Site-specific Mixed Reality Walk, 30 min

Enter Mölndal – Tulebosjön is a a site-specific mixed reality walk and AR- app that lets the user explore the unique bronze age findings next to Tulebosjön (Lake Tulebo) in Mölndal, Sweden. A large system of cooking pits has been found here, with hundreds of pits in a straight line running along the top of the ridge, but nothing of it remains. With a smartphone in the hand and headphones on the head, the user is guided via an AR-app into virtual spaces that tells about the actual location, the findings and their time. The target group is children from 9 years and adults. The walk starts next to the beach at Tulebosjön and the user is guided along a path to the highest point at the slope. Along this path 8 virtual spaces can be found, only visible and able to find via the mobile. In these virtual spaces the visitor meets concrete and poetic AR models in 3D that interacts with the physical location, short info about the place and the bronze age, as well as entrances to reflect on what this system of cooking pits may have been used for, since no-one actually knows. It is an immersive experience in which the user is the protagonist, yet a walk done with open ears, open eyes and open senses. Thereby it creates an embodied experience of the place and its history. Nothing of the bronze age findings are left, but the magnificence of the place is still there. The app 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. narration, 3D models, videos, animations and sound scores are created and developed on site and based on archaeologists’ and researchers’ material. They are therefore site specific and interact in a nuanced way with the physical world, the landscape, and the situation. Duration: 20-30 min, depending on how long time spent in each virtual space. Langauges: Available in Swedish and English. Capacity: 1 person per smartphone. Technical format: An app that runs on iPhone and Android. Available free of charge at App Store and Google Play. Needs wifi for downloading the app, but no wifi is needed during the walk. Site specific, uses the GPS-position of the site in order to start. The app uses new AR-technology (ARKit and ARCore), which requires a smartphone with support for this. Premiere: 20 September 2018, at Tulebosjön in Mölndal, Sweden. Part of Mölndal Stadsmuseum’s permanent exhibitions.