Exploring the potential of digital technologies in enriching the narrative of displaced objects – a digital biography framework

Displaced objects in museums have rich stories to tell about the history of intercultural encounters between groups and nations, stories that are often too complex and multi-layered to be fully unravelled in the physical exhibition space. Adopting a digital approach to managing object information can help document and display the complex history of displacement and make different interpretations of objects more visible and understandable. Using a piece of the Kizil Grottoes mural fragment as a case study, this article explores the polysemic nature of the displaced fragment and its social life. It proposes the concept of digital object biography as a more culturally inclusive framework to decentralise the host museums’ storytelling of displaced objects, moving beyond a single narrative.