Nenescape (Ice Age to Digital Age) Artcodes along the Nene

Many people are unaware of the depth and breadth of history shown within local landscapes and how the history shapes the places in which they live or visit.

The ‘Artcodes along the Nene’ project is one of a number of projects within the Heritage Lottery funded Nenescape Landscape Partnership Scheme and will focus on bringing alive the “industrial landscapes”, building on the strong heritage of industry, railways, canals, boats and mills along the Nene.

Artcodes will be used to create a rich and diverse interactive environment that enhances and builds the sense of community in the Nene Valley, bringing hidden heritage alive through innovative digital technologies. The promotion of local heritage and activities will allow people to explore the local area, raising engagement levels and wellbeing of communities close to the river.

• A series of scoping workshops with heritage partners and local communities to investigate requirements and ideas for content and develop prototypes of Artcodes deployments.
• Working with designers local to the area to develop creative and beautiful designs that reflect the context and landscape of the deployments
• Engaging with local people and visitors to the area to assess usability and best content to tell stories.
• All aboard for Rushden – the first use of artcodes technology in the Nene Valley was launched at Nene Valley Festival in September 2018: https://nenescape.org/news-and-features/allaboardforushden. UPDATE October 2020: 6 new Artcodes have now been produced and are currently being printed to be installed at a further 6 locations.
• Training for heritage and creative partners in the use of Artcodes technology, to enable them to create their own experiences in the future, beyond the project

More information on the Nenescape Landscape Partnership Scheme and ‘Artcodes along the Nene’ collaboration can be found here, including the Nene Valley giant boot sculpture – a huge Dr Marten boot with a nature theme portraying six special Artcode images of the Nene Valley’s most loved animals, insects and plants.

Outputs:

Paper: Insights Into Legacy: Issues of Handover from a Partner-Initiated Project, Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems – Proceedings, art. no. 489