Master’s student Quinn MacDonald demonstrates the Brock Art and Sculpture Scavenger Hunt, a gamified tour of highlights from the University’s fine art collection, in front of Reinhard Reitzenstein’s 2000 Years on the Edge.Brock’s main campus is full of striking works of fine art — and Quinn MacDonald wants to send you out looking for them.
The Geography master’s student is completing research into how people can explore and engage with heritage sites using mobile devices. Under the supervision of Associate Professor David Brown in the Department of Geography and Tourism Studies, MacDonald has developed The Brock Art and Sculpture Scavenger Hunt.
The smartphone scavenger hunt includes a series of 10 clues provided through the GuideTags app, designed and maintained by Brown and colleagues, leading users to different artworks around campus and providing details and history on each.
“Brock’s art collection is something that many students, faculty, staff and visitors to campus take for granted — we often walk past it without much attention or thought,” says MacDonald. “This project may help to make connections to the pieces and provide a bit of background for participants, which may encourage further exploration and discovery.”
MacDonald says the data collected will help show how gamified activities might be useful for engaging visitors at heritage sites.
Students, staff, faculty and community members are invited to take part in the study by downloading the GuideTags mobile app to a smartphone with a data plan and then choosing “Brock University Art Scavenger Hunt” under the “Games” tab.
The activity takes 20 to 30 minutes to complete. Following the scavenger hunt, participants are asked to complete a short questionnaire.
The scavenger hunt will be available until the end of June, which means that visitors to campus during Convocation Week are also invited to pass a pleasant half hour learning more about Brock’s collection while supporting graduate student research.
The study is part of the Environments of Change: Digitizing Nature, History, and Human Experience project, an interdisciplinary initiative funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and led by Steven Bednarski of St. Jerome’s University in Waterloo. With the closure of Bader College at Herstmonceaux Castle in the U.K. last year, MacDonald’s project was moved to Brock’s campus.
