New Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) projects in the South West aim to bring Georgian pleasure gardens to life and explore the cemeteries of the future as projects explore groundbreaking ideas for new heritage experiences.
AHRC writes:
Six projects that have been commissioned out of the South West are unlocking histories, hauntings and happenings in all kinds of UK heritage attractions, as well as un-ravelling rich experiences through the use of cutting edge technologies. The commissions come under the banner of Heritage Sandbox, the first run of funding announced by REACT, one of four UK Knowledge Exchange Hubs for the Creative Economy funded by the AHRC.
The six collaborative awards representing creative industries and inspiring academic research reflect an investment totalling over £300,000 to the UK’s cultural economy.
Each project aims to deliver new ways to experience heritage attractions, through new kinds of social interaction enabled by pervasive media and immersive digital technologies to bring audiences closer to past lives and collective histories.
Projects range from augmented reality mirrors on board Bristol’s famous ss Great Britain to a multi-sensory stroll through the exotic Georgian pleasure gardens of Bath. They explore contemporary attitudes to death and human remains in Cemeteries and Museums, giving the dead a technological voice and bringing history back to life through interactive located archives using real memories and historical characters…
Project 1 – The Future Cemetery: In 170 years of operation, Arnos Vale Cemetery Trust has handled 320,000 dead bodies, equivalent to ¾ the living population of Bristol. This entire project utilises mobile, projection and AR technologies to build a future cemetery model, where Victorian past and digital present are woven together.
Project 2 – Ghosts in the Garden?s: Sydney Gardens in Bath were developed as a Georgian pleasure garden but today the swingboats, labyrinth and elaborate ‘Cosmorama’ are all gone. This project takes audiences on an epic journey of rediscovery, pitching visitors headlong into the past. Part game, part story, part immersive sound scape (accessed via a special ‘Georgian Listening Device’), present-day visitors will meet and interact with real characters from the Gardens’ heyday.
Project 3 – Reflecting the Past: Opening the doors to the first class Dining Saloon on board the ss Great Britain, visitors will encounter this space as dinner has just finished, on a voyage of the 1860s. Pioneering the use of augmented reality ‘mirrors’, this project will create an interactive experience in a venue where a large physical installation would not be possible, offering a glimpse of those who ate, drank, gossiped and sang onboard this illustrious ship.
Project 4 – City Strata: The Cinemap Layer ‘City Strata’ is a mobile platform, which enables developers to create location based experiences which include user generated and uploaded content. The platform will be prototyped with a ‘Cinemap’ layer, which will enable users to explore and contribute to Bristol’s rich cinema-going heritage in the places where it actually happened.
Project 5 – Memory of Theatre: Theatre’s heritage is intangible but lives on in spectators’ memories and through the stories they tell. Audiences, actors and staff will return their memories to Bristol Old Vic and record them exactly where they took place. Theatregoers will discover these memories stored in the ether by wandering the renovated theatre with a mobile device.
Project 6 – The Ivory Bangle Lady: In 1901, the Skeletal remains of a young woman interred with an unusual range of burial gifts, were excavated from a stone coffin in York. Cutting- edge research, suggests she was a high status migrant to Roman York, of North African descent. This project tackles the way human remains are displayed in museums and aims to create a technologically augmented installation that will reveal the story behind the mysterious Ivory Bangle Lady of York.
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