Museum Curation Can Branch Too: Let Exhibit Trade-offs Reflect Narrative Stance
Write curation as a value choice: first compress the number of display cases until it is clearly insufficient, then let each exhibit carry a piece of irreplaceable information. If the player chooses two, they must give up the third; the abandoned one does not disappear, but remains in the gallery as a "missing description," reminding visitors what was originally here. The choice therefore changes what past the audience can piece together, not just how many points they get.
Introduction
Write curation as a value choice: first compress the number of display cases until it is clearly insufficient, then let each exhibit carry a piece of irreplaceable information. If the player chooses two, they must give up the third; the abandoned one does not disappear, but remains in the gallery as a "missing description," reminding visitors what was originally here. The choice therefore changes what past the audience can piece together, not just how many points they get.
Below, a fictional teaching example walks through the entire process. The example is called "Only Two Display Cases Remain." The three架空 relics, label texts, audience feedback for two combinations, and supplementary notes are all fictional and do not involve real artifact history.
Step 1: Set the display slots as a hard constraint
First, establish that the gallery has only two display cases. This number must be written into the scene description so that the player sees the empty third pedestal upon first entering. The purpose of the hard constraint is to make the trade-off unavoidable: not "you can display one more," but "you must display one fewer."
The three relics in "Only Two Display Cases Remain" are as follows.
| Relic | Surface information | What it alone can prove |
|---|---|---|
| Bronze bell | The bell body is cracked, and two names are carved on the inner wall | Two families once jointly funded its casting |
| Clay lamp | There is a ring of scorched fingerprints on the base | Someone moved it bare-handed during a fire |
| Wooden tag | The front has a caravan number, the back has been scraped smooth | This caravan later changed its name or disbanded |
The three relics each point to a different layer: the bronze bell points to cooperation, the clay lamp points to an individual in disaster, and the wooden tag points to a record being erased. Any combination of two will cause the third layer to lose its material evidence.
Step 2: Write two labels for each exhibit
For the same exhibit, the wording of the label should differ when it is placed in a "complete narrative" and a "missing narrative." The complete narrative emphasizes what it proves, while the missing narrative emphasizes the part that could not be spoken.
The two labels for the bronze bell can be written like this:
- When displayed: "Two surnames are listed side by side inside the bell, indicating that the casting was completed jointly by two clans."
- When absent: "According to old records, there was another bronze bell of the same style, whose whereabouts are unknown."
The two labels for the clay lamp:
- When displayed: "The fingerprints belong to a person who carried heavy objects in the fire; the name was not recorded."
- When absent: "Someone rescued objects on the night of the fire; the specific course of events cannot be proven by any physical object."
The two labels for the wooden tag:
- When displayed: "The number was scraped away; the renaming occurred after the caravan disbanded."
- When absent: "The caravan's old name appears only in a damaged roster."
Labels are not instruction manuals for exhibits, but entry points for the audience to understand the past. The two texts for displayed and absent must be written in advance; they cannot be improvised after the player chooses.
Step 3: Let the choice change audience feedback
Audience feedback is not a score, but the understanding the audience voices after viewing. The two combinations should produce different feedback texts, and the feedback content should correspond to the abandoned exhibit.
Suppose the player chooses the bronze bell and the clay lamp, abandoning the wooden tag. The audience feedback can be written as:
"I see two clans casting the bell together, and I also see someone injured trying to save objects. But what happened to this caravan afterward? The gallery does not answer."
Suppose the player chooses the clay lamp and the wooden tag, abandoning the bronze bell. The audience feedback can be written as:
"Both the fire and the renaming have testimony and physical evidence, but the section on cooperation between the two clans is only a line in old records. The cooperation seems like a rumor."
Suppose the player chooses the bronze bell and the wooden tag, abandoning the clay lamp. The audience feedback can be written as:
"Cooperation and renaming both have physical objects, but the trace of that person in the fire is gone. The disaster has become a single summary sentence."
All three feedback texts point to the same thing: what the audience can understand depends on which exhibit is present. Scores can exist, but the feedback text is the main result of the choice.
Step 4: Use supplementary notes to carry the missing
The abandoned exhibit cannot disappear completely. It should appear at the gallery exit in the form of a supplementary note, brief in content, explaining only "what was originally here," without filling in all the information.
Supplementary note when the wooden tag is absent:
"The third display case was originally planned to display a wooden tag, whose front number had been scraped away. This exhibit was not selected for this display."
Supplementary note when the bronze bell is absent:
"Originally planned to display one bronze bell, with two surnames carved on the inner wall. This exhibit was not selected for this display."
Supplementary note when the clay lamp is absent:
"Originally planned to display one clay lamp, with fingerprints remaining on the base. This exhibit was not selected for this display."
The purpose of the supplementary note is to make the missing visible. When visitors leave, they know that one layer was not told, rather than assuming the gallery is already complete.
Step 5: Check whether the choice truly changed understanding
After completing the above four steps, check with a comparison table. Taking the two combinations "bronze bell + clay lamp" and "clay lamp + wooden tag" as examples:
| Check item | Bronze bell + clay lamp | Clay lamp + wooden tag |
|---|---|---|
| Evidence of cooperation the audience can confirm | Yes, inner wall of the bronze bell | No, only old records remain |
| Evidence of individual disaster the audience can confirm | Yes, fingerprints on the clay lamp | Yes, fingerprints on the clay lamp |
| Evidence that the record was erased the audience can confirm | No, the wooden tag is absent | Yes, scrape marks on the wooden tag |
| Exit supplementary note points to | Wooden tag | Bronze bell |
| Core question in audience feedback | What happened to the caravan afterward | Is the cooperation credible |
If the two combinations write the same content in the "Core question in audience feedback" column, it means the trade-off did not truly change understanding, and you need to return to the label texts and revise. The check standard is: after replacing one exhibit, the past the audience can piece together must show a visible difference.
Completion check
After writing "Only Two Display Cases Remain," confirm item by item:
- Is the number of display slots stated at the beginning of the scene, and is it less than the total number of exhibits?
- Does each exhibit carry a piece of information that no other exhibit can replace?
- Does each exhibit have both displayed and absent label texts?
- Does each combination produce different audience feedback, and does the feedback point to the abandoned exhibit?
- Does the abandoned exhibit remain at the exit as a supplementary note, brief in content and not filling in all the information?
- In the comparison table, does the "Core question in audience feedback" differ depending on the combination?
If all six items are satisfied, the curation choice is already carrying a narrative stance. What can be done next is to replace the three exhibits with three key objects from your own story, first writing only two labels, then writing two audience feedback texts.
