Virtual Reconstruction of Caen
Background
Timespan Museum and Arts Centre is situated in the Far North of Scotland in Helmsdale, Sutherland. Its focus is on relationships with people and long-term creative development; the museum professionals believe in new ideas and creative exchange, in access to excellence, technology and innovation, in promoting education and facilitating vibrant community dialogue. They aim to challenge perceptions of what can be delivered by a cultural organisation rooted in the distinctive, but fragile, socio-economic ecology of Sutherland, a large, rural and remote area.
To commemorate the Bicentenary of the Kildonan Clearances the Timespan Museum set out to virtually reconstruct a longhouse and outbuilding using the evidence and finds uncovered from a community excavation in June 2013.
Before the excavation started, Timespan was brought in touch with Dr Alan Miller, University of St Andrews through Interface. This collaboration has produced the first virtual world with historical content, accessible in a cultural context in the UK. It has enhanced the visitor experience in the museum, and has put Timespan on the map as a forward thinking organisation with a growing national reputation.
Features
Content: Based on Ordinance Survey data, the Virtual World of Caen is an authentic reconstruction of the landscape around Caen depicting a cluster of longhouses and outbuildings. Caen was a real township in the Strath of Kildonan where people raised families for many generations and tended the land and their animals. The last tenants left in 1825 when the township was cleared by the landowners for more profitable sheep farming. The model portrays life around 1800.
Visitor experience: When the visitor to Timespan's Museum enters the storytelling room, a small dark room (four by four metres), his/her movements are picked up by a Kinect hidden in the wall below a large three-sided panorama screen. The user can choose from different menu options to start a guided tour, to access the site with/without avatar or to view research and background information. Timespan Museum's model combines gaming technology with educational historic resources - this is a combination that does not exist anywhere else in the UK.
Technical features: The virtual world application is a bespoke implementation that has been developed by John McCaffery for Open Simulator as part of his doctoral project on augmenting virtual world technology to make interactive cultural heritage content available for experiential learning in a range of different environments.
Partnership
After submitting an initial proposal to develop a Virtual Museum in the form of an augmented reality application, David Chapman from Interface brought the museum professionals in touch with Dr Alan Miller from the University of St Andrews. The work on virtual worlds that Alan Miller had undertaken fascinated them. The museum professionals understood the potential in creating a three-dimensional, immersive Virtual Museum within their existing museum space. The final product has far surpassed their expectations.
As Chair of Timespan, I am particularly delighted to see this collaboration with St Andrews University. We find that working with academics makes our projects more exciting and adds depth to our research. It is easy to become entrenched in your own little world so we find that these collaborations bring fresh ideas and knowledge to Helmsdale.
Jean Sargent June 2014