3. Minimal interpretation of signage

It can be seen that the introductory panel (picture below) reveals little about Cham history and Cham culture. For example, they could mention their two national treasures to grab the attention of the visitors.

The spatial relationship between signages and sculptures is also neglected. In the picture below, the visitors might find it hard to match the description with each artifact.

Regarding the signage, some kinds of information are lacking such as the sculpture’s excavation history to reduce decontextualization and the relatedness to Siva of Linga as an abstract representation of the Hindu god Shiva in Shaivism. The latter, in that one area, makes Linga isolated from the other artifacts in the sight of the visitors.

In general, we condemn that this museum is not completely fulfilling its role as a historical museum, but rather an art one that places heavy emphasis on objects while media and text information only plays a secondary role.

QR code in signage:

Due to the minimal interpretation and absence of analytical context on signage, museum viewers are likely to find it challenging to appreciate the significance of the sculptures in the room. In fact, visitors may have the tendency to underestimate the role of small objects or even the broken ones. However, we believe that every artifact plays a role in the history of Champa culture in different ways. Thus, we believe that QR code is creative and essential to solve the problem of a limited amount of text in signages since it is composed of texts, audio, and visuals.

However, this application of technology is not conducted effectively at its most, considering the following reasons. The textual information in those links rarely meets the intention of providing discursive statements on the exhibited Champa artifacts but rather acts as informative reading on the general history of Champa.

For the Gò Sành pottery QR code information, the museum provides the visitors with broad and relevant background knowledge to understand the arts of their pottery. Among such detailed text on Gò Sành pottery, however, there is not a single line mentioning the direct contextual information of the displayed ceramics.

Given that the excavating context is crucial in situating the artifacts back in their long life, such a shortage of curation needs to be acknowledged and improved. As a history museum with one of its most significant tasks is historical teaching, or specifically educating its visitors about the Champa culture, the application of QR codes here is not really thorough and convenient considering its range of audience.

It is our argument that, despite the curatorial attempt to bring the informative text of the Go Sanh pottery and ceramics, those text needs to be further analyzed and curated to well-support the curators’ intention in household artifacts displacement and their storytelling on the folklore culture of the ancient Champa.