Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Embodied Locative Storytelling of African American Histories

  • Conference paper
  • First Online:
Interactive Storytelling (ICIDS 2022)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 13762))

Included in the following conference series:

Abstract

This project examines the value of custom-built wearable interfaces for historic reenactment. It uses new media to explore mourning culture, African American identity, and female-led gender roles within the context of Oakland Cemetery, a historic cemetery in Atlanta, GA. Tangible interfaces and site-specific storytelling combine to support a tour on site. Multiple tangible interfaces were integrated into a historic dress and various props to offer novel expressive means to tour guides and engaging activities for visitors. This combination of narrative and performative interaction design aimed to provide cultural framing and emphasize African American histories embedded in the cemetery. The project was evaluated with tour guides (n = 7) and site visitors (n = 11). Key findings confirm narrative effectiveness through empathy, values for playful engagement, emphasis on user interaction in the narration, and close integration of digital technology to the site.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  1. Flowers, B.: Race, space, and architecture in Oakland cemetery. Scapes 6: Public Works 6, 42–51 (2007)

    Google Scholar 

  2. Janney, C.E.: Burying the Dead But Not the Past: Ladies’ Memorial Associations and the Lost Cause. Univ of North Carolina Press (2008)

    Google Scholar 

  3. Thomas, B.C.: Race relations in Atlanta, from 1877 through 1890, as seen in a critical analysis of the Atlanta City council proceedings and other related works. https://radar.auctr.edu/islandora/object/cau.td%3A1966_thomas_bettye_c/ (1966)

  4. Davis, R., Davis, H.: Atlanta’s Oakland Cemetery: An Illustrated History and Guide. University of Georgia Press (2012)

    Google Scholar 

  5. Henderson, D.L.: Imagining slave square: resurrecting history through cemetery research and interpretation. In: van Balgooy, M.A., Bunch, L.G., III. (eds.) Interpreting African American History and Culture at Museums and Historic Sites, pp. 106–111. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Blue Ridge Summit, UNITED STATES (2014)

    Google Scholar 

  6. Jones, S.A., Freedman, E.: Presidents and Black America : a documentary history. CQ Press, Los Angeles, Calif (2012)

    Google Scholar 

  7. Henderson, D.L., Van Beck, S.: Illuminating the History of Slave Square – Oakland Cemetery (2019). https://oaklandcemetery.com/illuminating-the-history-of-slave-square/. Accessed 14 Jul 2022

  8. Collier, M.W.: Biographies of Representative Women of the South. Atlanta (1920)

    Google Scholar 

  9. Cody, M.: Monuments and Memories: Examination of Atlanta’s Civil War Monuments. https://www.proquest.com/docview/2615045659/abstract/8AA371C059674D6DPQ/1 (2021)

  10. Abusaid, S.: Confederate statues vandalized in Oakland Cemetery, cops say. https://www.ajc.com/news/crime--law/confederate-monuments-vandalized-oakland-cemetery-cops-say/f3s4KoXNqCQJlvCgZvpndP/ (2020)

  11. Historic Oakland Foundation: The Removal of the Lion of Atlanta from Oakland Cemetery – Oakland Cemetery (2021). https://oaklandcemetery.com/the-removal-of-the-lion-of-atlanta-from-oakland-cemetery/. Accessed 14 Jul 2022

  12. Historic Oakland Foundation: Self-Guided Tour – Oakland Cemetery (n.d.). https://oaklandcemetery.com/self-guided-tour/. Accessed 14 Jul 2022

  13. Minniefield, C.: Remembrance as Resistance (n.d.). https://fluxprojects.org/productions/remembrance-as-resistance-preserving-black-narratives/. Accessed 14 Jul 2022

  14. Hameed, A., Klungre, Ø.S., Perkis, A., Bolme, G., Brownridge, A.: User evaluation of a storytelling application assisting visitors in protected nature areas. In: Mitchell, A., Vosmeer, M. (eds.) ICIDS 2021. LNCS, vol. 13138, pp. 349–359. Springer, Cham (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-92300-6_34

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  15. Farman, J.: The Mobile Story: Narrative Practices with Locative Technologies. Routledge (2013)

    Google Scholar 

  16. Hargood, C., Weal, M.J., Millard, D.E.: The storyplaces platform: building a web-based locative hypertext system. In: Proceedings of the 29th on Hypertext and Social Media. pp. 128–135. Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA (2018). https://doi.org/10.1145/3209542.3209559

