Glastonbury Abbey: Storytelling through Immersive Heritage Practice

该后续资助项目将借鉴“格拉斯顿伯里修道院考古档案项目”（AH/G 010269/1）和相关的FoF项目“格拉斯顿伯里修道院：考古学、传说和公众参与”（AH/N 002865/1 FoF）中开展的研究，以开发“混合现实”沉浸式讲故事方法，吸引年轻人和家庭参观遗产地。它将支持格拉斯顿伯里修道院将其游客服务转变为在安全的露天环境中进行自我探索，并通过互动游客参与和基于位置的游戏来扩大“探险家家庭”观众群。该项目将创建一个增强现实应用程序，借鉴原始考古研究，并提供一个叙事结构，与现场（服装）表演和互动家庭步道互动，以讲故事。它将引导游客通过寺院区域的物理空间，为涉及历史人物角色扮演的家庭步道提供机会。它利用了修道院以外的修道院生活的考古证据，包括格拉斯顿伯里杰出的修道院院长的“宫殿”，其广泛的接待和慈善设施，以及外院的农业资源。它将揭示如何根据中世纪人的社会身份，无论是僧侣，仆人，男性或女性，成年人或儿童，朝圣者或赞助人的空间进入修道院区进行调节。这种方法提供了一个机会，更包容性的解释中世纪修道院，对比（男性）僧侣的经验与各种各样的中世纪人物。该应用程序，结合寻径和服装表演和示范，将鼓励游客探索格拉斯顿伯里修道院的更广泛的修道院区36英亩，超越了修道院教堂和夫人教堂的核心区域。该项目团队结合了考古学、遗产和创意产业的专业知识，建立在PI与格拉斯顿伯里修道院的长期合作基础上，并引入了合作组织Arcade（一家设计沉浸式体验的数字实践机构）和Thread（专业保护和设计建筑师）。该团队将解决露天场地沉浸式遗产实践的设计挑战和潜在解决方案。他们将开发一个标记，用来标示寺院区域之间的边界，并为应用程序的自我探索和角色扮演选项提供必要的信息。广泛的试点工作将开发轻触，富有想象力的解决方案，适合预定的纪念碑。AR应用的叙事和游戏机制将通过两个阶段的现场测试和评估进行完善，使用家庭团体。两个知识交流研讨会将共同创建方法，让格拉斯顿伯里修道院的生活历史团队与AR应用互动并补充AR应用。他们还将作为应用叙事中的角色，在数字和真实的世界之间提供直接和具体的联系。这些知识交流的机会将为格拉斯顿伯里修道院的AR应用程序营销活动的设计以及他们开发的家庭步道活动包提供信息。格拉斯顿伯里修道院将把这款应用程序整合到他们的口译政策和Living History团队的日常工作中，他们将为这款应用程序提供持续的支持和升级。他们将开发持续的活动计划和营销，以维持游客数量，目标是在三年内将家庭探险者观众群体翻一番。

This Follow-on Funding project will draw on research undertaken in 'The Glastonbury Abbey Archaeological Archive Project' (AH/G010269/1) and the related FoF project, 'Glastonbury Abbey: Archaeology, Legend and Public Engagement' (AH/N002865/1 FoF) to develop 'mixed reality' approaches to immersive storytelling that will engage young people and families visiting the heritage site. It will support Glastonbury Abbey to transform its visitor offer towards self-exploration in a safe, open-air environment and to expand the 'explorer family' audience segment through interactive visitor participation and location-based gameplay. It responds directly to challenges to the heritage sector resulting from COVID-19, by developing a more resilient visitor offer tailored to the audience segment with most potential to grow during post-COVID recovery.The project will create an Augmented Reality app that draws on the original archaeological research and provides a narrative structure for storytelling that interacts with live (costumed) performance and interactive family trails. It will guide visitors through the physical spaces of the monastic precinct, providing an opportunity for family trails involving role play of historical characters. It harnesses archaeological evidence for monastic life beyond the cloister, including Glastonbury's exceptional abbot's 'palace', its extensive facilities for hospitality and charity, and the agricultural resources of the outer court. It will reveal how spatial access to monastic zones was regulated according to a medieval person's social identity, whether monk, servant, male or female, adult or child, pilgrim or patron. This approach provides an opportunity for more inclusive interpretation of a medieval monastery, contrasting the experience of (male) monks with a diverse range of medieval characters. The app, in combination with trail-finding and costumed performance and demonstrations, will encourage visitors to explore Glastonbury Abbey's wider monastic precinct of 36 acres, moving beyond the core area of the monastic church and Lady Chapel. It will offer multi-vocality both in the degree of agency exercised by the user, and in the range of historical voices represented.The project team combines expertise from Archaeology, Heritage and Creative Industries, building on the PI's long-standing collaboration with Glastonbury Abbey, and introducing collaborating organisations Arcade (a digital practice that designs immersive experiences) and Thread (specialist conservation and design architects). The team will address the design challenges and potential solutions for immersive heritage practices in open-air sites. They will develop stational markers that signal the boundaries between monastic zones and provide essential information for the app's self-exploration and role-play options. Extensive pilot work will develop light-touch, imaginative solutions suitable for a Scheduled Monument. The narrative and game mechanics for the AR app will be refined through two stages of on-site testing and evaluation using family groups.Two Knowledge Exchange workshops will co-create approaches for Glastonbury Abbey's Living History team to interact with and complement the AR app. They will also feature as characters in the app's narrative, providing a direct and embodied connection between the digital and real worlds. These opportunities for knowledge exchange will inform the design of Glastonbury Abbey's marketing campaign for the AR app and their development of family trail activity packs. Glastonbury Abbey will integrate the app in their interpretation policy and in the daily work of the Living History team, and they will fund ongoing support and upgrades for the app. They will develop ongoing event programmes and marketing to sustain visitor numbers, with the aim of doubling the family explorer audience segment within three years.