Invisible Ground

Invisible Ground is a multimedia project utilizing audio, augmented reality, visual elements, and place-based storytelling to engage people in the history of their communities. For this project, Invisible Ground is partnering with the Southeast Ohio History Center to create a series of Immersive Historic Markers in Athens County, Ohio.

The Invisible Ground smartphone app will debut along with our first Immersive Historic Marker in April 2022, as part of Brian Koscho's MFA graduate thesis at Ohio University. The app exists for Android and iOS Apple operating systems and will become publicly available in April 2022. The Berry Hotel, a former historic hotel from 1the late 19th century owned operated by Edward and Martha Jane Berry, is the first marker location. The Berry's, a Black couple from Athens, owned and operated a successful and nationally known hotel on Court Street from 1893-1921. The building was demolished in 1974, and the Invisible Ground marker and the app will allow people to see it once again. It is an opportunity to use media to present this essential Athens history that is important to Black history in southeast Ohio and beyond.

Physical markers at each location will enable the augmented reality photos through the app and activate the audio storytelling component. After downloading the Invisible Ground app, participants will be able to scan a QR code which allows them access to an augmented reality view of the historical site, overlaying past on top of the present. If they do not have the app, the QR code will direct them to a quick download for their device. Accompanying audio in the Invisible Ground app gives the listener an experience that podcast audio alone cannot provide. A multi-sensory storytelling experience that transports the participant to another time and place, providing a different way to engage with history. The media format, in this case, augmented reality and audio storytelling, puts the audience into the space, immersing them in history. The audience's interaction via the Invisible Ground app and the Immersive Historic Marker gives them control over when to engage with it and to do so on their device.

Listen to the podcast and find out more at www.findinvisibleground.com