Their memory:exploring veterans’ voices, virtual reality and collective memory

This paper focuses on the virtual reality (VR) project Their Memory and details the development and evaluation of virtual reality environments and experiences with respect to its impact on young people (14-35 demographic) with the narratives of veterans in Scotland. As part of the AHRC Immersive Experiences program, Their Memory was created to explore how game design techniques and immersive technology could be used to enhance existing historical research and enrich narratives to bring expansive experiences to hard-to-reach audiences. The project worked directly with the veterans’ charity, Poppyscotland, to create an environment and experience that would resonate with new audiences, and explore documentary and storytelling techniques for the commemoration of war and conflict. The design of the project evolved through co-design sessions with veterans and young people and culminated in the creation of a short, thought-provoking, narrative-driven experience. The VR experience enabled players to connect with the memories of veterans in Scotland and exploring the different conflicts or situations they experienced and how they make sense of them. The project brought together cross-sector expertise to research how immersive experiences can help memory-based organizations in engaging with wider audiences, raise awareness, and diversify current learning outputs. The paper details the design and development of the Virtual Reality project, through co-design, and how this engaged the audience and evolved the experience created. The paper includes a summative evaluation of events conducted with schoolchildren to assess the project and concludes with how the project evidences impact upon audiences and the potential for both technology and the experience

Narrative approaches to design multi-screen augmented reality experiences

This paper explores how traditional narrative language used in film and theatre can be adapted to create interactivity and a greater sense of presence in the virtual heritage environment. It focuses on the fundamental principles of narrative required to create immersion and presence and investigates methods of embedding intangible social histories into these environments. These issues are explored in a case study of Greens Mill in the 1830’s, interweaving the story of the reform bill riots in Nottingham with the life of George Green, mathematician and proprietor of the Mill

Supporting Story Synthesis: Bridging the Gap between Visual Analytics and Storytelling

Visual analytics usually deals with complex data and uses sophisticated algorithmic, visual, and interactive techniques. Findings of the analysis often need to be communicated to an audience that lacks visual analytics expertise. This requires analysis outcomes to be presented in simpler ways than that are typically used in visual analytics systems. However, not only analytical visualizations may be too complex for target audience but also the information that needs to be presented. Hence, there exists a gap on the path from obtaining analysis findings to communicating them, which involves two aspects: information and display complexity. We propose a general framework where data analysis and result presentation are linked by story synthesis, in which the analyst creates and organizes story contents. Differently, from the previous research, where analytic findings are represented by stored display states, we treat findings as data constructs. In story synthesis, findings are selected, assembled, and arranged in views using meaningful layouts that take into account the structure of information and inherent properties of its components. We propose a workflow for applying the proposed framework in designing visual analytics systems and demonstrate the generality of the approach by applying it to two domains, social media, and movement analysis

This Planet Has Four Walls: How early Doctor Who narrative was influenced by techniques and technology to overcome the confines of studio recording

"The Dalek Invasion of Earth" (1965) marked a turning point in the series. Not only did it see the first change to the line-up of regular characters (Susan Foreman, played by Carole Ann Ford, left at the conclusion of the story) but it was the first to feature material filmed on location. Up until this point, all episodes had been filmed entirely within the confines of a studio. This paper will examine the relationships and effects between narratives, production techniques and technology in this studio-bound era; how the programme makers told stories that in terms of direction, reach, and geography, far outstripped the limiting four walls of the studio space. In addition, the paper will discuss how production techniques developed to allow creativity to flourish in order to escape the trappings of the studio. Techniques such as forced perspective, front and back projection, and lighting will be discussed, along with how they’ve been employed to assist the telling of the story in a number of Doctor Who episodes, including "An Unearthly Child", "The Daleks", "Marco Polo," and "The Keys of Marinus". The central question to be explored is the idea that there is an inverse relationship between television production technology, and the creativity and ambition of geography in the narratives. While one grows, the other dies. Whilst television has become more technically adept, what has been lost? On what levels has moving beyond the studio been to the detriment of the medium

Symbolic Activities in Virtual Spaces

This paper presents an approach to combine concepts ofsymbolic acting and virtual storytelling with the support ofcooperative processes. We will motivate why symboliclanguages are relevant in the social context of awarenessapplications. We will describe different symbolicpresentations and illustrate their application in three differentprototypes

Authoring and Living Next-Generation Location-Based Experiences

Authoring location-based experiences involving multiple participants, collaborating or competing in both indoor and outdoor mixed realities, is extremely complex and bound to serious technical challenges. In this work, we present the first results of the MAGELLAN European project and how these greatly simplify this creative process using novel authoring, augmented reality (AR) and indoor geolocalisation techniques

Making meaning in muddy waters: representing complexity through community based storytelling

Internationally, storytelling has been used with many diverse communities. This paper compares the use of storytelling as a participatory art form within a community development project and a community and healthy living centre in the United Kingdom. Both the project and the centre regard storytelling activities as ‘inclusionary’ forms of intervention. However, the discourse of social inclusion rarely acknowledges the subtle psychosocial processes that are involved in participatory storytelling. This paper discusses such processes and examines some methodological implications of researching storytelling. It asks what contribution storytelling can make towards authentic representation of individual and community voices

Knowledge Transfer Needs and Methods

INE/AUTC 12.3