Site-specific Mixed Reality Walk, 40 min

Enter Mölndal – Kvarnbyn is a web-based mixed reality walk and museum experience that the audience experience on location in Kvarnbyn - an old industrial town in Mölndal, Sweden - with their own smartphone and a pair of headphones. It is a documentary form of storytelling with digital panoramas and micro-stories that together forms a larger story about the practical and socio-political situation in Kvarnbyn and its 19th and 20th century industrial history. The walk starts next to Forsebron, the main bridge over the rapids with a spectacular view of the waterfall. It consists of four stops to which the user is guided. At each place the smartphone screen displays a panorama image of the location. Each panorama has 2-5 windows and the user is invited to tap on the window to experience a short story. These micro stories are portrayed as short films with binaural sound. They are based on the museum’s archival material and are told by a street lamp, a washing lady, a linseed, factory workers and an eel, to name a few. In total there are 16 micros stories to be discovered during the walk. The web-based experience uses augmented (AR) and mixed reality (MR) technologies together with location-aware applications. Artistically these technologies are used to provide multiple layers of the site and unfold the potential transactions between body, imagination, senses and environment. The audience sees and feels one thing in reality, hears/sees another layer of the same place via the smartphone, and creates a third in their own imagination and thought. All information, i.e. sound, narration, videos, and animations, are created and developed on site from the archival material. They are therefore site specific and interact in a nuanced way with the physical world, the buildings around, and the situation. Duration: Ca 40 min, depending on choices made along the walk. Langauges: Available in Swedish and English. Capacity: 1 person per smartphone. Technical format: The experience runs on the smartphone’s web browser and is started by entering https://entermolndal.se. The content is streamed to the smartphone and wifi is needed during the walk. Site specific but not locked, i.e. the digital part of the experience can be started anywhere. Premiere: 16 June 2018, at Kvarnbyn in Mölndal, Sweden. Part of Mölndal Stadsmuseum’s permanent exhibitions.