In a heritage context, physical objects as well as digitally produced representations can fulfill important functions in people’s experienced relationship to the past, but we need to investigate the actual foun­dations for such experiences. How can we understand the combined roles of objects, narrative, and spatial location in visitors’ feelings of connectedness to place­specific historical events? The article presents a model of what happens at the intersection of place, object(s), technol­ogy, visitor(s), and historical narratives, proposing imagination and play as a valuable, often neglected resource. The model builds on aug­mented reality/AR concepts developed in collaboration with visitors, artists, stakeholders, museum personnel and researchers for a heritage site, Långban, Sweden. Here, physical objects and digital technology were combined to involve visitors as co­creators of emotionally and intellectually captivating narrative game­based experiences. In such a setting fact and fiction meet. The imaginative is prompted by digital media interconnecting the physical (architecture, landscape, and objects), spatial movements, game mechanisms and narratives. We argue that it is potentially rewarding to make use of the visitor’s own imagination in the co­creation of an enhanced/enchanted experience at heritage sites or museums, as this can allow for a high level of imagi­native engagement that personal

Paranormal phenomena and the occult are today common in mainstream Western popular culture, which is in several countries also reflected in national tourism. This is not really the case in Sweden, whose official self-image is built on modernity, secularism, and rationalism. Still, on a folk level there are signs of what is often called the post-secular, a spiritually informed worldview characterised by openness towards the otherworldly, indicating a cultural reaction akin to a re-enchantment of the world. This chapter discusses the use of the paranormal in Swedish regional tourism, with the province Värmland as a case study. A working hypothesis is that the tourism industry may sanction certain aspects of the paranormal, such as ghosts, through their objectification of them, while others, for example UFOs, are not considered suitable, despite their presence in mainstream popular culture. Still, it seems that Swedish paranormal tourism has a long way to go before reaching the levels of, for example, the United Kingdom or the United States. 

This article presents an action-research study investigating a spatially sensitive innovation process of place-based experiences in a rural area of Sweden. Lately, there have been a growing number of initiatives focused on developing location-aware mobile media – geomedia technologies – to offer place-based digital experiences within tourism. Drawing on contemporary critical studies on geomedia technologies, we stress the importance of reflecting upon the implications of place-based technologies to minimise both the negative impacts on a place and the neglect of local perspectives. We conducted action-research interventions to unpack the complexity of developing place-based mediated experiences. The study makes an illustrative case of how interventions lead to more nuanced development processes of geomedia technologies while simultaneously fostering creativity. We argue that as action research allows researchers to intervene in media innovations, it identifies models for more nuanced place-based development processes, including local spatial and sociocultural perspectives.

Efter Donald Trumps valseger 2016 började allt fler bekymrade och/eller varnande röster höras i offentligheten: har USA slagit in på en väg mot fascism? Inom forskarvärlden råder en ganska oomtvistad uppfattning om att populärkulturen både utgör en spegling av det samhälle i vilket den produceras (och konsumeras) och en respons på detsamma, i synnerhet vad gäller kulturindustrins mainstreamproduktioner. Min inte särskilt unika tes är att fascistiska tendenser finns, och har funnits, i amerikansk mainstreamkultur under decennier under en ”oskyldig” mask av populärkultur (se t.ex. Mattias Gardell, Gods of the Blood, 2003). Fredric Jameson (i Det politiska omedvetna,1994) använder begreppet ideologem i fråga om texters minsta ideologibärande enheter. I föreliggande fall skulle det innebära att populärkulturella texter producerade i nutidens USA potentiellt innehåller ideologem konnoterande fascism och/eller nationalsocialism. Exempel på sådana kan vara hyllande av styrka, förakt för svaghet, rasism och antisemitism. En viktig fråga blir då huruvida blotta förekomsten av dylika ideologem i en text innebär att den också som helhet kan tolkas som företrädare för en fascistisk/nationalsocialistisk världsåskådning, oavsett den nationella kontext i vilken den har producerats och/eller konsumerats.

I kapitlet analyseras skräckfilmen Overlord (Julius Avery, 2018) mot en bakgrund av tidigare studier av nazitysk film och populärkultur, t.ex. Baird 1992, Friedländer 1982, Giesen 2008, Schulte-Sasse 1996, Welch 2001. Hur förhåller sig olika element och/eller ideologem i narrativet respektive i den visuella gestaltningen till nazityska produktioner? Vilka likheter respektive skillnader står att finna? Finns något eller några element/ideologem som ovedersägligen diskvalificerar Overlord från en liknelse med nazitysk filmproduktion, och vad innebär i så fall detta för de övergripande tolkningsmöjligheterna av filmen? Huvudfrågan blir med andra ord: går det att göra en profascistisk tolkning av Overlord, och vad säger det i så fall om den samhällskontext i vilken filmen är producerad?

