1 Historical Orchestra: An interactive audio/visual cultural experience Ferhat Şen Lily Díaz Aalto University, School of Art and Design, Media Lab {ferhat.sen, lily.diaz}@aalto.fi Abstract In this paper we describe a case study, Historical Orchestra, about the use of digital technology to enhance the museum experience of exhibiting an ancient illustrated manuscript. The project is based on a 16 th century manuscript, Surname-i Hümayun that is kept in archive of Topkapi Palace Museum in Istanbul, Turkey. The project is an interactive installation that makes use of a physical tangible interface paradigm. In our essay we explain the design of the interface and interaction along with the description of the system. Keywords: Digital Cultural Heritage, Pyhsical Tangible Interfaces, Interaction Design, Illustrated Manuscripts 1. Introduction 1.1 Newer Paradigms for Digital Heritage and Museums As computers increasingly populate and become part of our everyday life they change already existing practices and bring forth new activities and interaction modalities. In these new information ecosystems, traditional graphical user interfaces (GUI) and Window, Icon, Menu and Pointing Device (WIMP) interaction loose their appeal and relevance. Instead, tangible interfaces where the user interacts continuously with the data through objects from the physical environment become more appealing. From initial applications developed for example with Notecards such as Perseus (Crane 1996) or the Virtual Palenque project that already in the late 1980’s made use of interactive panoramas (Wilson 1988) to the latest developments showcased at international forums, the history of digital heritage application development runs parallel to the history of computer interface design and development. More recently tangible user interfaces where the user interacts with the data through objects from the physical environment have become more appealing. This is partly due to the appearance of new, off-the-shelf and open components, such as Arduino and Kinect. The application described in this paper is an example of these new developments. 1.2 A Design Approach for Digital Heritage The approach in designing this digital cultural artifact follows three main principles, artifact translation, concept of specificity and three-level hierarchy of artifacts. Digitizing an artifact means creating a digital copy of the current state of the artifact, mostly using recording media for preserving and displaying purposes. Solely digitizing is no more than transforming the medium of the artifact from real world space to virtual space. Artifact translation, however, is taking the original artifact and creating a derivative of that artifact in digital domain, which includes additional qualities to the original one provided by digital technology. The former provides preservation and accessibility while the latter additionally offers innovative possibilities on how to utilize that artifact.