Thinking inside the cube

Nottingham Castle is the castle that's not a castle. Obviously it was a castle once upon a time but now it’s more of a palace, standing high on a rock with huge views of the surrounding city and country beyond. The castle was left derelict by its owner and in 1831 it was stormed by rioters, angered at their tough living conditions and by Parliament’s continued reluctance to reform itself and allow more people to have the vote.

That riot is the catalyst for an innovative augmented reality project funded by NESTA where objects connected to the riot are brought to life using tablets suspended in the middle of an exhibition.

My first day with the team was spent focusing on the exhibition, ensuring that it complements the AR but also stands alone as a visitor experience for people who don’t want to use the digital interpretation. I love working through exhibition plans, drawing out the flow of a story and helping clients to reflect on how their content is positioned in three dimensional space. The AR was cutting-edge and presents lots of new interpretation challenges - like how do you storyboard a non-linear experience for which the user is effectively inside a cube of content? Fascinating stuff...