Riding with Chaucer: an Immersive Pilgrimage
This project intends to immerse viewers in a virtual embodied experience of 14th century England building on the work of an interdisciplinary team of archaeologists and historians, in order to allow viewers to accompany the various pilgrims on the road from central London toward Canterbury Cathedral.
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Trailer from Riding with Chaucer: a reconstruction of 14th century England based on Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales
A reconstruction of 14th century England...
Riding with Chaucer: an Immersive Pilgrimage (RWCIP) is intended to be a reconstruction of 14th century England based on Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, which begin in Southwark at the Tabard Inn, and follow a number of pilgrims as they entertain themselves on the road to Canterbury by competing at telling stories. The book was written between 1387 and 1400 and provides a remarkable snapshot into the lives of everyday people during that time period.
The game is both a comprehensive social history rooted in modern scholarship, and also an engaging pedagogical approach to bringing players into a new appreciation for these often ribald stories. Because they are stories being told, the readers are assumed to passively read them, which represents a challenge for game design, since games are by their nature active and engaging media - this game represents not only a means to reconstruct our best guess at a well documented time period and place, but also a new way to make narratives come to life.
People:
This project is being developed by primary investigator Joanne Findon at Trent University and a team of interdisciplinary scholars:
Joanne Findon, Primary Investigator
Katrina Keefer, Co-Investigator
Kathy Cawsey, Co-Investigator
Kenna Olsen, Co-Investigator
Neil Randall, Co-Investigator
Steven Bednarski, Co-Investigator
Drew Maxwell, Collaborator
