Slides from a presentation given at Museums and the Web 2011 conference, Philadelphia. Authors: Areti Galani, Deborah Maxwell, Aron Mazel & Kate Sharpe.

1. Situating cultural technologies outdoors: Designing for mobile interpretation of Rock Art in rural Britain Areti Galani Debbie Maxwell, AronMazel and Kate Sharpe areti.galani@ncl.ac.uk http://rockartmobile.wordpress.com/

2. I’ve found it!

3. Sites: Neolithic - Early Bronze Age; approx. 1600 rock art panels - abstract motives, ‘ring and cup’ marks; best-documented regional collection

4. Context: constrains and opportunities Natural environment Not actively managed for visitors Complex land ownership with ‘open access’ arrangements Interpretation Very little designated signage Very rich digital documentation (including text, images, diagrammes etc.)

5. Context: constrains and opportunities Visitors Opportunistic visit, chance discoveries Possibly with no preparation Repeat visitors Low-end mobile phones Significant online visitation Technology Alleged ‘lack of signal’ Infact workable coverage throughout apart from the parking areas

6. Why mobile? Situated Opportunistic Flexible/self-paced experience No new infrastructure Bring Your Own Device (BYOD)

7. Empathy in design “Empathy is about being able to imaginatively construct the world from another person’s perspective, while at the same time remembering one’s own point of view in order to creatively work with the difference.” (Wright & McCarthy, 2010, p.70)

8. How do you create a design space, which allows the development of empathy between designers and ‘participants’? How do you translate empathy to concrete design concepts?

9. Three co-experience workshops ...also some music and some recited poetry related to rock art

10. Three co-experience workshops

11. Visiting Rock Art Findability Sense of self/place Desire for speculation

12. How do you translate empathy to concrete design concepts? Intuitive navigation Dialogue-centred material - allowing space for people to express/explore opinions Reflective & creative content across modalities

13. Navigation

14. Space for speculation: dialogical style Guide: So here we are at the Main Rock - you can see the old metal Ministry of Works Sign. If we stand here and look across the panel you can hopefully see the grooves and hollows on the surface.... Visitor: I can see a couple of marks here, but they aren’t very clear… Guide: It’s a shame it isn’t a sunny day – low sunlight can really help. Perhaps if you look at the plan? Visitor: Wow, I didn’t realise there was so much! Would the whole rock have been carved at the one time or was it added by different people, you know, like graffiti? Guide: It’s difficult to know exactly. Rock art was made over a long period – two to three thousand years. Some carvings on the rock look less weathered than others and so may have been added more recently. But you’ve also got to remember that parts of the rock might have been protected from the worst of the wind and rain just because of where they are on the rock. Visitor: It does look very eroded, how can you tell what’s carved and what’s just the shape of the rock? Guide: It’s difficult! British weather can really make a difference! If you look at the edges you’ll see some deep hollows made by the wind and rain. They may have started out as cup marks, of course.

15. Space for speculation: archaeological ambiguity

16. Prototype in the wild Dialogical content and space for speculation via questions captured people’s imagination Navigation through textual descriptions and images was effective – some usability issues Greater emphasis on the surrounding landscape

17. Over the next 4 months: Reversioning of content Production of content for 3 sites Addressing any usability issues Experimenting with some creative and social media extensions

18. Reflections Resource intensive but ultimately rewarding process for all involved Opportunities to build relationships sustainability From co-experience to co-production Combine context specificity with open-endedness Limited re-use existing digital content

19. ? Questions Comments areti.galani@ncl.ac.uk http://rockartmobile.wordpress.com/