{"id":807,"date":"2019-05-17T13:04:36","date_gmt":"2019-05-17T12:04:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/vitalnorth\/?p=807"},"modified":"2019-05-17T14:25:05","modified_gmt":"2019-05-17T13:25:05","slug":"magical-reality-digitally-augmenting-david-almonds-archive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/vitalnorth\/magical-reality-digitally-augmenting-david-almonds-archive\/","title":{"rendered":"Magical reality: digitally augmenting David Almond\u2019s archive"},"content":{"rendered":"

How can cultural organisations collaboratively develop immersive digital experiences? And how can ideas about space and place in magical realism inform more creative approaches to designing augmented reality technologies? <\/strong><\/p>\n

In this blog post, find out about the <\/strong>Magical Reality project<\/strong><\/a> and app, available to download on Google Play (Android)<\/a> and App Store (iPhone),<\/a> how <\/strong>Newcastle University<\/strong><\/a> and <\/strong>Seven Stories: The National Centre for Children\u2019s Books<\/strong><\/a> worked with children, young people and digital designers to develop it, and what we\u2019re doing next\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

Many organisations in the cultural sector recognise that expanding digital capacity is a priority, but they are limited by funding, time and staff expertise to support this. The #CultureIsDigital 2018 report<\/a> advocates for design-orientated digital thinking \u2018to unleash the creative potential of technology\u2019 <\/em>and collaborating with technology partners is often seen as a solution for a lack of in-house resources.<\/p>\n

But what types of approaches and models can support this kind of thinking? This was a question posted by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC)<\/a> and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).<\/a> Through their Research and Partnership Development Call for the Next Generation of Immersive Experiences,<\/a> they wanted to explore how arts and humanities knowledge could inform the development of new immersive technologies, and how this might inform the work of cultural organisations.<\/p>\n

Dr Tom Schofield<\/a> at Newcastle University\u2019s Culture Lab,<\/a> Professor Kim Reynolds<\/a> in the School of English Literature, Language and Linguistics<\/a> and Seven Stories successfully applied for a seven-month research project responding to this call, Children\u2019s Magical Realism for New Spatial Interactions: AR and Archives.<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

\"Dr
Dr Tom Schofield leads an event in the Ouseburn Valley as part of the Being Human Festival 2018. Image: Newcastle University<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In late 2017, Google and Apple had released new augmented reality features that allowed much more complicated interactions with real space on mobile phones. We wanted to explore whether magical realism, a literary genre that plays with the boundaries between real and imaginary spaces, could inspire new creative approaches to these new technical developments.<\/p>\n

Seven Stories had recently acquired David Almond\u2019s literary archive.<\/a> An award-winning author of children\u2019s and young adult books, David\u2019s work<\/a> explores ambiguous and confusing crossovers between worlds; past and present, everyday and mythical. We used this as our starting point to explore how researchers, museum professionals, digital designers, children and young people could inform new kinds of spatial interactions for AR. We wanted to experiment with a sustainable and collaborative approach to digital R&D in the context of cultural organisations.<\/p>\n

From June to December 2018, Tom and Kim worked with Diego Trujillo Pisanty,<\/a> a researcher and media artist, and Seven Stories. We led six creative workshops, some as part of the 2018 Great Exhibition of the North<\/a> programme, engaging around 80 participants. During the Great Exhibition, Seven Stories delivered an artistic trail around the Ouseburn Valley featuring new writing by David Almond, and a major exhibition, \u2018Where Your Wings Were\u2019 focusing on his archive.<\/p>\n

\"Families
Families explore the Magical Reality app in the Ouseburn Valley, Newcastle. Image: Newcastle University<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In the workshops, we wanted to create open environments where people could explore experimental ideas. Each workshop had a separate focus, but aimed to explore creative analogies to immersive technology \u2013 ideas of other worlds, magic, the fantastic and interdimensional \u2013 to inform the design of the app, and enhance our understanding of the value of spaces and places within David Almond\u2019s work.<\/p>\n

From the creative ideas generated in the workshops, we designed and built a smartphone app, Magical Reality,<\/em> which leads you on a trail to find AR objects around the Ouseburn Valley, Newcastle. Research Associate Diego<\/a> led the technical development and it\u2019s now available on Android<\/a> and iOS platforms.<\/a> The app uses AR technology to embed digital artefacts, developed from archive materials held at Seven Stories.<\/a> We used an experimental and collaborative design approach to see how the knowledge and imaginative ideas of the different parties involved in the project could inform the development.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a video of the app in action:<\/p>\n