About
2009 version of Time Trail
The present version of Exeter Time Trail created by 1010 Media replaces two earlier versions. The current website owes much of it's functionality to the Time Trails project run with the University of Exeter and 1010 Media in 2013.
The Time Trails Project
Time Trails was funded by the HEFCE HEIF Open Innovation Fund. The primary aim of the project was to develop a Time Trails web-app prototype based on RAMM’s existing tours website and Exeter Time Trail website allowing users to follow, comment and share trails around the museum, Exeter and Devon.
Community engagment
As part of the project a new partnership was set up with Exeter City Football Club Supporters Trust (ECFCST) which allowed us to test the tool in a new context and facilitated dissemination of our research through their social media sites. ECFCST also provided external testing involved members of ECFCST in September and children in the ECFCST Kick Start Programme in October 2013.
Scools involvement
The project’s Research and development process also saw us consult with two schools (St Sidwell’s and St David’s. We then used related research on trajectories through user experiences (Benford and Giannachi 2011) to design a set of trails through Exeter, including a Second World War trail and two Exeter City Football Club trails (one for the general public and one for the children taking part in the Football in the Community Kick Start programme). Since the end of the project we have added additional trails including a Tudor trail to link with our West Country to World’s End exhibition 2013-14.
Impact and dissemination
Dissemination of the research by Professor Gabriella Giannachi took place at the Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE) 2013, Orlando Florida (1-4 August 2013), and through a keynote address at Performing Documentation in the Conservation of Contemporary Art, Lisbon (20-21 June 2013). A journal article is being prepared by Giannachi for the Brazilian journal Revista Brasileira de Estudos da Presença.
List of trails and authors
Second World War - Will Barrett, University of Exeter Phd Student
Art and Soul, Alicia Bell
Harry Hems a Victorain Craftsman - Lesley Strong, volunteer
Tudor Exeter, Jenny Durrant and Rachel Smith
Peter Orlando Hutchinson, Robyn Ratsworthy
Healing, Protection and the Spirit World, Florence Morgan-Richards
Key Objects Trail, Helen Burbage
Historic Decorative Plasterwork in Devon, Naome Glanville
2009 Refresh of the Website
By 2009 Time Trail was a mature website and starting to show it's age. Both technology and design had moved on so a modernised webiste was built by Toucan Design of Exeter.
This version included the Roman Mosaic interactive which is still very popular today. It's used by indivduals and schools alike to learn how mosaics were made and to create their own digital mosaics.
Creation of the website
The first version of Exeter Time Trail was created in 2002 by John Allan assisted by Oliver Blackmore and student placement Jenny Durrant (nee Wheeler). and the University of Exeter's Telematics Team. This was funded as an e-Government project starting in 2000.
Exeter has one of the longest and most distinguished histories of any British city and you can explore over 250,000 years of it through Time Trail.
The story is told through hundreds of objects from RAMM's collections and with images of historic buildings and archaeological sites.
Try our games and puzzles section to have a go at building a Roman mosaic or explore historic Exeter in Minecraft. Have you tried our new trails for mobiles?
