battle festivals for them to attend. Much like a teacher in a government school may only reach the few children who are smart enough to realize an education is important, they still must reach out to those who are passing time. Perhaps the seed will be planted, but offering the service is never a failure.

[Malingerer]

Re: Innovative Interpretation for the PUBLIC

I would strongly encourage anyone with an interest in public interpretation to get their hands on a copy of Freeman Tilden's "Interpreting Our Heritage". When I worked for the NPS in the 80's it was considered the 'bible' of public interp. As I recall, Tilden's bigest take home point was that we as interpreters should be far more concerned with inspiration than information. Thus, excrutiatingly detailed knapsack/haversack talks might be less helpful than presentations that relate the visitor's own personal experiences to those of soldiers and civilians in the front lines or on the home front.

[LWhite64]

Re: Innovative Interpretation for the PUBLIC

To reference's Jim's comments, true, a lot are there for entertainment, thats one reason we have the guns fired first, those there for the bang then leave and what you have left are there for the good stuff. This is part of my job, giving tours, doing talks etc. So, its a given that a large part of your audience doesnt get it, but Im there and my goal is to reach the others that do and I think we at Chickamauga have had pretty good luck, and of course you are going to get various levels of "getting it" too. Some will retain more knowledge than others, but as long as you reach some then its worth it. Besides if it wasnt for someone else doing this same thing in the first place how many of us would even be here today? How many historians taking the pain to research and write a book that we dearly love, knowing that the masses would never even open the book, but still they did it?
Since we started a more "social" history theme in our talks, I know we have had more success in giving the public something they can grasp from the questions and comments we have received from them. Plus this has made us stand out from other parks where you simply get a rifle firing demo.
BTW, Em, Im stealing your dodgeball idea.

[Union Navy]

Re: Innovative Interpretation for the PUBLIC

Tilden also said that anything presented that does not relate to the personal experience of the listener will be sterile. Since we are dealing with a different time period, with different technology and different cultural references, that may be a problem. Our listeners don't have any direct experience with 1860s America (but then, neither do we). But there are human universals that might help - military discipline and reactions to it, "institutional food," being far from home, etc. If the scenario allows, I may talk about my pocket watch and how it was the "supercomputer" of its day - expensive, made with exotic materials and cutting-edge technology, accurate (relatively), useful, durable. Something they can relate to.

It also pays to know your audience somewhat. Asking them a few questions will help guage the depth and type of their experience, so we can include that in our sharing. Sometimes that means asking the "did any of you ever..." type question. Give them enough time to get a word in edgewise and they will often give you an in - something from their personal experience - that you can use to lead them around your themes and important points.

[LWhite64]

Re: Innovative Interpretation for the PUBLIC

BTW, I also want to acknowledge that interpretation isnt for everyone, its not something that you can learn to do, either you can do it, or you cant, but there are levels of it as well. So, Im not saying everyone should, just those that decide to do it, need to work at it, and that includes all of us. I have already have new things I want to try for the next season.

[Trish Hasenmueller]

Re: Innovative Interpretation for the PUBLIC

The public may come to see a Civil War era event for entertainment but they choose to be entertained by a Civil War era event. They could go to a sci-fi movie or to a sporting event, but since they choose to come to a Civil War era event, we must assume they are at least a bit interested in finding out what conditions were during that time. We can still teach them through our actions what life was like without beating them over the head with information. People learn best that way, I have found. Sometimes it helps to find out from them what they want to learn. Many times a prescribed 'script' must be adjusted which is not hard to do if one has a good general knowledge base.

Trish Hasenmueller

[LWhite64]

Re: Innovative Interpretation for the PUBLIC

One thing, since Tilden is being beaten about, and Im about to commit heresy, Tilden came from more of a natural background and I disagree with a number of his points, the most important being that the visitors should go away with a warm fuzzy feeling, sorry this is a battlefield where very terrible things happened.

