Our innovative story-driven archival KTP project Immersive Antarctica was showcased at ArcheoVirtual as part of The Mediterranean Exchange of Archaeological Tourism, the only event in the world, with the patronage of UNESCO and UNWTO, UN’s government bodies for Culture and Tourism.
This was a great opportunity to give the project more exposure on an international stage, as well as engage with a new audience and key players in the heritage and archaeological tourism industry including representatives from professional businesses, cultural organisations and schools.
The demonstration of the project, which is designed for use in schools, gained great interest with visitors of all age, and especially those visiting on school trips.
About the event
The Mediterranean Exchange of Archaeological Tourism is home of the only Exhibition Hall of its kind in the world and of ArcheoVirtual, the innovative international exhibition of multimedia, interactive and virtual technologies. The goal of the event is to valorise Archaeological Parks and Museums, to promote tourism-archaeological destinations, to facilitate marketing, and to increase economic opportunities and employment effects.
ArcheoVirtual showcases the most significant productions in the international panorama of digital technologies at the service of heritage, applications and projects of virtual archaeology, discipline that studies, explains, understands and communicates archaeological heritage and his context through a process of data acquisition, reconstruction, check with techniques of visualisation, analysis and simulation. ArcheoVirtual accompanied visitors along the path of growth and affirmation of various technologies (3D graphics, mobile devices, touch and gestural interaction, etc.) through a narrative approach to the wonders of the past.
About Immersive Antarctica
Immersive Antarcticais a collaboration between StoryLab (ARU) and UK Antarctic Heritage Trust funded by Innovate UK that brings together immersive technology, storytelling, archival records and data collected from UK bases to make Antarctica accessible in new and innovative ways.
Using a combination of photogrammetry of surviving artefacts and archival data, we have virtually 3D reconstructed Base E, Stonington Island, to its condition in 1965 when it was an active site. It was a time when the base was alive with surveying and science, and home to overwintering FIDS (Falkland Island Dependency Survey – the precursor to British Antarctic Survey) scientists and teams of sledge dogs.
This world is built to be explored using virtual reality. As the users moves through the virtual world, they experience first-hand the true stories of FIDS staffers, Neil Marsden and John Tait, narrated by the characters themselves through audio straight from the archives of the British Antarctic Survey.
We hope this experience helps to bring to life the history of Antarctica and that it will be the first of many such projects to bring Antarctica that little bit closer.