NODEM 2014 Proceedings

Restaging a Garden Party: Sharing Social
Histories through the Design of Digital and
Material Interactive Experiences
Caroline McCaw, Morgan Oliver, Leyton Glen
School of Design, Otago Polytechnic, Dunedin, New Zealand
Abstract: This paper outlines the design, development and outcomes for two student group projects, from the School of Design
at Otago Polytechnic. Both projects consider ways of developing social history storytelling, through the design of interactive
experiences using material and digital forms. Working with the content and histories of Olveston, a heritage home, gifted to the
southern city of Dunedin, New Zealand, the projects engage historic values in innovative ways.
The first project restages elements of a garden party, first presented in 1907, to celebrate Dorothy Theomin’s “coming out”. This
event, documented in the local newspaper, is recreated and discoverable, through a geo-located Augmented Reality app. Scenes
are restaged drawing on a combination of old photographs and new footage and recordings. The second project considers ways
of developing the existing resources and narratives currently employed in the Olveston house tours to extend the visitor experience.
A wide range of media and outcomes are employed in this open brief, in order to develop these material interactive tools.
Through engaging strategies and strategies of engagement this paper consider ways that young people become enthusiastic
about both the research into, and retelling of old stories. This evolving practice of the design of social history storytelling, enlists
techniques of theatre and film-making, and contemporary museological ideas of community-based identity building, along with
IDEO design thinking methods. We produce characters, objects and images that have material and contextual connections to
place, and help to develop new local and visitor audiences.
Discussion considers the role of embodied local experience, in partnership with digital, augmented and take-away experiences,
realized through the creative process of designing. Nina Simon’s definitions of social and relational objects (Simon 2010) are
compared with Shedroff et al’s model of Experience Design.
Keywords: interactive social history storytelling, recreating historic scenes and spaces, experience design, Augmented
Reality
Introduction
This paper examines two design projects developed by staff and undergraduate students at Otago Polytechnic’s
School of Design, in partnership with a local heritage tourism operator.
Students developed social history storytelling, through the design of interactive experiences using material
and digital forms. Working with the content and histories of Olveston, a heritage home, gifted to the southern
city of Dunedin, New Zealand, the projects engage historic values in innovative ways. This paper begins by providing
some contextual detail to the historic home, identifying problems that a design methodology may propose
potential solutions for. It then briefly outlines the research and development of these design outcomes.
The designs include characters, objects and images that have material and contextual connections to their
site, however they place historic story-telling on the edges of the traditional museum experience, drawing on
everyday and shared experiences including food preparation, overhearing conversations, and discovering lost
toys in the garden. The paper then considers the outcomes of the project in terms of contemporary ideas surrounding
museum experiences, and design thinking.
NODEM 2014 Conference & Expo
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