[lukegilly13]

Re: Innovative Interpretation for the PUBLIC

How much does the average person maintain of what they hear? 1/3
How much does the non motivated listener retain of what they hear? 1/9
How much does a motivated listener retain? 1/2
Although my education books are locked up at work right now and I am home (kind of ironic...usually it's the opposite...history books at home and i'm at work) I am pretty confidenty these are the numbers.
Some of you are hitting the nail on the head...the goal is to motivate the listener to hear.
In our recent event at Cumberland Gap we had thousands of visitors. We had a LOT of interpretors. Our problem was attracting good historians that didn't ask the question "when will the battle be" and would not avoid the event when the answer was "you cannot bring powder on a national park". We had several members of this forum in attendance....and I feel like it was one of the strongest living histories i've ever attended. I think the reason was freedom. We allowed visitors to take their time and visit each "display" as long as they liked and go to the ones they wanted to hear. We also had a wide variety....from slaves to masons, 61 rebs to 64 feds. All concentrating their stories on local folks from 1861-1865. Instead of explaining foraging for 20 minutes...we had some soldiers steeling from the local farmer while he was talking to the public about his crops and farming methods. If that peaked the visitors' interests, they could go visit the "foraging group" and get more information. My supply wagon was loaded with the same thing that Gen. Frazier's men put on the log that they recieved. We even researched the labels from the warehouses in Knoxville. Not many folks noticed that. The major question I recieved was "are those wheels wooden" and "how long did it take to get from Knoxville to here". However, once they begin to examin the supply wagon, some did become interested in the countless hours of research and finally would inquire about the packing boxes.
I think the general public is tired of the same ol same ol this is a musket, these are pistols living histories that they are used to at their public fairs and summer town events. I think it is key to advertise your event in the proper places (national parks, schools, libraries, museums, etc.). Of course, you can also advertise on tV and in the newspaper.
They want to see something different, soemthign new, something that contrasts with their "Gone With The Wind" mentality.

[Cornfed]

Re: Innovative Interpretation for the PUBLIC

Another book worth a read is Interpretation for the 21st Century: Fifteen Guiding Principles for Interpreting Nature and Culture by Larry Beck and Ted Cable. It provides clearer understanding of Tilden's principles and expands on them, hence the number 15. Also worth mentioning is Stacy Roth's Past into Present: Effective Techniques for First Person Historical Interpretation.

I find developing programs featuring interpretation components as set forth by Tilden and others (see above) is much similiar to our quest for authenticity. Those dedicated to this sort of thing follow the road to absolute perfection but never achieve it. I keep striving to do so with the belief that visitors can be taught and entertained at the same time and leave the program or demonstration begging for more.

I have interest in first person interpretation and in the 90's my now defunct unit used this style almost exclusively at LH events at NPS sites (of course with the permission of the park staff). There are ways, as expressed by Stacy Roth, to insure (although I don't think its with 100% success) that visitors "get it." We used to use a sentry post to stop visitors and then explain what we were doing (first person) in a camp life setting and then "invite them back in time" (to the time period being portrayed). They would encounter soldiers speaking to them and to each other in first person. To alleviate the awkwardness some visitors inevitably felt and to stir conversations and questions, the program would be facilitated by a soldier in third person (designated as the soldier without the hat) who could encourage questions and answer "modern questions." We also featured "first person programs" that involved a narrator in third person and interludes of first person conversation on various related topics. Of course each program was site specific. Narration as well as the "speaking parts" were scripted and members were asked to learn their lines and arrive at the event prepared. It takes dedicated members who like to do this sort of thing to pull it off. Rehearsing once on site before doing the program in front of the public is important.

Lately, I have been thinking of ways to conduct programs that encourage visitor participation at least in some small way. For instance, if doing a demo featuring skirmish drill, the group of visitors can be formed into a separate company (counting off, the whole nine yards) and then act as the reserve company (or event the second platoon) for the living history group. Of course safety is key and the reserve company is well behind the company or platoon as it deploys and fires.

I have enjoyed reading everyone's posts thus far. Great topic.

Phil Maddox
Hedgesville Blues

[kaelin]

Re: Innovative Interpretation for the PUBLIC

I am really enjoying reading this thread, something I haven't done in a while.
My personal thought is...
We keep our focus of why we are where we are? I am doing this to educate myself, but I only learn when I have taught someone else. I have tried to stay low from forums, and being in front of the "movie" camera. I have wanted to stay in front of the public as a teacher and educator. Don't get me wrong, I love the immersion events when it is just us. I learn from both.
There are people, there are groups, there are sites who value the concept of educating the public.

