The Sky Project Stonehenge

Stonehenge: Monument to the Sky (constructed 3100-2100 BCE)

By: Tim Compeau, Sarah Ferencz, Adam Crymble, Carrie-Ann Lunde

Background to the Project

Of the stone circles that dot the northern European landscape, Stonehenge is the most recognizable. These circles were built by Neolithic peoples five-thousand years ago; but, why?

The most likely answer is that these monuments helped people track celestial objects that were important to their culture and their beliefs. Anthropologists still argue over Stonehenge's exact meaning and function. However, by looking at the pattern of the stones in the original Stonehenge, twice a year it becomes clear that the function of the circle had something to do with the sun. Dramatic shadows during sunrise on the summer solstice and sunset on the winter solstice strongly suggest that Stonehenge was a celestial calendar.

The goal of this project was not to discover Stonehenge's meaning, but to illustrate this theory to others using new media techniques.

The Model

The focal piece of the project was a 1:50 scale model of Stonehenge built with clay. This model was approximately 5 feet (1.5m) across, and was designed to draw users towards the display with something large and impressive. The model in itself is a rather traditional museum technique, so the group decided to make this static display interactive by adding embedded LED's attached to buttons.

Viewers could push one of five labeled buttons to learn more about Stonehenge:

• During the Summer Solstice
  

• During the Winter Solstice
  

• The Altar Stone
  

• The Bluestones
  

• Who Built Stonehenge

The buttons were connected to the LEDs and to a desktop computer and monitor, which faced the viewer at the far side of the model. The LEDs and content on the monitor were to provide the information to the viewer. When a button was pushed, the corresponding lights on the model would light up to draw the user's attention to the relevant part of the model. At the same time, a series of images appeared on the monitor which gave additional information about the given topic.

Supplemental Display

In addition to the Main monitor, the group set up two additional monitors that would show additional information to interested viewers as a slide show.

The first used images and video to help explain the different theories historians and archeologists hold as to Stonehenge's purpose. The second explores other neolithic sites in Europe, such as Ireland's Drogmagorteen. All content was custom designed, including two videos that illustrated the summer solstice sunrise and the winter solstice sunset at Stonehenge.

• Animation of Stonehenge at the Winter Solstice. Created with Bryce 3D
  

• Animation of Stonehenge at the Summer Solstice. Created with Bryce 3D

Technical Explanation

The digital component of the exhibit consists of a laptop running custom Python software, a 8/8/8 Phidgets Interface Kit and 23 LEDs. The viewer pushes a button on the panel which activates the Phidgets Interface kit. The kit then prompts the laptop to activate the LEDs and triggers the corresponding slide show on the monitor.

The images that appeared on the Monitor were all custom created using Bryce 3D, and MS PowerPoint, before being converted to JPEG's.

Components used:

• 8/8/8 Phidget Interface Kit
  

• LEDs
  

• Breadboard
  

• 3 Computers

Computer Programs used:

• Python (custom written code)
  

• Bryce 3D
  

• PowerPoint

Discussion

Technically, the project was successful while on display. The python program did not crash and when the discovered changes to the length of our presentation were needed, it was easy to make these adjustments since the source code was available on the computer.

From a design perspective, the group learned a few important lessons: People are impatient and easily distracted.

Impatience. As expected, people loved to push buttons; especially young children. What the group did not anticipate was the speed with which people became disinterested. The display originally ran for 60 seconds and this was quickly shortened to 30. Even this left many people impatient and eager to look at something else. The system was designed to disable the buttons while a presentation was underway to prevent possible crashes to the program. This too proved a source of frustration to viewers who were forced to wait 30 seconds before they could try another button. When the length of interaction is less than one second (a button push), it is important to keep the length of in-action at a minimum.

Distraction. The group also found that viewers had trouble staying focused because of information overload. A viewer standing at the buttons could see three monitors as well as 23 LEDs. Two of the monitors continually changed even without user-interaction. The group found that many users did not notice that their button pushing had triggered anything, since changes were occurring constantly already. Often a viewer did not notice the information on the monitor until the slide-show was already onto the second or third slide, which made the interaction less comprehensive than it had been intended to be.

To solve this, the design should have made sure that the two supplemental monitors could not be viewed from the front, and a "back" button for the slide-show would have been helpful.