Creative ventures : reimagining place and storytelling through augmented and enhanced realities

This journal article uses a practice-led research methodology to examine case studies across education, creative practice and industry engagement that use augmented and extended reality (AR/XR) technologies and concepts to tell stories of place. The three co-authors developed a practice-led inquiry, which engaged undergraduate creative industries students in interdisciplinary collaborations with cultural institutions and communities to produce site-responsive digital interventions. Through five case studies – the Adelaide Gaol, the Adelaide Botanic Gardens, the West End of Adelaide and the State Library of South Australia, as well as a collaboration with a regional community on the Yorke Peninsula, the journal article explores how practices and technologies of augmentation can activate public space, foster inclusive storytelling and promote ethical, participatory media production. Drawing on a practice-led methodology, the discussion highlights how the practitioner-educators Kim Munro, Ben Stubbs and Sarah Neville integrated their respective disciplines of documentary filmmaking, immersive journalism and digital performance to scaffold creative and critical engagement. The article argues that re-thinking the use of technology as a tool for education for both students and the general public, paired with an expanded view of augmentation, not only cultivates interdisciplinary collaboration but also reimagines how students and audiences experience place, memory and cultural narrative.