As for pushing the envelope, being creative...the sky is the limit! I am blessed to work for a historic site that allows me to use my creativity. I am also blessed to be in a group that is on the same page and will show up for everything. I have grown weary and so has the public of the same ole, same ole. And no, I am not going to the wrong events, our group just found ways to use our creativity and some of you have been apart of that.

I will submit this for now and may add later..

[Malingerer]

Re: Innovative Interpretation for the PUBLIC

Phil, great post and thanks for the reference. I have to confess that I havn't thought much about new ideas in interpretation since leaving NPS nearly twenty years ago and it seems likely that a lot of new and innovative work has been done in this field in the meantime. With all due respect to Lee, who I know is still in the trenches doing the stuff we're writing about, I never got the sense that Tilden wanted visitors to leave a particular sit with a case of the "warm fuzzies" but rather a clear feeling of "site-related impact and inspiration". I think one could visit the site of a nazi death camp and, if the interprtation were successful, come away with a genuine of gratitude for the visit and the site's continued preservation.

[Hank Trent]

Re: Innovative Interpretation for the PUBLIC

How do you educate someone who does not come to your events to be educated? Individuals such as that make up the vast majority of the audience you are directing your presentation to, they are there to be entertained or to have an excuse to get out of the house. All the lofty ideals of educating the public go out the window when you look at this from the view point of those in the audience.

I think that's an important point. "The public" is just as different as reenactors are, and not every kind of experience will suit every person. It's even harder because events can try to limit the reenactors who attend to those who will fit what's being offered, but public events are open to everyone, including those who just wandered by with no clue, or worse yet, those who have strongly held but wrong ideas about what they're walking into.

Imagine taking the average reenacting couple who are used to the ladies tea and the 2 p.m. battle on the town square, and dropping them into the middle of Bummers. Or vice versa. And having to adapt the event on the fly to try to make the experience a good one for them. That's the same kind of variation we're dealing with, when the public comes strolling by. The only advantage they have is that they can leave whenever they want.

Personally, unless it's a situation where I'm expected to give a regular talk to regular groups, I deal with it by not trying to interpret to everybody. I greet everybody who comes by and try to start a conversation, but if they just want to smile, look, nod and go on, I let them. Then I focus more on those who do seem to want what I can offer.

If the event goal is to engage with everyone, you really do have to look for the lowest common denominator. People at both ends get interpretation that's "not for them." I don't know what one can do about it, unless you can manage to get visitors who self-select into a much more cohesive group.

Personally, from a reenactor's perspective, I'd go to way more public interpretation events if there were living history experiences for reenactors overnight too. Semi-modern camping and just doing modern stuff from 5 p.m. to 10 a.m. or whatever, is way too boring for me, to waste a weekend on it, but it seems I'm in a very small minority. So for heavy-duty public interpretation, I usually wind up just doing it within a short drive home, so when I'm done, I'm done.

Hank Trent
hanktrent@gmail.com

[LWhite64]

Re: Innovative Interpretation for the PUBLIC

In the midst of a plumbing problem, but just wanted to chime in on thing, kind of to elaborate on a point Trish and Kalen have made, that is we dont need to look at interp as simply being for the benefit of the public, I have gained a lot from just presenting the programs and then then through the feedback of my colleagues, as well as the public themselves from either comments or questions that might ask that then have me consider a point that I had not considered before, OR even finding a hole in my logic. So once again its the good interpretation that we are talking about, as opposted to some of the same ole same ole that we often find being presented.
Right now is a good time for this too, not only with the 150ths, but even with recent scholarship there has been a lot of work into the field that would deal with the world of the civil war soldier, books in the last five years such as Chandra Manning's What This Cruel War War Over, Jason Phillips' Diehard Rebels, Aaron Shehan Dean's Why Confederates Fought, Joe Glathaar's General Lee's Army, and Ken Noe's new work on late enlisting Confederates, all offer a huge amount that we can gain for interpreting the soldiers as well as for those who are interested in first person. Also, Ancestry and Footnote.com have opened doors for this in ways that have never been available before.

Ok, back to work.