Rising

Rising is a four-part film story, exploring the layers of history that lie on the beach below the hut. Each film takes the same text and tells a different aspect of the story. In the beach hut, they can be viewed independently or simultaneously, using an augmented reality app that turns flat images on the wall into video content.
This is the essence of what I want to achieve in the hut; for it to become a place where people can explore a whole range of stories in a space with no power, told simply, and where the tech is a useful means to an end, not the attraction in itself. Of course, with new tech there is always a danger that the novelty takes over from the content, but I’m pleased to say that the response time the stories at Beach Hut 123, once the novelty had been acknowledged, was pretty positive.
Of course there are always a few issues that I will bear in mind for the future. The first of which is that the iPad itself, however lightweight, is still heavy enough to preclude some visitors from holding it up for extended periods. Other tech glitches are inevitable and so far we have managed to overcome these by reverting to the old fallback of simply turning it off and turning to on again. But if I develop this idea further, I will definitely be doing so in collaboration with people who really know and love the tech for its own sake and who can iron out the bugs.
In the mean time, Jamie and I have been very pleased with how it’s all come together. It’s definitely been the most positive collaborative experience I’ve had with the shared projects evolving very naturally. And somehow, working with another person makes it much easier to be positive about the end result than it is on a solo project.