For the last few years I have been experimenting with telling complex, challenging and nuanced historical stories using creative technology. In September 2022, I received a fellowship from Bath Spa University’s Narrative and Emerging Technologies (NET) Lab to explore ways in which to use immersive and emerging technologies to tell stories within some 19th Century family letters and diaries. I have a background in documentary filmmaking and in writing for theatre. More recently I have been working on large R&D projects aiming to promote the use of immersive technology in the creative industries, so the fellowship seemed like the perfect opportunity to try and marry the three areas together. 

Photograph of some of the nineteenth century letters and diary. Credit: Rachel Pownall

Initially, I spent time exploring different types of immersive narrative experiences. I looked at everything from one of the highly commercial immersive Van Gogh exhibitions to VR experiences like Randall Okita’s The Book of Distance to the immersive audio piece, Intravene, by Darkfield. Alongside this I spent time getting to grips with the source material. As well as examining the family documents in detail, I had to do a lot of detective work to try to fill in the narrative gaps; delving into archives, consulting experts, accessing online census and church records then re-examining and interpreting family stories in the light of new information thrown up by this research. 

While there were several fascinating narratives contained within the family letters and documents, I focused mainly on the story of my great, great grandmother Charlotte Coostriah Denman who was half British and half Indian. She was brought from Maharashtra, India to North Wales in 1833 at the age of three by her father William Denman who was an Ensign in the East India Company’s army. She was told that her mother, who died giving birth to Charlotte, was Spanish and she grew up knowing nothing of her Indian heritage. 

As a white British woman, albeit a direct descendent of Charlotte Coostriah, I am very aware of the cultural sensitivities around telling this story. During my fellowship, I was lucky enough to have Dr Priya Atwal from the University of Oxford, as consultant. Her research specialism is cultural politics of empire, particularly across Britain and South Asia in the 19th and early 20th Century. She was able to advise on the historical and cultural ramifications of the East India Company’s colonisation of India and acted as script consultant as I pieced together and started to tell Charlotte’s story and that of her mother. In addition, in order to understand the cultural norms in the UK at the time, particularly relating to women’s experiences, I consulted with Dr Jackie Collier from Bath Spa University. Her research specialism is the social political and cultural history of the long eighteenth century in Britain with a specific interest in gender. 

My research unearthed a huge amount of information including some revelations. With Dr Atwal’s help, I discovered that a mistranslation of some blurry 19th Century writing meant that Charlotte’s mother was not called Lasiml Coostriah as the family had always believed, but Laksmi Coostriah, a name that gives a much stronger indication of her cultural and religious background. I also uncovered parallel stories relating to other women whose lives contrasted with those of Charlotte and Laksmi but were also bound by the strict class, religious and gender conventions of the time. For example, Charlotte’s Aunt Elizabeth was forced to renounce her fiancé, Capt John Molyneux, because his wealthy and powerful father threatened to disinherit him if they went ahead with the wedding. She never married and went on to play a big part in bringing up the orphaned Charlotte.  

I found Twine really helpful in structuring the different narrative strands and offering alternative ways through that focused on different areas.

Screenshot showing the complex narrative structure of one overall storyline in Twine

I had a small amount of money as part of my fellowship to pay for a Proof of Concept (POC) prototype and chose to create one using Augmented Reality (AR) with smartphones because I wanted the story to be as accessible to as many people as possible. I commissioned the AR & VR studio Zubr to create an Instagram filter that would tell a simplified version of William Denman’s journey to India and his subsequent return to Britain with the infant Charlotte.

Screenshot showing simplified narrative structure of prototype in Twine

The ultimate aim was to create a museum-based exhibit where the public would move from element to element triggering sections of the story using their smartphone and acting as detective to uncover the hidden truths behind them. The POC prototype was a first step to test if this was possible.  

For the prototype, we used a mixture of audio that included quotes from some of the letters, music and sound effects, and visuals like the boat, The Lord Lowther, that William sailed on to India and a 19th Century sketch of a Spanish lady in traditional dress (purchased from archive companies). 

Ship Lord Lowther engraved by E. Duncan England. Credit: Peter Horee/ Alamy Stock Photo

Costume of a Spanish lady, 19th century. Credit: Florilegius/ Alamy stock photo                               

Artwork by Bhavana Ram Mohan

We also used elements from some beautiful mood boards that I commissioned from artist-research and illustrator, Bhavana Ram Mohan, whose work explores decolonial curatorial and heritage practices.

The story elements were triggered by holding a smartphone over an object, in this case one of Elizabeth’s diaries. While it was an interesting process to distill the story into five simplified elements, ultimately the prototype did not work as a POC. The audio elements had to be less than two lines of script, and it was just not possible to do justice to so complex and nuanced story in such bitesize pieces. The story demanded a more narrative led approach that can only really be achieved, I now believe, by using an audio first approach. 

Photograph of Elizabeth Denman’s diary from 1833. Credit: Rachel Pownall

Since attempting this prototype, I have looked at other ways to tell the story. This includes plans to create an interactive AI driven chatbot using RocketMaker’s PORTRAIT technology, which would enable participants to converse with a virtual avatar of Charlotte about her life. However, our application to the MyWorld More than AI Sandbox fund was unsuccessful.  

Subsequently, I have written a couple of monologues from the perspective of Charlotte and her Aunt Elizabeth and I am currently looking at how to create an audio led immersive, interactive VR experience to tell their stories. I have put together a diverse team of creatives to achieve this but gaining funding is the most difficult issue with trying to create such an experience. In the meantime, I am looking at low-cost DIY ways of telling the stories. Recently I have started to learn to code in Unity and I am intrigued about the possibility of including elements of gameplay in the telling of the stories. This is one more avenue to investigate as I continue to look for interesting and engaging ways to explore these narratives using different types of creative technology.