Understanding the Social Value of Geelong’s Design and Manufacturing Heritage for Extended Reality

Abstract

Post-industrial cities often find themselves at a crossroads as to whether to find a new identity or embrace their industrial past. In late 2017, after the closure of major manufacturing plants in the region, the Australian city of Geelong was designated a UNESCO City of Design and embraced a “Clever and Creative” strategy which acknowledged Geelong’s industrial and design past in responding to contemporary technological, demographic, and economic challenges. However, questions remain as to which versions of the past are valued by the local community and how these stories can be shared. To better understand the social value of design and manufacturing heritage in Geelong as well as to get initial feedback on how to interpret this type of heritage through novel immersive extended reality (XR) experiences, the researchers took a community-led approach. This paper reports on the results of the initial online community surveys (N = 55–137) and in-person stakeholder interviews (N = 5) with carefully selected representatives of the local government, education, heritage, tourism, and engineering sectors. The study’s outcome demonstrates the importance of design and manufacturing heritage for the local community’s identity. Moreover, this type of heritage provides a source of inspiration, learning opportunities for future creative problem-solvers, and economic opportunities through tourism. By engaging with the social value of design and manufacturing heritage, this paper argues that more effective and targeted storytelling, game-like applications, and other digital immersive experiences such as extended reality (XR) can be used to better engage with audiences.

An Attempt to Estimate the Social Value Resulting from Making Cultural Heritage Available in the Form of a Tourist Product

“…Heritage can contribute to economic development (including the tourism economy). It is a tool for the enhancement of social cohesion [20]. What unites people testifies to their separateness and history; it is a huge value on the basis of which various prosocial and proeconomic activities can be undertaken.…”

“…Providing access to cultural heritage can increase the involvement and professional activation of the local community [1,9,30,45,61,67,68,70,78,83,97] Diversification of economic potential Carrying out activities related to the provision of cultural heritage may diversify the economic potential of the region, increasing it with tourist activities [3,10,15,16,20,26,30,66,86,96,97] Acting as a symbol of the area Social value may result from the creation of a tourist brand of the region thanks to the cultural heritage tourism product and a favorable image of the destination having cultural heritage facilities on its territory [17,20,32,64,65,67,69,98] Source: Based on own research.…”

Evaluating the Difference in Gaze Patterns for 360° Video-Based and 3D Modeled Virtual Environments

“…Along with other factories, the city was the home of the Ford Motor Company manufacturing plant. When Ford announced the closure of their plant, the local community mostly perceived it as the end of the engineering era in Geelong (Helven 2018;Antlej et al 2023). As the case study of this research, a VR experience of an advanced manufacturing facility in Geelong was developed to investigate how to communicate post-industrial engineering activities in the region.…”