Atlantic Beach - A Geolocative History
In collaboration with Dr. Adam Benn of Coastal Carolina University, his DCD 304 course and I worked on creating an interactive historical exhibit and tour of Atlantic Beach, SC. We combined text, images, and oral histories of residents to create a virtual tour, where users can scan a QR code with their phone at the location, which opens an interactive map containing all of the assets we created for an immersive tour, guiding the user around Atlantic Beach to a series of landmarks with their own stories.
Atlantic Beach is a small, 3-block strip of beachfront property slightly north of Myrtle Beach that has been independently owned since the early 1900s, and in order to preserve its culture has refused to sell the land to the beach hotel contractors surrounding the area. During the Segregation Era in the States, Atlantic Beach became a very popular place for African Americans to enjoy a beach vacation, with once-bustling music venues, motels, and local restaurants. Although the area has lost most of its popularity, it has left an important mark on Myrtle Beach and its history.
Although this project is indefinitely on hold due to a major issue with the map host, the assets I created for the geolocative tour can be found on this page.
Residents inspecting the wreckage from a hurricane
I was in charge of all of the visual and image work in the project. We visited the Atlantic Beach Town Hall, where we were able to digitally copy old photographs stored there. I used Adobe Photoshop to restore and correct these pictures, as they were damaged from being so old.
These pictures showcase some of the hardships the town endured during its early years, from fires and natural disasters to the effect World War II on local families.
In November 2022, part of the team and I went back to Atlantic Beach to take modern pictures of the area. We were able to walk around the entire area in just over an hour due to it being only 3 blocks wide. These are the photographs that I captured and that were used as thumbnails for different locations on the interactive map.
A worn-down sign right outside the town hall
The interior of a burnt-down shop
On that same trip, I also brought my 35mm Minolta film camera to take pictures on, and developed a roll of film from it. As Atlantic Beach is more of a historical part of Myrtle Beach, it felt fitting to use technology from around that time to capture that essence more.