A new interactive story-telling exhibition coming to Dundee this week will celebrate the city's well-known Olympic heritage - alongside some of its lesser-known athletic stars.
StoryTrails calls itself "the UK's largest immersive storytelling experience" and will use augmented and virtual reality (AR and VR) technology as well as immersive cinema to help people experience the City of Discovery like never before. Using famous narrators like local running star Eilish McColgan and historian David Olusoga, locals will be able to tap into the history of Dundee's Olympic successes and more.
In Dundee, the trail has been developed by BAFTA-award winning filmmaker Duncan Cowles and follows the story of two of Dundee’s sporting heroes: Dick McTaggart and Sarah 'Cissie' Stewart. McTaggart won an Olympic gold medal in amateur boxing in 1956, and came home as a hero, even having a gymnastics centre named after him in his home city.
He was not the city's first Olympic medal winner, however. That was Cissie, who picked up a silver medal for swimming in 1921 - but she received no hero's welcome upon her return home.
The augmented reality trail makes use of smartphone technology and a special StoryTrails app to retell the stories of McTaggart and Cissie, using footage from national archives and photography from the BBC and the British Film Institute. For those without smart devices, Dundee Central Library in the Wellgate Centre will have some to lend out.
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Do you remember Dick McTaggart's victory? Share your memories in the comments.
The Central Library will also host a 360-degree 'cycloramic' cinema screen creating a mesmerising virtual map of Dundee through the ages, developed by Neil Cullen, who studied in Dundee and specialises in immersive storytelling. And visitors can pop on a virtual reality headset to experience life in the UK in the 1980s and 1990s.
Much of the experience has been created by a variety of animation and VR/AR specialists including ISO Design, Nexus Studios and Niantic, who created the 2016 mobile smash hit Pokemon Go, which saw players go out into the real world to catch monsters using their phone camera.
Professor James Bennett, Director of StoryFutures and StoryTrails, said: “This is about getting people excited about where they live – helping them connect with stories of their town from the past and present through a new lens. New technologies like AR and VR can help build these connections and reignite people’s passion for the past. These technologies are for everyone – we want to find ways to engage people from all generations and spark a genuine celebration in each of our incredible locations.”
Dundee's StoryTrail runs on Thursday July 7 and Friday July 8, starting from the Central Library. For more info, visit story-trails.com.
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