The Story Futures 2-day AR (augmented reality) workshop that took place in the Tramshed, Cardiff was a fantastic learning and networking experience. The event brought together some heavy weight talent from the world of immersive story-telling and AR.
Amanda Murphy, Professor of Creative Industries & Senior Executive Producer, Storyfutures Academy/ StoryTrails brought her vast and nuanced knowledge of story-telling, as well as introducing the workshop group to technical experts and commercial experts from the world of XR and media architecture.
We were introduced to the StoryTrails, the UK’s largest story telling project and part of the “UnBoxed” series post-covid cultural events. I was especially impressed with the high quality oral story-telling and 3D scanned people and places, which was matched with the simplicity (to the user) of the AR experience. Distillation of the stories is itself an art-form. It was joyous to hear stories from areas that are considered “cultural cold-spots”in a simple and engaging format.
The workshop introduced us to several AR apps that have been applied to the cultural sector and other areas of the landscape, both as a means of education, and entertainment. Freelance Filmmaker and Director/Lead Creative, Rebecca Hardy, at edge21 studio ltd, fascinated us with Reel Reality, a film and TV immersive location app. as well as a new (and secretive) product that links AR to TV and film.
Claire Spencer Cook, an Executive Producer on several interactive, film and animation projects, including AR, VR, immersive, experiential installations, media architecture, was especially informative. A lady of immense experince with big and small productions. Claire’s AR projects include Super You and BingBangAR. They seem to be at opposite ends of the AR scale but both are a lot of fun and the second is, in my opinion, incredible. Both are free to download so why not take a look for yourself.
On both days we had workshops where we were introduced to some AR production program “Blippar”, which enabled us to create an AR storytelling experince ourselves.
Everything Vision Fountain do is connected to community and story-telling, and to learn about the potentail of AR was with such quality teachers and experts was both fascinating and inspiring.
by Richard Jones – ends