Layering Histories: immersive production and the negotiation of layered pasts

Layering Histories: immersive production and the negotiation of layered pasts is a project that investigates how responsible immersive experiences are shaped through the collaborative practices of immersive designers and museum professionals.

Rather than applying pre-defined frameworks, the project adopts a practice theory approach, focusing on the everyday decisions, dilemmas and negotiations of makers. The central aim is to develop a responsive approach to the responsible, collaborative creation of immersive experiences within the museum domain.

Museums, immersive technology and ethical contribution

Museums play a vital role in collecting and sharing social memory. As public platforms, they are increasingly committed to social relevance, shared authority and plural narratives. Immersive technologies (IX) are often presented as tools that can support these ambitions by enabling new ways of engaging with complex histories and polyvocal cultures.

Yet empirical research tells a more nuanced story. Interviews with museum and IX professionals reveal that successful integration depends on embedding these technologies within existing museum cultures and that IX’s orientation towards ‘experience economies’ does not always align with museums’ social and content-driven objectives. The question is whether IX can contribute genuinely and ethically, rather than functioning as a temporary gimmick.

Structural barriers to experimentation

Prior research by Bernadette Schrandt identified significant barriers to meaningful collaboration: operational pressures, budget constraints, and a mismatch between the waterfall-based workflows of exhibition development and the iterative processes typical of design practice. These conditions limit the space for the kind of hands-on experimentation that genuine contribution requires. This project responds by shifting attention from visitor experience to the production process itself.

The Lorentz archive as case study

The project centres on the colonial archive of scientist Hendrik Lorentz, held at the National Archives. The focus is on the 1909–1910 expedition to South New Guinea, in which Dutch explorers relied heavily on hired local labour. The archive contains maps, diaries and rare documents such as name cards and sea passes belonging to labourers from Borneo, materials that allow individual identities to be restored rather than reduced to colonial categories.

The archive preserves multiple perspectives: alongside the Dutch colonial gaze, it contains traces of the experiences of carriers and fragments of Papuan culture. Researcher Bernadette Schrandt and Studio Immersief will develop an immersive experience based on this layered, contested material.