ʔeləw̓k̓ʷ – Belongings – Belongings: A Tangible Table in c̓əsnaʔəm, the city before the city

In conjunction with “Making Culture Lab” 

Funded by the GRAND NCE and SSHRC

[Copyright Making Culture Lab]

ʔeləw̓k̓ʷ – Belongings uses tangible replicas of Musqueam belongings excavated from c̓əsnaʔəm, as well as contemporary objects that are a part of everyday Musqueam life to represent the long history of salmon fishing and the continuity of related knowledge at c̓əsnaʔəm. Drawing on contemporary community voices and Musqueam’s ancestral language hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓, each replica has its own story to tell.

Placing a replica into an activation ring on the tabletop enables visitors to explore each belonging from multiple and interrelated perspectives. A digital version of the ring translates the hən̓q̓ əmin̓ əm̓ terms that are etched into the wooden ring. Each segment of the ring represents a hən̓q̓ əmin̓ əm̓ concept and reveals deeper layers of meaning about the belongings. To access these layers, visitors must accomplish different interaction sequences akin to matching games to complete each segment of the ring. For example, visitors must move a replica of a net weight to the related area on the underlying fish-cutting image, the fishing net, to trigger media that describes fishing practices. Digital information appears in the form of historic documents, smartphone photos from community members, quotes, and informative text. When the first three of these interactions are completed, the visitor unlocks a video interview with a video interview with a community member, who shares stories about learning cultural practices and histories. [Copyright 2015 Kate Hennessey]

Papers

• Muntean, R., Antle, A.N., Hennessey, K. and Matkin, B.B. (2017) Designing cultural values into interaction. In Proceedings of Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '17), ACM Press (Denver, CO, USA, May 6-11), 6063-6074.

• Muntean, R., Hennessy, K., Antle, A.N., Matkin, B.B., Rowley, S. and Wilson, J. (2016) Design interactions in ?el?wkw: Belongings. In Proceedings of Conference on Designing Interactive Systems(DIS '16), ACM Press (Brisbane, QLD, Australia, June 4-8), 582-594.

• Muntean, R., Hennessy, K., Antle, A.N., Rowley, S., Wilson, J., Matkin, B. & Wakkary, R. (2015). ?el?w?k ? ?–Belongings: A Tangible interface for intangible cultural heritage. In Proceedings Electronic Visualisation and the Arts (EVA '15) (London, UK, July 7-9), 360-366. [Best Paper]

• Muntean, R., Hennessy, K., Antle, A.N., Rowley, S., Wilson, J., and Matkin, B. (2015) ?el?w?k??–Belongings: Tangible Interactions with Intangible Heritage. Journal of Science and Technology of the Arts, 7(2), 59-69.

Awards

• Governor General’s Award -- History Award for Excellence in Museums: History Alive! Award for c̓əsnaʔəm exhibition includingBelongings tabletop system, 2015.

• Canadian Historical Association 2015 Public History Prize for c̓əsnaʔəm exhibition including Belongings tabletop system [Media Announcement]

• Ashgate Publishing Award for Best Paper at EVA for Muntean, R., Hennessy, K., Antle, A., Rowley, S., Wilson, J., Matkin, B., ... & Wakkary, R. (2016). ʔeləw̓k ̓ ʷ–Belongings: A Tangible interface for intangible cultural heritage. In Proceedings Electronic Visualisation and the Arts (EVA 2015) (London, UK, 7 - 9 July 2015)

• Canadian Historical Association 2015 Public History Prize for c̓əsnaʔə

Videos

• ʔeləws̓k̓ʷ – Belonging

• c̓əsnaʔəm: The City Before the City

Current Team

• Dr. Kate Hennessy: Project Lead
• Dr. Alissa Antle: Project Lead
• Dr. Susan Rowley

Students

• Jordan Wilson
• Lisa Uyeda
• Reese Muntean
• Brendan Matkin
• Rachael Eckersley
• Perry Tan