Det går knappast att missa hur zombiens popularitet har ökat de senaste decennierna. Vi ser zombier i reklamfilmer, i sexleksaker som zombiedildos, sketcher om sossezombier, träningsredskap och så vidare. Zombien har lämnat det subkulturella, invaderat kulturen och även akademin.

Zombier, zombier, zombier : eller Omgiven av odöda är den första svenska antologin som på allvar tar sig an att beskriva zombier ur olika perspektiv. Hur kan vi förstå det växande intresset för zombier? Vad säger det om vår samtid? Vad finns det för nordiska förlagor till zombien? Vilka verkliga smittor skulle kunna orsaka zombieliknande sjukdomar? Hur kan zombien tolkas politiskt?

Boken består av nio populärvetenskapliga artiklar som behandlar zombier och zombiescenarion ur olika perspektiv. Dessutom finns ett förord med zombiens historia och ett försök att definiera vad som egentligen är en zombie.

Författare: Herman Geijer, Linda Flores Ohlson, Eva Kingsepp, Bo Eriksson, Mathias Wåg, Tommy Kuusela, Gabriela Mercado Narváez, Renita Sörensdotter, Tomas Bergström, Fredrik Hoppstadius

In the last decade, museums have explored and developed digital productions to evoke audience engagement, often with the intention of enhancing visitors’ experiences. However, theoretical understandings of audiences in relation to space (museums), artifacts and digitally produced experiences are less developed.In this paper we applyKendall J. Walton’s (1990)theory about mimesis as make-believeona concept that was previously developed by parts of our researchteam for anopen-air museum, Långban’s mining village in Värmland, Sweden. Heredigital media wereused to create enhancedexperiences mixingthe past with the present, a project for which Walton’s theory in hindsight seems highly relevant. According to him, ”Joint fantasizing allows people to pool their imaginative resources. Together they may be able to think of more exciting things to imagine than they could come up with separately, or more interesting or satisfying ones”(ibid. 18).We believe that adding the potentials of collective imagining to the combination ofdigital media and the narrative frames provided by the physical placewill result in not only a higherlevel of immersion but alsoa more memorable experience. Interestingly, further supportis found in currenttheories about the so-called re-enchantment of the world(or the modern world actually having remained enchanted, despite Weber’s classical idea about disenchantment as a part of modernity). These theories are all basedon the view that secular modernity contains attractive dimensions of the magical, often understood as playfulness and a temporary escape from the rational (e g Bennett 2001; 2Saler 2012).Similar ideas are also found in parts of postmodern theory, in particular regarding aspects of consumption as pleasurable experiences related to fairs, amusement parks, and tourism in general (Featherstone 2007; Rojek 2000; Urry and Larsen 2011). As Waltonand others argue, play and playfulness is not only something for children: on thecontrary, it is also fundamental for every human as beings, regardless of age. In Walton’s words, “Most imaginings are in one way or another dependent on or aimed at or anchored in the real world” (1990:21).He suggests thatreal thingshavethree major rolesin our imaginative experiences, as they promptimaginings; they are objectsof imaginings; and as “props” they generate what he calls “fictional truths”, namely truths that are valid in a particular narrative. Importantly:when applied to a non-fictional setting such as a museum, a “fictional truth” can be regarded as a statement about the real world that includes a dimension of imagination and fantasy. Thisquality of as ifdoes not distort or transform facts to fiction,but rather adds a layer of playfulness and enchantment torational thinking (Saler 2012). When regarded through this theoretical lens, the work done in cooperationwith the Långban museumcombinedphysical objectsanddigital technology asprompters andprops, and historical representationsas objects of imaginings,in order to involvevisitors and their imaginative capacitiesas co-creatorsofboth emotionally and intellectually captivating narrative experiences.Published in the early 1990’s,Walton’s book does not take digital media into account. Nevertheless, as his theoretical framework has been fruitful to apply on this case study, this suggests that it deserves to be further developed in order to provide guidelines for creative work on digital experiences in the museum/heritage sector.