WHAT ARE DIGITAL SONGLINES?

WHAT ARE DIGITAL SONGLINES?

I recently went on a class trip with 35 Year 11 students to the Dreaming, Australia's International Indigenous Feastval, June 9th-12th 2006.



The Dreaming Festival showcased local, national and international Indigenous artists in a contemporary celebration of culture. Held over 3 days and four nights, the festival was supported by the Queensland Folk Federation with artistic direction by Rhoda Roberts. It's jam packed program featured film & literature components, performing arts, new media and digital technologies, food & wine fare, comedy, ceremony, exhibitions, performance artists, physical theatre, visual arts, craft workshops, music program, street performers, musicals and a youth program.

One booth set up to interface with the public and showcase their product was a company called Australasian CRC for Interactive Design (acid).They were exhibiting an amazing product called digital songlines.

Digital Songlines is an authentic Indigenous 3D simulation where you explore Australian Aboriginal culture and heritage based on the knowledge of the traditional people. By completing quests that take you on an adventure you gain knowledge of Aboriginal arts , culture and heritage in close association with the landscape.

I was both visually impressed and excited about the possibilities of such a project and its application in a learning environment. The students who happened to be at the stall at the same time as me gave the demonstration programme a thorough half hour investigation. They found it enjoyable, interesting, engaging and informative. I highly recommend you check out their website.










The Australasian CRC for Interaction Design (ACID) is host to an innovative and exciting project aimed at conserving Indigenous heritage using virtual reality technologies. Digital Songlines is an ACID project that is developing protocols, methodologies and toolkits to facilitate the collection, education and sharing of indigenous cultural heritage knowledge. The project explores the effective recording, content management and virtual reality delivery of indigenous cultural knowledge in way that are culturally sensitive and involve the indigenous custodians, leaders and communities.

The title of Digital Songlines represents the blend of new media technology, simulation technology and high end computer visualisation systems to depict Aboriginal culture and heritage in such a way as to do justice to the traditions and practice of Indigenous culture as well as describe the Dreaming, Songlines and significant sites travelled by Aboriginal people throughout Australia.

Traditionally this rich Aboriginal heritage was transferred from generation to generation over millennia by rituals and storytellers through dance, stories and artworks. This interactive immersive simulation experience will communicate this ancient heritage in an entertaining, exciting and creative way using computer simulation technology.




Features
Key features will be developed within the toolkit to include opportunities to:

1. Explore a virtual environment composed of Australian flora and fauna, topographical features faithfully restored in high resolution 3D;








2. Experience spatial audio to reflect the ambient sounds and audio of the landscape, see and hear virtual 3D avatars telling immersive Indigenous stories that reflect an experience and sense of actually being there.;

3. Record in a relational database the "Dreaming" stories, myths and legends that set the user upon an exploration quest involving tasks fulfilment, knowledge gathering, skills development and character advancement based upon Aboriginal culture and heritage;









4. Witness virtual representation of Aboriginal art, stories and artefacts as well as the high definition 3D design and spatial representation of these within a 3D landscape based upon actual satellite topographical imagery;

5. Appreciate cultural protocol and gender based issues relating to Aboriginal heritage.;

6. Explore the virtual landscape with hundreds of users and experience the myth legends, culture and heritage simultaneously with others;






7. Represent the aspirations of Indigenous artists, storytellers, custodians, historians, anthropologists and traditional owners document, describe and model cultural heritage sites and the interaction of communities within these sites from a past, present and future perspective;

8. Hear Indigenous language through the quests, stories, myths and legends; and


9. Empathise and respect the knowledge of Indigenous people as you move across the various tribal landscapes establishing travel routes for trade, knowledge sharing or exploration.




Oral histories, herbarium data, dreamtime myths, legends and stories are just some of the rich array of cultural information that will help create an application that will protect, preserve and promote Indigenous cultural practices and their celebrated survival techniques in unique and interesting ways.
Digital Songlines is a project of the Australian CRC for Interaction Design.
Site designed by Niche Studio - www.nichestudio.net







News
Digital Songlines - Irene's World launched at Mitchell

We launched Digital Songlines - Irene's World at Mitchell State School on the 5th April 2006, with tremendous support from the Indigenous community, the Mitchell State School, Mitchell Council and our ACID team members.

Over 2 days children from pre-school to year 10 were able to immerse themselves in Irene's World 3D environment and experience the Aboriginal culture and language of the Gunggari people, set on the site of the Yumba on teh outskirts of Mitchell. Irene Ryder was there with bush tucker foods and her knowledge, and it was a fantastic 2 days with with great feedback and enjoyable experiences for the children.

Click on the heading link to read the press release.
Read more...
We win an AIIA Merit award at the iAwards!!
The Digital Songlines product received an Award of Merit in the prestigous national AIIA iAwards in the Education & Training category on the 7th April 2006.

The Merit Awards are only made when there is less than 5% separating the leaders in the category, so we're very proud of our win, given we've just launched our first iteration of the Digital Songlines software (Irene's World).