Interaction – the spice of Sustainability
Yesterday the family headed up to the National Trust property of Wallington Hall in Northumberland – me on my bike, the rest by car. We’ve been there many times, but there was a new exhibit, tucked away behind the greenhouses, which blew us away.
It was a simple sand pit with some buildings and bridges, but it had a wonderful twist. It had a Kinect hung above it which measured the ‘altitude’ of the sand at any point, then used a projector to overlay a relief map in real time, with contours, colours and ‘water’. So if you dug a pit, it would ‘fill’ with blue water. If you held something over the top, it acted as a cloud and ‘rained’ on the area below and the water would drain downhill.
Just sand, light and a bit of clever technology – the kids (including those 40+) loved it. Utterly enchanting and engaging.
When I posted the above pic on social media last night, we found out via a couple of interactions that the system was developed at Newcastle University. They’re going to use it to communicate potential impacts of climate change. Another of our friends who works for a conservation charity wants to get hold of one as well for their outreach work.
It was a wonderful reminder to me of how people like to learn through experience, not just being told something. Immersing people in a system, whether real or virtual will give a much more lasting impact than telling them some facts.
The best engagement for sustainability includes as much experience and interactivity as possible. Whether it’s seeing (a tiny fraction of) the mountain of waste society produces with your own eyes or getting a test drive in an electric vehicle, it is a very powerful engagement tool.