878 AD

Sarner designed and delivered 878 AD, an exciting new immersive exhibition that recreates a key moment in Winchester’s Anglo-Saxon history, brought to life using incredible visuals from the video game franchise Assassin’s Creed®. The new visitor attraction gives audiences an interactive insight into Anglo-Saxon life in 9th century Winchester through immersive storytelling, live performance, latest audio-visual technologies, augmented reality and interactive software, and precious Anglo-Saxon artefacts from Hampshire Cultural Trust’s collections.

Location

Winchester, UK

Services

- Story, Research & Interpretation - Concept Design & Visualisation - Architectural & MEP Coordination - Masterplanning - Scheme & Detailed Design - Project Engineering & Technical Design - Interior Design, Set and Staging Design - Lighting, Audio, Video, Network Design - Writing & Content Development - Media & Film Production - Audiovisual & Interactive Technologies - Graphics - Lighting - Theming - Show Control Specification - Show Programming - Technical Installation & Commissioning - Special effects - Construction & Installation - Support & Maintenance - Training - Consultancy

Awards

BIMA Awards - Technology-driven Experience (Winner), Australian XR Festival - Best in Augmented Reality Experiences (Winner), TIGA Games Industry Awards - Heritage in Games (Winner), AV Awards - Themed Entertainment and Attractions Project of the Year (Finalist), Museums & Heritage - Partnership of the Year (Finalist)

Links

https://878ad.co.uk

Client's brief

878 AD is the result of a unique collaboration between Hampshire Cultural Trust, Sugar Creative, and Ubisoft, creator of the global best-selling gaming series Assassin’s Creed® and its educational experience, Discovery Tour, which is free of combat and adapted for audiences of all ages. Winchester being heavily featured in the world of Assassin’s Creed® Valhalla and Discovery Tour: Viking Age, 878 AD draws on imagery and assets from the game to create an engaging representation of the city at the time. Part of the video game is in fact set in England at King Alfred’s time, and thanks to its historically accurate approach, lends itself greatly at supporting the experience narrative and contributing to its visual identity.

The exhibition aims to create a sense of wonder and excitement for visitors and through the use of gaming assets, innovative technology and real Anglo-Saxon artefacts, open up Winchester’s history and heritage for everyone to discover. The core objective was to reach new audiences, but without disenfranchising existing audiences to Hampshire Cultural Trust's venues.

Our solution

The new interactive exhibition relates the importance of Winchester in the shaping of English history. The experience is centred around the events of year 878, when Winchester based, Anglo-Saxon King Alfred faced the invading Viking army in the decisive battle of Edington.

Ubisoft’s wealth of content feeds into every section of the attraction, thus creating continuity between the video game and the experience. The cumulative effect of this implementation has been to create an attraction which inspires, transports, and amazes fans of Assassin’s Creed® and traditional museum goers alike and allows for an expansion of the attraction target audience into the vast demographic of ‘gamers’, a somewhat untapped pool when it comes to more traditional museum experiences.

Based on visitors’ evaluation, the project was highly successful at helping Hampshire Cultural Trust attract a previously underrepresented audience: 25% of the 878 AD audience are 16-35 years old, compared to 7% at other local Hampshire Cultural Trust museums. 878 AD is also attracting families with older children: 27% are 5-15 years old compared to 21% at Winchester City Museum.

Features

The visitor journey starts with an immersive AV show that sets the tone and gives context to the experience: the armies are squaring up and are about to clash in an open battlefield near the city. Contemporaries give their account of the situation, expressing their fears around the events that are about to unfold.

Visitors are then led through the gates of the city and find refuge beyond fortified walls, where they meet the local population and experience the tense moments before the battle: will the King be victorious and Winchester thrive, or will the Heathen army take over and pillage the city, thus ending any hope for survival of the Anglo-Saxons as a Christian nation? To give nuance, the heart of interpretation in this section is delivered through live performance within the virtual city, blending the realms of museum design and immersive theatre, where artefacts and historical data create a factual background to emotional live acting and immersive AV sets. Visitors meet rich and poor, strong and frail, local and foreign – each performance helps make the point that history is more complicated than winners and losers. Floor to ceiling 900mm projection forms the stage on which actors perform to the public, with the addition of scent, atmospheric haze and lighting effects to bring the story of Anglo-Saxon Winchester to life for the visitors.

The experience tackles warfare and conflict with the Vikings, but also more subtle subjects such as daily life, trade and the profound influence of this time and place on the English language.

Led by Hampshire Cultural Trust, a panel of academic experts developed the narrative based on five core interpretive principles: personal, emotional, immersive, relevant, new insights. The experience is based on the latest academic research and displays authentic 9th century objects, yet it doesn’t give a dispassionate account of the facts. It tells a story to inspire empathy and emotion, as well as learning.

Thanks to the immersive virtual world of Assassin’s Creed® Valhalla and technological innovation, the exhibition helps visitors step into a moment in history - not as kings or queens, but as the everyday people. This reflects the nature of Hampshire Cultural Trust’s archaeological collections, which tell of ordinary people who witnessed a city sacked by raiders reborn. The finale brings relief and jubilation, as the last section of the exhibition focuses on the victory over the Viking army. A multi-projection finale-show reflects on Alfred’s achievements, as his legacy resonates through the centuries: with victory at Edington, a period of relative security and prosperity ensued, which set the foundations for the birth of modern England.

One of the highlights of the exhibition is the Winchester Reliquary, beautifully embossed with acanthus designs, a priceless 9th century artefact that is the only Anglo-Saxon reliquary of this type to be found in England. Discovered in a 9th/ 10th century rubbish pit, this reliquary is currently under scientific investigation to discover its secrets. Using technology, the exhibition brings to life the artistic skills used in the artefact’s creation and explores the historical context that might have led to its disposal. The Pepper’s Ghost illusion allows content to float above and map on to the priceless artefact. The reliquary being featured in Discovery Tour: Viking Age, 3D models and in-game footage from Ubisoft as well as images from the recently completed CT scan and text, all provide a new dimension to this object beautifully, which has previously only been seen in a traditional museum showcase.

Once visitors have discovered the result of the Battle of Edington at the exhibition, they will be able to journey through Alfred’s legacy in the second part of the experience - 878 AD: Winchester Revealed, an app which has been specially developed by Sugar Creative for the experience. Eight stops, each featuring a unique game to play, tell of the administrative, mercantile, and cultural revolution that went hand-in-hand with the rise of the House of Wessex. Using the power of augmented reality technology and images and models of Winchester extracted from Assassin’s Creed® Valhalla and Discovery Tour: Viking Age, this geolocated city-scale immersive journey offers a unique gameplay experience including riddle-solving, pottery-making and preparing city defences, mixed with puzzles and challenges along the way. This creates a first-of-type experience – one that breaks down the barriers of a museum space into the city that is at the heart of the history.