My Great North Run

Project Dates: From March 2010 to October 2010

Project Leader: Prof. Patrick Olivier

Staff: Dr. Areti Galani (CI) – School of Arts & Cuture , Rachel Clarke, Tom Bartindale, Dr. John Shearer

Sponsors: OneNorthEast

'My Great North Run' is a multimodal museum installation and connected website that archives stories, photographs and drawings from the last thirty years of the Great North Run. The Run is the largest half marathon in the world and has been taking place in the North East of England every year since 1981. The installation was deployed between July and October 2010 at the Great North Museum: Hancock, Newcastle upon Tyne, as part of an exhibition to celebrate thirty years of the Run.

The design of the interactive was developed to capture and share the rich diversity of ways people have taken part in this event over the last 30 years. There were thirteen touch-screen map installation of the run in the museum with pre-loaded stories from runners combined with digital (Anoto) pens and pads so visitors at the exhibition could contribute their own stories and messages. At the same time a complementary website was launched to collect stories about the run from online users. The pre-loaded contributions from runners and the user contributed material from online and on-site visitors were combined and delivered both in the gallery and via the website allowing users to become aware of each others' content. The design linked the online, web presence of the installation with the on-site museum experience and the physical time and space of the run.

Collaborators: SiDE: Social Inclusion through the Digital Economy, RCUK Digital Economy, Bupa Great North Run Culture Programme, Tyne and wear Archives and Museums, Great North Museum: Hancock.