Research Context
In recent years, the development of technologies to support communities engaging with their cultural environment has focused on easing the task of digitising, identifying, preserving and connecting people with cultural assets (e.g. museum objects, heritage building) and the stories associated with them. At the same time, people are increasingly recording and sharing the environments in which they live and through which they move.
We are interested on how to take advantage of heritage content for creative uses, such as innovative experiences which enhance the public’s understanding and appreciation about objects and sites that go beyond traditional notions of heritage education. We are also interested in supporting the public in engaging in creative activities with digitised cultural assets, particularly using narrative-based approaches, given the potential for stories to illuminate different viewpoints. Ultimately, enabling communities to participate in the preservation and interpretation of cultural heritage and facilitate the democratisation and access to the multiple meanings of artefacts.
The project will investigate requirements for novel digital platforms which enable communities to meaningfully re-connect with their cultural environment in creative ways. We will examine how location-aware mobile technologies and augmented reality platforms can allow community members to contribute engaging stories relating to objects and places in the city which are of cultural importance, with the aim of promoting cultural understanding and democratising cultural heritage.
This project will investigate these issues in a specific case study, in which there is already considerable public interest and engagement. We will collaborate with the Hove Civic Society who have commissioned the ‘Constellation’ sculpture which is the inaugural artwork to be installed in the Hove Plinth (http://www.hovecivic.org.uk/shaping-future/public-sculpture/hove-plinth-…) in April 2018. This sculpture, created by Jonathan Wright, will feature a mechanical model of the solar system with iconic objects associated with Hove. These objects which represent landmarks and significant objects selected by the local community to serve as a cultural index of city. Hove Civic Society are searching for ways to enable local communities to explore and add their own stories relevant to the landmarks and objects, and are particularly interested in the potential for location-based technologies to support this.
