Ted Eubanks' presentation at NAI in St Paul, November 2011.

1. Fermata vCard
www.fermatainc.com

2. The of
Interpretation
Divining the Yin and Yang
of Media and Message

3. Herbert Marshall McLuhan, CC
(July 21, 1911 – December
31, 1980) was a Canadian
educator, philosopher, and
scholar—a professor of English
literature, a literary critic, a
rhetorician, and a communication
theorist. McLuhan's work is viewed
as one of the cornerstones of the
study of media theory, as well as
having practical applications in
advertising and television.

4. Freeman Tilden (August 22, 1883
- May 13, 1980) was one of the
first people to set down the
principles and theories of heritage
interpretation in his 1957
book, Interpreting Our Heritage.
His work with the United States
National Park Service inspired
generations of interpreters and
continues to be a definitive text for
the discipline.

5. Societies have
always been
shaped more by the
nature of the media
by which men
communicate than
by the content of the
communication.
Marshall McLuhan

6. Interpretation is an
art…the true
interpreter…goes
beyond the
apparent to the
real, beyond a part
to a whole, beyond
a truth to a more
Freeman Tilden
important truth.

7. All media exist to invest our lives with
artificial perceptions and arbitrary
values.
Marshall McLuhan

8. “…to reveal the beautiful truths that lie
behind the appearances…”
Freeman Tilden

9. The medium is the message.
Marshall McLuhan

10. The story’s the thing.
Freeman Tilden

11. Advertising is the greatest art form of
the 20th century.
Marshall McLuhan

12. We become what we behold. We shape
our tools and then our tools shape us…
Marshall McLuhan

13. It is the framework
which changes with
each new
technology and not
just the picture
within the frame...
Marshall McLuhan

14. Media
Message

16. The human being, by his mere
presence, imposes a schema on
space…
Yi-Fu Tuan

17. What Is Sense of Place?
Place involves meanings and values that
facilitate intimate connections with
particular geographical areas.

18. What Is Sense of Place?
Environment refers to the biophysical
components of landscapes, components
that exist regardless of the types of
human connections to them.

19. Gamboa, Panama

20. What Is Sense of Place?
Sense of place is the entire group of
cognitions and affective sentiments held
regarding a particular geographic
location and the meanings one attributes
to such areas.

21. Place Attachment
Place attachment is a positive
emotional bond with a setting.
Place attachment is the extent to
which an individual values or
identifies with a particular
environmental setting.

22. …we are willing to fight for places…this
is especially true when important
symbolic meanings are threatened by
prospective change…Stedman 2002

23. Mission San Antonio de Valero
San Antonio, Texas

24. Mission Espiritu Santo
Goliad, Texas

25. What begins as undifferentiated space
becomes place as we get to know it
better and endow it with value…
Yi-Fu Tuan

26. Everybody experiences far more than
he understands. Yet it is experience,
rather than understanding, that
influences behavior.
Marshall McLuhan

27. …the visitor’s chief interest is in
whatever touches his personality, his
experiences, and his ideals…
Freeman Tilden

28. Place
Media Message

29. (Kr+Ka) X IT2 = IO
Kr = Knowledge of the Resource
Ka = Knowledge of the Audience
IT = Interpretive Technique
IO = Interpretive Opportunity

30. That which today calls itself science
gives us more and more information,
and indigestible glut of information, and
less and less understanding.
Edward Abbey

31. Technique
Knowledge

32. Knowledge
Technology

33. Knowledge
• Resource
• Audience
Technology
Technique

34. Place
Media Message

35. Place
Cognitive
Logical
Factual
Specific
Objective
Discrete

36. Point Of Interest
Cognitive
Logical
Factual
Objective
Discrete
Point of Interest is a
sub-place, a specific
location within a place.

37. Space
Affective
Perceived
Emotional
Judgmental
Subjective
Amorphous
Conjectural

39. Media
Message

40. Outdoor Nation
For Outsiders, a social media
campaign is successful when it
creatively reaches its target audience
where they are most likely to be
hanging out – on
Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and TV-
viewing websites.

41. Outdoor Nation
According to Outsiders, social media
is so popular because it enables
voyeurism, fosters narcissism, and
reduces social inhibitions. It is also
convenient, easy to access, and
provides instant gratification.

