LoGaCulture Concert: “Music from the Boyne Valley” and DreaMR
Thursday, 12 March 2026, 7.00pm
The Whyte Recital Hall, RIAM
LoGaCulture Music Book
LoGaCulture: Voices of the Boyne is an audio augmented reality journey through history. Sheet music composed by Svetlana Rudenko and Tim Doyle..
ICIDS Paper
Developing a Ludonarrative Engine for a Historical Site Using Locative AR and Music: Psychogeography for Battle of the Boyne
LoGaCulture at Trinity College Dublin
LoGaCulture LoGaCulture at Trinity College Dublin explores how location-aware games and immersive audio can unlock new ways of experiencing Ireland's cultural heritage, on campus, in the Boyne Valley, and beyond.
What is LoGaCulture?
LoGaCulture (Locative Games for Cultural Heritage) is a Horizon Europe research project developing playful, location-based experiences that respond to where you are and how you move. Think stories that unfold as you walk, characters that speak through your headphones, and choices that change your path. We're designing methods, tools, and ethical guidelines so cultural organisations can create sustainable, accessible locative game experiences, far beyond one-off demos.
Trinity's Role
At Trinity College Dublin, the School of Computer Science and Statistics (SCSS) collaborates with heritage partners (OPW) to prototype and evaluate locative games that work in the wild, busy visitor centres, open landscapes, and everything in between.
- Research & Design: UX studies, narrative design, authoring tools, and evaluation.
- Ethics & Access: Frameworks for inclusive design and responsible use of data.
- Deployment at Scale: Practical pathways for maintenance and longevity.
Irish Case Study: Voices of the Boyne
Sites: Battle of the Boyne Visitor Centre & the Hill of Tara (Co. Meath)
Experience: Voices of the Boyne is an immersive audio journey where your choices and location shape what you hear. Pick a character, follow sound cues across the landscape, and uncover layered histories, from Neolithic myth to 1690 and its aftermath.
Why these sites? They offer two very different contexts, a staffed visitor centre and a vast, lightly interpreted landscape, letting us test how design must flex across settings.
The App in 3 Different Locations
"Voices of the Boyne" is a locative, musical augmented reality game set across layers of Ireland's past and present. Guided by sound rather than maps, you explore historic sites through music, voices, and playful challenges that bring history to life. The app includes historical experiences in the Battle of the Boyne and the Hill of Tara, and the Piano Flowers experience at the National Botanic Gardens. Each offers a unique journey through history, myth, or nature.
Voices of the Boyne: Battle of the Boyne
At the Battle of the Boyne, you move through Neolithic rituals, the clash of 1690 between King William III and King James II, and echoes of modern Ireland. The Battle Oak serves as your narrator, a living witness to the events of 1690, guiding you through the layered history of the site.
Voices of the Boyne: Hill of Tara
At the Hill of Tara, the Sheela-na-Gig, spirit of fertility, guides you through five ages: Neolithic, Fenian, Early Christian, Late Viking, and the Modern Era. From the Mound of the Hostages aligned with the rising sun of Samhain to the fires of Bealtaine, from the choosing of High Kings at the Lia Fáil to later myths and modern reflections, the land speaks across centuries.
Piano Flowers App
In the Piano Flowers experience at the National Botanic Gardens, you explore two layers of the landscape: Garden Flowers and Wild Flowers. Each layer reveals selected species, their stories, and their cultural and ecological significance.
Across all three experiences, the Raven and the Fox are your companions. The Raven carries you back in time and the Fox brings you forward. Recognise their voices and follow their cues. Sound is your compass.
Collect artefacts, uncover fragments of story, and encounter kings, queens, warriors, saints, druids, and mythical beings such as the Salmon of Knowledge and the Celtic Child. Remember that the one who chases two rabbits catches neither. Mercenaries lurk. If you hear them, turn to face them. Face your fears and prevail. Your heartbeat signals your health. If it weakens, search for berries to recover.
Music lies at the core of the experience. The soundscape weaves 17th century works by John Playford, Henry Purcell, and Jean-Baptiste Lully; original compositions for nature characters by Composer and Music Director Dr Svetlana Rudenko; traditional Irish music by Tim Doyle; contemporary works by John Buckley, Elaine Agnew, and Ian Wilson, including Buckley's setting of W. B. Yeats' The Song of Wandering Aengus; and additions such as Raiders March by John Williams.
Spatial Audio headphones are expected to be available within the next few months
Contributors
- Concept Lead, TCD Principal Investigator: Prof. Mads Haahr
- Collaborative AR Game Design: Prof. Mads Haahr, Dr Svetlana Rudenko, Joris Vreeke, Karun Manoharan
- Programming: Karun Manoharan
- Composer and Music Director: Dr Svetlana Rudenko (Piano, Logic Pro instrumentation, nature characters composition)
- Graphic Design: Joris Vreeke, Breanne Pitt
- Dialogues/Writing: Charlene Putney
- Outreach and User Studies: Breanne Pitt
- Voice Actors: Daniel Costello (Oak, Barber Surgeon, WB Yeats, Brian Boru, King Cormac Mac Airt, Mound of Hostages), Gerry Cannon (King James II, Schomberg, Viking King, King Laoghire, Aillen), Siobhán Aislinn (Salmon of Knowledge, Harp Girl, Maud Gonne, ban-druí), Cate Russell (River Boyne, Fox, Celtic Child, Sheela-na-Gig), Jessica Freed (Village Woman), Culann McCarthy (King William III, Grenadier, Modern Farmer, British Israelite, St Patrick, Fionn MacCumhaill, Lia Fail), Brían Ó Súilleabháin (Raven, Louis XIV), Mike Walsh (Mercenaries, Daniel O'Connell), Ceara Carney (Gormflaith, St Brigid).