  17. Rouse, R.: Someone else’s story: an ethical approach to interactive narrative design for cultural heritage. In: Cardona-Rivera, R.E., Sullivan, A., Young, R.M. (eds.) ICIDS 2019. LNCS, vol. 11869, pp. 47–60. Springer, Cham (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-33894-7_6

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  18. de Souza e Silva, A., Sheller, M. (eds.): Mobility and Locative Media. Routledge (2014). https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315772226

    Book  Google Scholar 

  19. Millard, D.E., Packer, H., Howard, Y., Hargood, C.: The balance of attention: the challenges of creating locative cultural storytelling experiences. J. Comput. Cult. Herit. 13(4), 1–24 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1145/3404195

    Article  Google Scholar 

  20. Tanenbaum, T.J., Tanenbaum, K., Antle, A.: The Reading Glove: designing interactions for object-based tangible storytelling. In: Proceedings of the 1st Augmented Human International Conference. pp. 1–9. Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA (2010). https://doi.org/10.1145/1785455.1785474

  21. Dow, S., Lee, J., Oezbek, C., Maclntyre, B., Bolter, J.D., Gandy, M.: Exploring spatial narratives and mixed reality experiences in Oakland Cemetery. In: Proceedings of the 2005 ACM SIGCHI International Conference on Advances in computer entertainment technology. pp. 51–60. Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA (2005). https://doi.org/10.1145/1178477.1178484

  22. Häkkilä, J., Colley, A., Kalving, M.: Designing an interactive gravestone display. In: Proceedings of the 8th ACM International Symposium on Pervasive Displays, pp. 1–7. Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA (2019). https://doi.org/10.1145/3321335.3324952

  23. Demetriou, P., Pappas, O., Kampylis, S.: Love Letters – Wearing Stories Told: A performance-technology provocation for interactive storytelling. Body, Space Technol. 16, 13 &  3 (2017). https://doi.org/10.16995/bst.3

  24. Isbister, K., Abe, K.: Costumes as Game Controllers: An Exploration of Wearables to Suit Social Play. In: Proceedings of the Ninth International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction, pp. 691–696. Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA (2015). https://doi.org/10.1145/2677199.2688813

  25. Henderson, D.L.: What lies beneath: reading the cultural landscape of graveyard and burial grounds in African-American history and Literature (2008)

    Google Scholar 

  26. Kanhadilok, P., Watts, M.: Adult play-learning: observing informal family education at a science museum. Studies Educ. Adults 46, 23–41 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1080/02660830.2014.11661655

    Article  Google Scholar 

  27. Major, D.: Behind the Scenes: Sunday in the Park at Oakland Cemetery (2019). https://oaklandcemetery.com/behind-the-scenes-sunday-in-the-park-at-oakland-cemetery/

  28. Capturing the Spirit of Oakland Halloween Tours (n.d.). https://oaklandcemetery.com/event/capturing-the-spirit-of-oakland-halloween-tours/

  29. Gaver, B., Dunne, T., Pacenti, E.: Design: cultural probes. Interactions 6, 21–29 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1145/291224.291235

    Article  Google Scholar 

  30. Andrews, R., McGlynn, C., Mycock, A.: Students’ attitudes towards history: does self-identity matter? Educ. Res. 51, 365–377 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1080/00131880903156948

    Article  Google Scholar 

  31. Historic Oakland Foundation, Stantec: Oakland Alive: Oakland Cemetery Master Plan Update. Historic Oakland Foundation (2018)

    Google Scholar 

  32. Historic Oakland Foundation: Black Magnolias: African American Women in Atlanta’s History, (n.d.)

    Google Scholar 

  33. Honauer, M., Wilde, D., Hornecker, E.: Overcoming reserve – supporting professional appropriation of interactive costumes. In: Proceedings of the 2020 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference. pp. 2189–2200. Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA (2020)

    Google Scholar 

  34. Du, J., Markopoulos, P., Wang, Q., Toeters, M., Gong, T.: ShapeTex: implementing shape-changing structures in fabric for wearable actuation. In: Proceedings of the Twelfth International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction. pp. 166–176. Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA (2018). https://doi.org/10.1145/3173225.3173245

  35. Zeagler, C., et al.: YOU BETTA WERK: using wearable technology performance driven inclusive transdisciplinary collaboration to facilitate authentic learning. In: Proceedings of the Fifteenth International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction. pp. 1–12. Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA (2021). https://doi.org/10.1145/3430524.3440622

  36. Peppler, K.: A Review of E-Textiles in Education and Society. Handbook of Research on the Societal Impact of Digital Media, 23 p. (2016). https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-4666-8310-5.ch011

