Viking: Discover the Legend Performances

Viking: Discover the Legend, August 2019A series of performances including "Shieldmaiden" and "A Very Victorian Tour of the Vikings", designed to animate the museum space and encourage audiences to critically engage with history through the revelation of under represented voices, the colonizing of history, and immersive, interactive engagements with history.Arts Council England and Heritage Lottery Fund had commissioned Dr Maples to design a series of interactive events particularly targeting 18-30 year olds, an age group who have proven difficult to attract to the museum’s exhibitions and events. Through the creation of immersive experience performances, performative “decolonising the museum” tours, participatory workshops with adult themes including a new project on taboo and dark heritage, and the inclusion of social media and games design techniques in the museum space, this project facilitates research into the use of immersive performance and new technologies to transform expectations of the museum site.