Technology and Presence in a Museum of Trauma: Therapeutic Effects of Making Danger Real

Museums are increasingly characterised by the sophisticated technology employed to create immersive, engaging, and participatory experiences for visitors. Sound technologies play a key role in creating a sense of presence instrumental in conjuring up an immersive, engaging, and participatory experience. This paper describes the Eldheimar [Fire World] Museum in Heimaey, Iceland. The museum, opened in 2014, commemorates a volcanic eruption on the island that happened in 1973 and necessitated the abrupt evacuation of the inhabitants of the island. Eldheimar preserves one of the houses that was buried in the volcanic ash. The museum uses state-of-the-art technology to create a sense of being in the presence of volcanic eruption and the danger that can entail, placing a particular emphasis on the unsettling sounds of volcanic eruption. This chapter describes how Eldheimar museum seeks to make the volcanic eruption present to visitors, and to place visitors in the presence of a volcanic eruption. Absent at the time of the eruption itself, some of the evacuees now speak of their experience in the language of trauma and suggest that the establishment of the museum enforces or enables a visit to the site of trauma.