“I hear and I forget. I see and I understand. I do and I remember.” -Confucius

Museum exhibits are constructed with technology that can in effort bring the past to life, to reconstruct the subject matter and environment in a way that it engages a visitor's perception to that of aesthetically pleasing or to push the observer closer to the actual experience.
In terms of immersive 3D environments a certain amount of realism is needed, and thus physical behaviours of the real world are reproduced. With this, and also a visitors meaningful engagement with the environment a 'virtual presence' is created (Di Blas 2005). This could be though visitors mind casting themselves fictitiously into the period of time that the exhibit is or by a means of engaging them in a reproduced surrounding such as real-time applications like augmented and virtual realities.

Through an interactive environment a visitor is convinced that they are in a different 'world' or time period (Negroponte 2003) however this is only as effective as the virtual presence created by the visitor. The understanding of how a real place existed can only be defined by the user and how effective the graphics and interactive elements are (Di Blas 2005). This is true for the most part. If a visitor gets bored, they will move on to the next exhibit. In terms of placing the Nottingham castle 3D reconstruction in this situation I believe it would need more than a simple screen and a means of navigating through the space.

Historical Recreations allows museum guests to travel back into periods of time, and experience events as they occurred hundreds or thousands of years ago. The technicological progress that has been made in this area (including the website representation) gives a sense of digital storytelling that engages a visitor. Information can be experienced within a virtual environment or combined with physical artefacts (Murry 1998, Bimber 2003).

The means of how Museum exhibitions can excite, entertain, and also educate guests directly links to the users experience and 'living through' a narrative that can engage and whilst they interact with the environment.

References

Di Blas N., Gobbo E., Paolini P., (2005) 3D Worlds and Cultural Heritage: Realism vs. Virtual Presence, Politecnico di Milano, Italy.
Negroponte, N., (2003) Virtual Reality in Museums, Sunrise Virtual reality.
Murry, J.H. (1998) Hamlet on the Holodeck: The Future of Narrative Cyberspace. ISBN 0-262-63187-3, MIT Press, 1998.
Bimber O., Miguel Encarnacao L., Schmalstieg D., (2003) The Virtual Showcase as a new Platform for Augmented Reality Digital Storytelling