Smart glass AR and affective storytelling in historic places

Sutton House Stories is an on going project through which we explore affective storytelling for situated learning in the cultural heritage context using smart glass Augmented Reality (AR).

Our project looks at cultural heritage sites as opposed to museums that hold collections of objects. The reason for this is that heritage sites are physical places that incorporate both tangible and intangible heritage, they are the holders not only of the physical structure but also of the stories that happened in their grounds, and they offer an incredibly immersive experience without any digital technology. The stories that surround a historic site offer a rich playground to design affective narrative.

We collaborate on the project with National Trust - Sutton House, a Tudor house in Hackney and an important place of history in central London. Through this research we are developing a framework for designing smart glass Augmented Reality experiences in the specific context.

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Meet the Principal Investigator(s) for the project

Dr Mariza Dima - Mariza is a Reader in Games Design. She specialises in User Experience and User Interface design for developing meaningful and engaging interactions particularly using mobile, AR and haptic technologies. She has worked between academia and the creative industries as an interaction designer and creative technologist in R&D projects combining engineering and design approaches grounded on theoretical contexts of narrative, affective dramaturgy, and audience/player engagement. Her reseech interests are in experience design methdologies for cyber-physical environments, and applied games for social innovation (live action, role playing, digital). A keen knowledge hunter, she is often inspired by and experiments playfully with perspectives from different fields that could offer a useful alternative lens on user experience design and then turns them into a tool for designing engaging experiences. Her design approach is holistic and experiential where the designer embeds and immerses herself in a collaborative design process and views it as an educational and transformative experience rather than participating in it as a design expert. She also consults on strategies for devising and developing digital projects and user interactions in the creative industries and has expertise in design methods for collaboration and co-creation.

Project last modified 17/11/2023