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Where Imagination Meets Futurism in the Audio/Visual World: Evolving the World of Edu-Entertainment

A recent novel by Michael Crichton, Timelines, probably offers one of the best reasons for edu-entertainment. Here are some excerpts from the speech given by one of the characters:

“Today everybody expects to be entertained, and they expect to be entertained all the time." “In other centuries they wanted to be saved, or improved, or freed or educated. But in our century they want to be entertained. What will people do when they get tired of television? When they get tired of movies?…And what will they do when they tire of theme parks and planned thrills? This artifice will drive them to seek authenticity (our emphasis). The past is a world that already existed before Disney and Murdoch and Nissan and Sony and IBM and all the other shapers of the present day. The past was here before they were. The past rose and fell without their intrusion and molding and selling. The past is real (our emphasis). It's authentic (our emphasis). Authenticity will be the buzz word of the twenty-first century…The fastest growing segment of travel today is cultural tourism (our emphasis). Under the guise of tourism, we are in effect building an intellectual brand name. Such brand names exist for software, for example. But none exists for history.”

Until NOW...

AVmagination will become the intellectual brand name for history with our state-of-the-art edu-entertainment facilities like our Southern Music Hall of Fame and other facilities that are on the drawing boards.

Mixed and Augmented Reality

With the rise of the video game and military simulation research audiences are expecting more than static display of memorabilia or broadcast of passive Audio/Visual installations that they can get at home. In fact, the home entertainment industry is far out stripping the capabilities of most museums today.

A driving need exists to leverage the power of experiential entertainment (such as theme parks) and computer simulation (such as video games and military simulation) with emerging research from universities. Creatively harnessing these technologies in facilities such as the Southern Music Hall of Fame will create such an experience, and may be likened to a cross between MTV and a university media lab.

Augmented Virtual Reality (AVR) enables attendees to step into history and LIVE it just like in Timelines! We are able to take an attendee into a smoke-filled basement in New Orleans to sit in the audience and listen to Louie Armstrong. Or sit in on the first recording at Sun Records in Memphis with Elvis.

The possibilities are endless...