42. Outdoor Nation
Outsiders are moved by bright colors,
sunlight, and images of adrenaline
pumping excitement when being
marketed to, they are also attracted to
sweeping landscapes and a sense of
oneness.

43. Outdoor Nation
Outsiders believe that the concept of
social media is here to stay and that
older generations should become
familiar with the social media space.

44. Outside Magazine
Seventy-eight percent of U.S.
travelers now using the Internet
to plan their trips.
Sixty-eight percent of American
travelers still turn to guidebooks
for travel advice.

45. Outdoor Magazine
Trends
• Scratch a Niche: Look for guides that cover
themes, not specific regions.
• Undersize It: Mini-guides are hot. Perfect
for quick trips, they zoom in on a
destination, with fewer pages and a smaller,
more packable size
• Get Wired: DK's new eguides ($15),
covering cities like San Francisco, Chicago,
and Barcelona, come with passwords for
access to exclusive online information,
including hotel and restaurant updates.

46. Outdoor Magazine
Trends
• Radio-Free Planet: To increase their
online presence, travel publishers are
venturing into Internet radio.
• Go Deep: With the basics readily
available online, guidebooks are amping
up their historical and cultural information.
• Best of All: Top-ten lists and "best of"
roundups, intended as shortcuts to the
ultimate travel experiences.

47. Pew Research
• Cell phone and wireless laptop internet use
have each grown more prevalent over the last
year. Nearly half of all adults (47%) go online
with a laptop using a Wi-Fi connection or
mobile broadband card (up from the 39% who
did so as of April 2009)… 59% of adults now
access the internet wirelessly using a laptop
or cell phone—that is, they answered ―yes‖ to
at least one of these wireless access
pathways.

48. Pew Research
• 75% of all American adults are active in
some kind of voluntary group or
organization and internet users are more
likely than others to be active; 80% of
internet users participate in
groups, compared with 56% of non-
internet users.

49. • Compared with a similar point in 2009, cell phone
owners are now more likely to use their mobile
phones to:
– Take pictures—76% now do this, up from 66%
in April 2009
– Send or receive text messages—72% vs. 65%
– Access the internet—38% vs. 25%
– Play games—34% vs. 27%
– Send or receive email—34% vs. 25%
– Record a video—34% vs. 19%
– Play music—33% vs. 21%
– Send or receive instant messages—30% vs.
20%

51. Traditional Technologies
Print
Radio
Television
Interpretive
Signage
Interpretive print
(guides,
brochures, maps)
Audio guides

53. Traditional Digital Media
Web
Weblog
Itineraries
Maps
Guides
Audio
RSS Feeds

54. Social Media
• Twitter
• Facebook
• News (Digg)
• Blogs (Technorati, Stumbleupon)
• Bookmarks (Delicious, Technorati,
Stumbleupon)
• Picasa (photos)
• YouTube
• Itunes (podcasts, apps)

55. Occupy Wall Street

56. Occupy Wall Street

57. Service Media
Services listed on
TripAdvisor, Yelp
Google Places
Google Earth
Brightkite
Loopt

58. Location-based Social Media (Lo-So)
• Location-based Games
– My Town
• Personal Beacon
– Google Latitude
• Dopplr
• Gowalla
• Foursquare
• Plazes
• Waze

59. Interpretive Planning Media
Podio
Basecamp
Evernote
Balsamiq
X Mind
Google Earth

60. Emerging Media
Google Earth
Location-aware media
SmartPhone apps
Codes/Tags
NFC
Streaming
HTML 5
Emerging hardware
Transponders

61. Smart Phones
Stream (web-based)
Web
Download (pdf)
Apps
Iphone
Android
Blackberry

63. Gonzo Journalism

64. Gorilla
Interpretation

65. Guerilla
Interpretation

66. Reading List
Space and Place – The Perspective of Experience by Yi-fu
Tuan
The Medium is the Massage by Marshall McLuhan and
Quentin Fiore
Interpreting Our Heritage by Freeman Tilden
Sense of Place In Natural Resource Recreation and Tourism:
An Evaluation and Assessment of Research Findings by
Jennifer Farnum, Troy Hall, and Linda E. Kruger
The Invention of Tradition by Eric Hobsbawm and Terence
Ranger
Sense of History by David Glassberg