East Riding Archives’ Blockdown project harnessed the possibilities of the videogame Minecraft as an interactive learning environment and as a tool to collect young peoples’ experiences of the COVID-19 pandemic in the region.
Summary
East Riding Archives’ Blockdown project harnessed the possibilities of the videogame Minecraft as an interactive learning environment and as a tool to collect young peoples’ experiences of the COVID-19 pandemic in the region. Its wider contemporary collecting lacked the voices of those aged 5-16. An ‘Archiverse’ was created which enabled children and young people to write a virtual book or created 3D visual representation of their experiences of the pandemic which were then housed in the digital archive.
The challenge
How to involve children and young people aged 5 to 16 years old to tell their stories about their experiences in lockdown, in creative and engaging ways.
The solution
East Riding Archives’ Blockdown project harnessed the possibilities of the videogame Minecraft as an interactive learning environment and as a tool to collect young peoples’ experiences of the COVID-19 pandemic in the region.
The Archivist gained funding from The Audience Agency to create an ‘Archiverse’ in Minecraft. Within the Archiverse, young people were able to explore a re-creation of East Riding Archives’ home, the Treasure House, leaving their contributions to the archive by writing in a virtual book or building a 3D visual representation of their experiences of the pandemic. The Archivist transferred the contributions from Minecraft into the service’s digital archive management system. Over 120 contributions from young people sit alongside the wider COVID-19 collection, which is accessible online.
The Archivist ran workshops for primary schools and drop-in sessions at libraries to help young people to navigate the Archiverse and to create their contributions collaboratively within the game. These sessions also encouraged the Archivist to try new methods of evaluation suitable for younger audiences, incorporating these into the game.
The impact
Over 120 contributions from young people sit alongside the wider COVID-19 collection, which is accessible online.
The project was very much an experiment - it’s been fun to disrupt assumptions about what archives are, and how they can be collected, both with the young people we’ve been working with and also within the council. The project has strengthened our relationships with stakeholders across the board.’
Hannah Stamp, Archivist and Project Lead, East Riding Archives
How is the new approach being sustained?
East Riding Archives will build on the success of Blockdown by utilising the Archiverse in other projects to collect young people’s experiences on a diverse range of subjects. The East Riding Archives are also exploring ways to use augmented and virtual reality to view the 3D models created by contributors within the game, and how these can be embedded into online exhibitions and social media. This will enable the archive to share these collected experiences with wider audiences and further the service’s digital innovation.
Lessons learned
The project hinged on co-ordination between the archive, the council’s Information Governance team, and its IT department to ensure compliance with data protection, licensing, and online safety needs. Protocols for handling emotionally sensitive contributions were also created.
Contact
Hannah Stamp, Archivist, [email protected]
Further resources
‘The Archiverse’, East Riding Archives