Kings of the Underground

New Associate Supplier, Vision Fountain, outline the powerful creative opportunities new technologies and gaming culture can bring to the heritage sector.

Kings of the Underground opened at the National Waterfront Museum, Swansea in November. Produced by Vision Fountain, the exhibition tells the story of the ‘last generation of Welsh miners’ through 3D portraits, the use of technology popular in gaming culture and virtual reality (VR), creating a cross generational project that youngsters can really engage with.

Working across the south Wales coalfield, Vision Fountain captured forty colliers’ faces using photogrammetry, which converts 2-dimensional images into 3D images. As well as recording facial features, audio interviews were conducted and audio-visual presentations mixing the miners’ 3D portraits with snippets from their interviews and eight-foot-high printed 3D portraits form the heart of the exhibition.

The technology Vision Fountain use proved popular in outreach activity with primary schools in ex-coalmining communities in the valleys. The schoolchildren were given the opportunity to model their classmates and upload the results to 3D modeling platforms, as well as experience a Welsh drift mine in virtual reality. Each school created a collage of a coalminer, and seven large miners’ collages are now part of the exhibition.

Richard Jones, creative director at Vision Fountain, grew-up in a coal-mining community, but spent 25 years living away. Richard was struck by how most remnants of the coal mining landscape had been erased during that time, providing an initial impetus for the exhibition.

Several Welsh coal-mining museums have partnered on the project during its production phase, lending experienced staff, know-how, networks, and venues. The National Waterfront Museum, Big Pit National Museum, Rhondda Heritage Park, and South Wales Miners Museum have been instrumental. The long-term partner for the project is the National Museum of Wales’ archive and Swansea University’s South Wales Miners Library, who will store the recordings and the portraits for posterity, enabling future generations to listen-to and engage with their past.

The importance of the project was made more poignant with the passing of several of the miners as the project progressed. Mellard Lloyd, who started in the mining industry at just 14, was 95 years old when he sat down in the photogrammetry studio set-up in the Winding House Museum, Rhymney. Sadly, Mellard passed away just months after the recordings.

Richard attended Mellard’s funeral, which took place in a traditional Welsh chapel. “I was flabbergasted when the project was mentioned in the eulogy. That really hit home how important retaining these faces and recording are for generations of families and Welsh culture in general. Whist using gaming technology, something that most kids are familiar with, seemed an obvious way to leverage them towards their heritage.”

Kings of The Underground – Exhibition by Vision Fountain/National Waterfront Museum until 19 March 2023 (part of Amgueddfa Cymru/Museum of Wales).

Click here to visit the Vision Fountain website>>