Andalusia Farm has curated a new way for visitors to absorb the history of the homestead of famed writer Flannery O’Connor through augmented reality (AR).
About 10 months ago, Georgia College & State University’s Andalusia began discussions and collaborations with the company ARt Glass, a world leading AR experience creator, to design a feature that will allow room for new interpretation of the past.
“We’re allowing new interpretations to be done on several of the outbuildings across the site, including things like the Nail House, which are no longer standing. We’re able to have a space that we can now have interpretation with,” said Cassie Munnell, curator at Andausia.
Munnell noted the process of creating the AR experience was rigorous, requiring a lot of research and coding, but the farm has received good reviews for the nuanced form of a self-guided tour.
To begin the tour, visitors scan a QR code with their phones in the Interpretive Center that will lead them to a site guiding them through the farm.
With a main menu available, guests can choose between sites on the farm to tour and go in whatever order they would like.
For each location available on the AR site, guests simply click on the building they wish to tour and are immersed in a three-dimensional experience with facts, photos, and nature sounds that transport sightseers to the atmosphere of the farm in its time as O’Connor’s home.
Perhaps the most useful objective for using augmented reality is for buildings that are no longer standing, such as the Nail House. Now marked with a little free library replica, the Nail House was once a small parking garage used to store the O’Connor’s car, tools, and eventually pens and runs for birds.
The Nail House collapsed in the early 2000s but with the new AR feature, visitors can hold up their phones to see the original building standing where it is marked today.
The first attraction visitors will see when making their way up the hill to the farm is the main house, also known as Andalusia. The AR feature takes guests through the history of the house, from its beginning as a plantation house in 1814 to its time owned by the O’Connors.
The peacock run, which still stands and is home to two peafowl today, tells the history of O’Connor’s fascination with the birds along with many photos of the author with her beloved flock of 40 peafowl that she once owned on the farm.
There are also AR tours for the main house front porch, Hill House exterior and interior, and the horse barn. With each location, the AR tour offers audio that pairs with the site giving facts and stories of each place.
With this new feature, visitors can not only take their time with a selfguided tour, but receive an immersive experience into the past with the scan of a QR code.
Andalusia Farms offers guided tours Tuesdays through Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Sundays 2-4 p.m. starting at the top of each hour. Tour tickets can be purchased at the Interpretive Center.