projects

Landscapes of (Re)Conquest

Jim Kosem

Jim Kosem

— 3 min read

Landscapes of (Re)Conquest is a journey though the history of the Iberian Peninsula from AD 711 to 1492 using augmented reality. The visitor will be able to view and interact with an immersive technology timeline showing them what the past looked like during this tumultuous period of transition from Muslim to Christian rule. The experience will show the visitor how life, politics and agriculture worked visually, but will also act as a guide in exploring the local wine and food production which reflect this history.

The interdisciplinary team for Landscapes of (Re)Conquest, of which Halfman is a member, consists of interaction designers, software developers, archeologists, museum curators, historical content creators and archivists, tour guides and wine experts partnering with regional governments in Spain and The University of Reading.

We are mapping the experience to support the land and it’s story by mixing experiences to bring you to understanding and that glass of wine.

We’re looking at how to map out the experience for the AR to support the landscape, not dominate it. We want to get you to use the phone for invigorating your imagination, layering on information about the people and places, showing the visitor how life, politics and agriculture worked over time.

This is what the user first sees when loading up the mobile web app
In order to get started, the viewer needs to choose what they want to experience and where they’re starting from.
They can read more about the winery they have chosen.
While viewing the tour stops in map mode, the viewer can select tour stops.
At this point the viewer has walked to stop 3, the winery, and their location is shown.
Here the viewer has selected stop 3, a winery.
From the map view, the viewer has selected AR mode and sees stop 4, the castle in Augmented Reality and can select items of interest to learn more about what they’re looking at, in this case viticulture in the landscape.

The data of the Landscapes of (Re)Conquest experienece will be provided to handset browsers by solar powered birdhouse servers. These will create a local, wifi mesh network providing the visitor with free, redundant content that ties the stories to the land where it took place.

Landscapes of Reconquest is currently funded by The Arts and Humanities Research Council (UK) and awaiting further funding by the EU.

Project partners:
University of Reading (UK)
Universidad de Granada (Spain)
University of York (UK)
Université de Perpignan – UPVD (France)
Université de Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (France)
Université de La Rochelle (France)
Acter Archeologie, Pézilla-la-Rivière (France)
UNESCO Geopark of Molina de Aragón – Alto Tajo (Spain)
Museum of the Order of St. John, London (UK)

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