https://phaidra.ustp.at/o:7857 Cultural Experience Design in Contested Times: A Controversy-Mapping Approach : 7th International Conference on Creative\Media/Technologies (IConCMT), 2025 Windhager, Florian Florian Windhager 0000-0002-5170-2243 Universität für Weiterbildung Krems Moser, Sibylle Sibylle Moser 0009-0008-0120-2145 University of Applied Sciences St Pölten Ganahl, Simon Simon Ganahl 0000-0003-4901-4051 University of Applied Sciences St Pölten de Angeli, Daniela Daniela de Angeli 0000-0002-6411-2533 University of Applied Sciences St Pölten Mayr, Eva Eva Mayr 0000-0001-8402-5990 Universität für Weiterbildung Krems text open access eng Practitioners in cultural experience design (CXD) navigate a contested landscape: conceptual disputes about cultural value, design trade-offs without settled answers, evaluative fault lines shaped by politics and institutional convention. The field has accumulated no shared overview of this terrain. This paper introduces a controversy map as a first collective orientation instrument for that landscape, assembled through a transdisciplinary think tank and informed by controversy-mapping approaches from science and technology studies. Organized across three interrelated layers – conceptual, design-oriented, and evaluation-centered – the map renders major tensions visible as orientation axes for deliberate positioning. In polarized, platform-driven environments, it gives practitioners the overview they need to locate their own projects within the field’s disputes and stake out a position on their own terms. This article has been double-blind peer reviewed. Cultural heritage ÖFOS 2012 -- HUMANITIES (6) -- Other Humanities (605) -- Other Humanities (6050) -- Cultural heritage (605008) Information design ÖFOS 2012 -- NATURAL SCIENCES (1) -- Computer Sciences (102) -- Computer Sciences (1020) -- Information design (102014) Digital humanities ÖFOS 2012 -- HUMANITIES (6) -- Other Humanities (605) -- Other Humanities (6050) -- Digital humanities (605007) Cultural mediation experience design agonistic pluralism transdisciplinary think tank postdigital museum controversy mapping Kulturerbe ÖFOS 2012 -- GEISTESWISSENSCHAFTEN (6) -- Andere Geisteswissenschaften (605) -- Andere Geisteswissenschaften (6050) -- Kulturerbe (605008) Informationsdesign ÖFOS 2012 -- NATURWISSENSCHAFTEN (1) -- Informatik (102) -- Informatik (1020) -- Informationsdesign (102014) Digital Humanities ÖFOS 2012 -- GEISTESWISSENSCHAFTEN (6) -- Andere Geisteswissenschaften (605) -- Andere Geisteswissenschaften (6050) -- Digital Humanities (605007) Digitalisierung Digitaler Wandel Digitale Transformation Museum Öffentliche Sammlung <Museum> Museen Benutzererlebnis Nutzererfahrung Nutzererlebnis User experience Nutzungserlebnis http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://phaidra.ustp.at/api/object/o:7857/download 10.60522/o:7857 https://phaidra.ustp.at/o:7819 application/pdf 452.24 kB 2026