  37. Perner-Wilson, H., Buechley, L., Satomi, M.: Handcrafting textile interfaces from a kit-of-no-parts. In: Proceedings of the fifth international conference on Tangible, embedded, and embodied interaction. pp. 61–68. Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA (2010). https://doi.org/10.1145/1935701.1935715

  38. Cramer-Reichelderfer, A.: Fall of the American Dressmaker 1880–1920. https://corescholar.libraries.wright.edu/etd_all/2085 (2019)

  39. Bedikian, S.A.: The death of mourning: from victorian crepe to the little black dress. Omega (Westport) 57, 35–52 (2008). https://doi.org/10.2190/OM.57.1.c

    Article  Google Scholar 

  40. Stowell, L.: V346: How to Make a Victorian Bustle – Pattern and Instructions. https://blog.americanduchess.com/2013/01/v346-how-to-make-victorian-bustle.html. Accessed 14 Jul 2022

  41. Stine, L.F., Cabak, M.A., Groover, M.D.: Blue beads as African-American cultural symbols. Hist Arch. 30, 49–75 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03374221

    Article  Google Scholar 

  42. Memorial Day: https://gahistoricnewspapers.galileo.usg.edu/lccn/sn90052045/1874-05-06/ed-1/seq-4/#date1=04%2F01%2F1874&nottext=&date2=06%2F01%2F1874&words=Cemetery+Oakland&searchType=advanced&sequence=0&index=0&proxdistance=5&rows=12&ortext=&proxtext=oakland+cemetery&andtext=&page=1 (1874)

  43. Janney-Lucas, C.E.: If not for the ladies: Ladies’ Memorial Associations and the making of the lost cause. https://www.proquest.com/docview/305380909/abstract/712D661E7F034DD1PQ/1 (2005)

  44. Black, W.: Untangling the Lost Cause myth from the American story will be hard – The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/made-by-history/wp/2017/08/25/untangling-the-lost-cause-myth-from-the-american-story-will-be-hard/ (2017)

  45. Hammock, C.C.: Proclamation. http://ajc.newspapers.com/image/?clipping_id=54125382&fcfToken=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJmcmVlLXZpZXctaWQiOjI2ODI0NDg3LCJpYXQiOjE2NTc3OTI4MzMsImV4cCI6MTY1Nzg3OTIzM30.ZLzcexIlPlTScY9kHiCFEqlXquMqFtu7_lX4x__pUfs (1875)

  46. Ockenden, I.M.P.: The Confederate monument on Capitol Hill, Montgomery, Alabama, 1861–1900. [Montgomery, Ala.?] Published by the Ladies Memorial Association (1900)

    Google Scholar 

  47. Lutz, D.: Death becomes her: a century of mourning attire. Vic. Lit. Cult. 44, 217–222 (2016)

    Google Scholar 

  48. Hunter, T.W.: To Joy My Freedom: Southern Black Womens Lives and Labors After the Civil War. Harvard University Press (1998)

    Google Scholar 

  49. Swink, R.C.: Gender and division of labor associated with dying, burial, and mourning in early America. Fairmount Folio: J. Hist. 19, 14–25 (2019)

    Google Scholar 

  50. Forrest, R.: Design factors in the museum visitor experience. https://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:348658 (2015)

  51. Kirchberg, V., Tröndle, M.: The museum experience: mapping the experience of fine art. Curator: The Museum J. 58(2), 169–193 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1111/cura.12106

    Article  Google Scholar 

  52. Brooke, J.: SUS: a “quick and dirty” usability scale. In: Usability Evaluation In Industry, pp. 189–194. CRC Press (1996)

    Google Scholar 

  53. Klug, B.: An overview of the system usability scale in library website and system usability testing. Weave: J. Libr. User Experience 1, 36–37 (2017). https://doi.org/10.3998/weave.12535642.0001.602

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, 30332, USA

    Candice Butts & Michael Nitsche

Authors
  1. Candice Butts
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Michael Nitsche
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Candice Butts .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Mirjam Vosmeer

  2. University of Skövde, Skövde, Sweden

    Lissa Holloway-Attaway

1 Electronic supplementary material

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2022 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this paper

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this paper

Butts, C., Nitsche, M. (2022). Embodied Locative Storytelling of African American Histories. In: Vosmeer, M., Holloway-Attaway, L. (eds) Interactive Storytelling. ICIDS 2022. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 13762. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-22298-6_11

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-22298-6_11

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-031-22297-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-031-22298-6

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation