Making Invisible Stories Visible: Mitchelville Augmented Reality Tour Project

Emerging media technologies like virtual reality, augmented reality, and interactive 360 video are providing new mediums for visual storytelling and experiential learning at historical and heritage sites. We are conducting research on using augmented reality for an educational tour of historic Mitchelville Freedom Park, the site of the first Freedmen's town during the Civil War and Gullah heritage site on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. Augmented reality applications enable us to integrate 3D virtual structures and animated historical figures like Harriet Tubman and Robert Smalls into the camera feed of mobile phones and headsets, so that visitors can experience life-sized interactive scenes throughout the park. Maraffi's presentation shows pre-production designs, models, and augmented reality prototypes which are in development for Mitcheville AR Tour: Stories of Emancipation & Freedom. FAU faculty and students are using the latest technology in virtual cinematic production and games AI to develop life-sized tour guides that will feature Gullah storytelling and dance, as well as put Mitchelville within the context of the Port Royal Experiment and the larger humanities themes of Reconstruction and Civil Rights. By collaborating with preservationists, humanities scholars, computer scientists, and Gullah performing artists from many institutions, including the Mitchelville Preservation Project, Penn Center, Reconstruction Beaufort, USCB, NCSU, CCU, and the Gullah community, faculty and graduate students in FAU's Media, Technology, and Entertainment MFA program are researching new ways to make the history and culture surrounding Mitchelvlle come alive. This project is being funded by a National Endowment for the Humanities Digital Projects for the Public "Discovery" grant, and an FAU Walter and Lalita Janke Emerging Technologies Fund seed grant.