The Narrative Embodiment Gradient (NEG): A Scaffolded Design Model for Adolescent-Centric ICH Interpretation

The sustainability of Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) depends on its active transmission to younger generations, but adolescents often engage with heritage only at a superficial, observational level. This paper addresses the persistent affinity–action gap in adolescent heritage engagement by introducing the Narrative Embodiment Gradient (NEG), a scaffolded design model that conceptualizes participation as a developmental progression. Grounded in theoretical perspectives on narrative agency and embodied interaction, and abductively derived from two prior Research-through-Design studies, NEG aligns narrative agency and embodiment intensity across three stages of engagement: Collection, Experience, and Co-Creation. The model demonstrates that meaningful adolescent engagement emerges through carefully staged progression, as opposed to immediate immersion or unrestricted creativity. By articulating design implications for digital, physical, and hybrid heritage interpretation contexts, this work positions ICH from a static inheritance toward living cultural material, which adolescents can gradually come to understand, embody, and reinterpret.