Decolonising the British Empire Exhibition of 1938 through Augmented Reality Narratives
Decolonising the British Empire Exhibition of 1938 through Augmented Reality Narratives has been funded by the AHRC (APP31916). It is taking place in 2024-2025.
Summary
The Empire Exhibition of 1938 was a major international exposition held in Bellahouston Park, Glasgow. Its purpose was to showcase the achievements of the British Empire, promote trade, and strengthen imperial bonds. It attracted over 13 million visitors during its six-month duration, yet today there is so little evidence remaining that most people are unaware of its existence, even if they regularly use the park. Whilst overshadowed by WW2, the Exhibition remains a significant historical event and continues to be relevant to the study of British social, cultural, economic, industrial, and political history. However, there is now a crucial need to reassess narratives of the Exhibition from a postcolonial perspective.
Aim
The Glasgow School of Art (GSA) has produced significant research into this event, including immersive 3D models, digitised cultural artefacts, and creative co-designed responses. Whilst earlier research focussed on architecture or using the buildings as inspiration for cross-disciplinary learning, this project uses narrative co-design to highlight the voices of people of Minoritised Ethnic heritages, whose cultures have been represented through the imperialist lens of the Exhibition. We use the huge digital archive (e.g. 3D models, photographs, ephemera, radio) as prompts for learning and reflection and worked closely with a range of Glasgow communities with connections to colonialism, anti-racism, and the location itself, to create and share polyvocal narratives about the history and heritage of both Glasgow and the British Empire. Diverse new interpretations are presented through location-based augmented reality, within the actual site of the Exhibition (a large park in Glasgow.) This enables geographical and conceptual links to be made between the 'authorised' archive of historical data and contemporary understandings of the Exhibition and its legacies and encourages both critical and playful re-readings of history.
Key objectives
• Undertake participatory design with a range of relevant communities including marginalised communities, local residents, schools, experts in Empire/colonialism.
• Use participant reflections to co-design 3-5narrative trails to guide audiences through the existing dataset and highlight diverse interpretations of the Exhibition.
• Develop a location-based Augmented Reality (AR)app to deliver narratives in Bellahouston Park.
• Enhance a desktop app, enabling remote access to narratives.
• Create lasting impact through exhibitions,ongoing access to the apps, networks investigating postcolonialism/AR forplace-based learning, upskilling, and legacy of school events.
• Disseminate project as an exemplar for postcolonial re-readings of heritage.
Impact/benefits
The main outcome is a range of narratives that can be experienced playfully, recreationally, or academically, both within and remote to the site of the Exhibition. The audiences are therefore broad but primarily include:
• Glasgow residents and tourists, using the app to add interest and awe to park visits (single or repeated) and deepening their knowledge of local history and communities.
• History teachers and learners (of all ages) who will see how polyvocal interpretations can give a more rounded and representative view of British heritage.
• Media/game writers/producers working with layering content into public spaces through mobile devices, and their audiences/consumers.
• Researchers/producers using the polyvocal AR outputs as a best-practice case study for layering multiple interpretations of heritage.
To deliver this exciting project we worked with
• Sara Missaghian-Schirazi: an industry lead creative producer and expert in augmented reality storytelling for public engagement with history and heritage.
• Haunted Planet: an award-winning AR and mixed-reality game studio with a long track record in location-based augmented reality for engagement with history and culture.
Project outputs and outcomes
Participatory workshops with local communities
Workshop 1 -27th Jan 2025, Refuweegee, Glasgow
Workshop 2 - 10th Feb 2025, Refuweegee, Glasgow
Workshop 3 - 3rd March 2025, Palace of Art, Glasgow
Workshop 4 - 17th March 2025, Palace of Art, Glasgow
Workshop 5 - 13th March 2025, Woodlands Anti-Racist Community, Glasgow
Workshop 6 - 20th March 2025, Woodlands Anti-Racist Community, Glasgow
AR Traineeships
1) Sean Wai Keung
2) Rachel Gorry
Exhibitions
1) Empire Retold: other voices from the British Empire Exhibition: 17 July – 9 August 2025, Garnethill Gallery, Reid Building, The Glasgow School of Art, 164 Renfrew Street, Glasgow, G3 6RQ. https://gsaexhibitions.co.uk/exhibition/empire-retold-other-voices-from-the-british-empire-exhibition/
Mobile phone app
The app is called Empire Retold: Bellahouston A.R. You can download it from the Apple or Android app stores.
Interactive desktop app
A 3D model of the entire Exhibition with themed guided tours.
Resources for workshops
1) Adaptable workshop templates for a polyvocal exploration of a historical event/period. Workshop template | Consent form | Participant Information Sheet | Workshop slides 1 | Workshop slides 2 | Mapping activity | Story activity
2) Booklet of discussion prompts, themed around the Empire Exhibition of 1938. PDF
3) 'Polyvocality' Card Deck: a set of cards showing a range of people and a range of quotes about colonialism, the Empire Exhibition, and local identity. PlayingCards.io file | PlayingCards.io instructions | Request editable file by email
Lesson plans for schools
1) Lesson plans.
2) Booklet of discussion prompts, themed around the Empire Exhibition of 1938. PDF
Follow-on work
This project led directly to the funding of a small project to extend the workshop series with Woodlands Anti-Racist Community. For more information about this project, visit the Spaces for Multiple Narratives page.