Digital Platforms as Facilitators of Dialogic Co-creation of Displaced Object Biographies

Abstract

Digital technology is increasingly used in museums for collaboration and exchange of ideas among organizations. This paper explores how co-creating digital biographies of displaced objects can unpack the multilayered meanings and values that were imparted on these objects by the sociocultural contexts they encountered. Previous research has shown that the biography of a displaced object allows us to understand what it had experienced through its movements and encounters with social contexts; importantly, the construction and study of object biographies illuminates these social contexts themselves and, in doing so, improves intercultural understanding. Drawing on theories and previous research in cross-disciplinary areas including material culture and digitization, this paper examines the complex cultural identities of displaced objects and explores how co-creating their digital biographies empowers different organizations and communities to exchange knowledge and negotiate interpretations.