9 VR and archaeology
Thursday March 10, 2022, starting at 16:15 GMT = 17:15 CET (for 90 minutes)
Convenors: Coré Ferrer-Alcantud (Universitat Jaume I), Andrew Reinhard (New York University)
Youtube link: https://youtu.be/lL1GavATsXM
Slides: Combined slides (PDF)
This session explores some aspects of the use of advanced imaging and visualisation technologies in cultural heritage and archaeology. We present case studies involving both gaming platforms and related methods such as virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) to research, visualise, publish and engage with archaeological materials, and the use of digital methods including GIS and photogrammetry to conduct archaeological or anthropological research inside game environments and virtual worlds. We discuss the research value and public interest in these methods, and suggest a small practical exercise that you can try out in your own time.
- Colleen Morgan. 2016. "The Lessons of Pokémon Go for Heritage." Available: https://colleen-morgan.com/2016/07/22/pokemon-go/
- Jeremy Huggett. 2020. "Virtually Real or Really Virtual: Towards a Heritage Metaverse." