Mixed Reality Heritage Performance As a Decolonising Tool for Heritage Sites

TL;DR

This paper presents innovative mixed reality performances at heritage sites that aim to decolonize narratives about difficult histories like slavery, engaging the public through immersive experiences and providing a practical toolkit for heritage professionals.

Contribution

It introduces the first MR experiences combining AR glasses and live theatre to critically engage audiences with underrepresented colonial histories, along with a design toolkit for heritage decolonization.

Findings

MRHP effectively attracts and educates visitors

Embodied and affective engagement is enhanced through MR

Toolkit supports heritage professionals in decolonising narratives

Abstract

In this paper we introduce two world-first Mixed Reality (MR) experiences that fuse smart AR glasses and live theatre and take place in a heritage site with the purpose to reveal the site's hidden and difficult histories about slavery. We term these unique general audience experiences Mixed Reality Heritage Performances (MRHP). Along with the development of our initial two performances we designed and developed a tool and guidelines that can help heritage organisations with their decolonising process by critically engaging the public with under-represented voices and viewpoints of troubled European and colonial narratives. The evaluations showed the embodied and affective potential of MRHP to attract and educate heritage audiences visitors. Insights of the design process are being formulated into an extensive design toolkit that aims to support experience design, theatre and heritage professionals to collaboratively carry out similar projects.