Storytrails to bring the past to life
WOLVERHAMPTON will host Storytrails for a two-day live event from August 6-7, starting at Wolverhampton Central Library. It offers fun for all the family, featuring a bespoke augmented reality (AR) story trail and a unique, immersive virtual map of the town created using the stories of local people, and showcasing 3D scans of Wolverhampton’s beloved buildings and iconic places in each location, such as the Man on the Horse statue and Majors Chip Shop.
Grace Gelder and Sian Macfarlane, the local creatives working on the project, are using Local and Community History Month, which aims to increase awareness of local history, to put a spotlight on the developments that are well underway locally, and encourage everyone to participate in Storytrails this summer. Grace and Sian have been uncovering many stories and personalities across Wolverhampton, highlighting the town’s diverse and unique community, many of which will feature in the final experience. These include Richard and Nikki’s tales of falling in love, falling out and falling about around the Man on the Horse statue and Musti reconnecting with his love of jazz at the Trumpet in Bilston.
Visitors will also be given the chance to enter a digitally created world by putting on a virtual reality headset.
Further ‘time travel’ will be guided by historian and television presenter David Olusoga, in an AR experience that will let visitors travel back in time by turning a dial on a virtual giant radio. As they turn the dial, their virtual neighbours’ stories and fashion will change with the era, from Beatlemania and the flares and haircuts of the swinging sixties to dancing to the end of the millennium and Y2k in crop-tops from the 1990s.
Grace Gelder said: “The stories we are telling with the people in Wolverhampton are truly incredible. It’s been magical finding hidden stories and I’ve loved rediscovering aspects of my home city through the many voices here. Local history month is so important but our ambition is that, by using new technologies, we can inject a passion for the city’s heritage into people all year round. This project is about encouraging people to reassess what they know and develop new perspectives. It’s also about having fun, and I have no doubt that people in Wolverhampton will love the stories and the 3D maps when they see them in August.”
Professor James Bennett, Director of Storyfutures and Storytrails, said: “Local and community history month is the perfect time to release more information on the magic of Storytrails. We can’t wait to immerse the people of Wolverhampton, in the untold stories of their own communities and beyond. This is about living and breathing local history and connecting with it in new ways. Get set for a summer of discovering the past and the future and some genuine surprises, all while having a fun day out!”
Martin Green CBE, Chief Creative Officer UNBOXED: Creativity in the UK said: “Storytrails invites audiences to discover hidden histories in communities across the UK using immersive technology as a window onto the past. Storytrails is one of ten ground-breaking UNBOXED projects taking place in 2022 that demonstrate the power of creative collaboration across science, technology and the arts to create extraordinary and never-seen-before public experiences.”
Nationwide, Storytrails runs from 1 July to 18 September, 2022, and it will culminate in a new film presented by David Olusoga which will screen in cinemas across the UK and be made available to audiences on BBC iplayer.
For further details visit story-trails. com and via Facebook and Instagram @Storytrailsproject and Twitter @Sto ryfuturesa