Harrison, Rodney;
Rose, Amy;
Sterling, Colin;
(2024)
Ghosts of solid air: contested heritage and augmented reality in public space.
International Journal of Heritage Studies
10.1080/13527258.2024.2437367.
(In press).
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Abstract
This article critically reflects on the design and development of a new Augmented Reality (AR) experience addressing issues of contested heritage in the historic built environment. The experience – Ghosts of Solid Air – is a 45-minute interactive theatrical narrative for mobile phones that tells a critical story about the legacies of colonialism and histories of protest and disobedience that have shaped contemporary Britain. Audiences follow the story from Trafalgar Square to Parliament Square in central London, encountering varied contested monuments and activist figures from the past along the route. This article describes the main elements of the experience before tracing the evolution of the project and its relationship to shifting debates on contested heritage in the UK since 2020. We conclude with reflections on the challenges and opportunities of AR when it comes to opening up new modes of heritage engagement, paying particular attention to questions of justice and participation that transcend issues of representation, recognition, and reinterpretation.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Ghosts of solid air: contested heritage and augmented reality in public space |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1080/13527258.2024.2437367 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1080/13527258.2024.2437367 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Copyright © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4. 0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The terms on which this article has been published allow the posting of the Accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent |
| Keywords: | Augmented reality; contested monuments; London; protest; colonialism; slavery |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS > Institute of Archaeology UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS > Institute of Archaeology > Institute of Archaeology Gordon Square |
| URI: | https://discovery-pp.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10201651 |
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