A Guide to Heritage Interpretation: Principles, Techniques, and Best Practices
TOPIC 5: INTERPRETATION
Interpretation Is About Special Places
Interpretation is all about helping people appreciate something that you feel is special. There are many ways to define interpretation, but all definitions share the idea of sharing your enthusiasm for a significant place or thing. It’s also important that people can experience the place you are interpreting firsthand.
Interpretation has been happening ever since people started visiting places they found interesting.
The Heritage Connection
Interpretation is part of how we manage and understand our heritage. It helps others appreciate the importance of heritage, which can lead to support for conservation and protection efforts. As Freeman Tilden said, interpretation not only tells people what is interesting about a place but also convinces them of its value and encourages them to want to conserve it.
The Tourism Connection
Good interpretation helps visitors explore and understand the places they visit. Good interpretation leads to satisfied customers, which is good for business. Interpretation can also generate revenue through publication sales or admission fees to centers.
2. What Makes It Interpretive?
There are clear guidelines for effective communication. Freeman Tilden described six ‘principles of interpretation’: provoke, relate, and reveal.
Provoke Thought
There’s an important difference between interpretation and information. Information just gives facts, but interpretation can provoke ideas and even lead to a new understanding of what people came to see.
Reveal
Good interpretation reveals a new insight into what makes a place special, giving people a new understanding. A guide who evokes sorrow, empathy, or anger in their audience is a good interpreter. There are no guarantees that what you are doing is truly interpretive.
Theme
A theme helps focus interpretation and organize different interpretation components. The following guidelines are key for developing a supportive framework for thematic interpretation:
- Know your site. Understanding the site’s significance is important.
- Know your audience. Different visitors have different interests and expectations.
- Know the community. This knowledge helps you involve communities in interpretive activities.
- Identify constraints and resources. The site’s size and tour length determine what’s possible.
3. Principles of Interpretation
Heritage guides should consider these key principles in heritage interpretation:
- Access and understanding: Appreciating cultural heritage sites is a universal right.
- Physical accessibility: Eliminate physical barriers, expand permanent showrooms, etc.
- Accessibility for educational and cultural dissemination: Connect museums with education, eliminate language barriers, etc.
- Information sources
- Context and setting
- Authenticity
- Sustainability
- Inclusiveness
- Research, evaluation, and training
Interpretation Techniques
Heritage presentation requires compliance. According to Vicente, it must focus on:
- Alignment of speech or subject
- Determining an argument and approach based on the target audience
- Attractive communication
- Using new technologies and audiovisuals
- Achieving the goal of emotion
Traditional heritage presentation methods and equipment used in heritage interpretation centers include:
- Publications with varying levels of information and brochures with general information, services, and maps for visitor orientation
- Models and audio-visual aids
- Sets, reconstructions, settings, and recreations of the past, including role-plays and living history experiences
- Various activities
- Tours, where interpreters play a key role in presenting heritage and facilitating the public’s relationship with the site
- School activities, a primary audience for many heritage institutions
It’s important to offer activities based on human interest and connected to the local reality. Interpretation aims to motivate visitors to learn more and engage with local life.