Jim Macbeth

CRITICAL MASSES is a multidisciplinary pilot project that seeks to graphically represent and mediate the histories, spaces and narratives informing former nuclear installations within central Australia. These include the abandoned British atomic test sites at Emu Field and Maralinga, the ICBM/IRBM rocket launchers at Woomera, and the decommissioned US National Security Agency early-warning satellite base at Nurrungar. Significantly, each of these Cold War sites are situated in either hazardous, remote, secure and/or culturally sensitive areas and require sophisticated analysis and negotiation in order to best render their complexity for both online access and on-site tourism. A multi-tiered approach (re)creating these locations is being modeled across platforms for diverse audiences. Digital materials are being authored and designed for stand-alone DVDs, online interactive sites and archives, an immersive/simulated space for interpretation centres, and augmented/enhanced reality interfaces via GPS and mobile/handheld devices in-situ at key sites. In this presentation Murdoch University team members will demonstrate strategies for presenting audio-visual archives, remote topographies and oral histories for both virtual and physical tourists accessing these 'compromised' locales.