Mixed Media in archaeological television documentaries
Dipl. Psych. Manuela Glaser and Dr. Bärbel Garsoffky
Traditional forms of reconstructions in archaeological museums and exhibitions are dioramas, models, and pictures. In contrast to this static forms of presentation, the medium film allows dynamic and narrative presentations of persons and events of past periods in the form of re-enactments. Similar to the museum context, archaeological television documentaries present contents often in an expository style. Using narrative re-enactments in archaeological television documentaries therefore means to mix narrative and expository formats. In this project, the influence of this mixture on the experience of the past period as well as on knowledge aquisition was examined. Thereby, the psychological concept of transportation, i.e. the mental journey into narrative worlds, played an important role. Results of the project showed that re-enactments enhance tranpsortation into the presented past period and lead to higher perceived similarity between the depicted past culture and the viewer's own culture. Furthermore, results showed that transportation into past periods presented in the documentaries go along with a decrease in heart rate and a deminished frequency of eye blinks - which was interpreted as enhanced attention to the film contents while being transported.