Documenting tangible and intangible cultural heritage using a transmedia approach: The Discover Québec mobile application

Abstract

The Discover Quebec project was a collaborative effort between the Canada Research Chair in Cultural Heritage (Laval University) and Canadian cultural media corporation Ideeclic. Content development was undertaken following a new theoretical, methodological and technological approach, focused on using multimedia as a means to showcase intangible heritage. While the classical approaches to cultural heritage favour tangible objects (artifacts, buildings, etc.), this methodology uses multimedia to show both tangible and intangible cultural heritage in the same space (through a powerful mobile application). Based on the concept of transmedia storytelling, inspired by the works of Henry Jenkins, who has experimented with this concept in the areas of video games, films and comics, we present our adaptation for the field of cultural heritage.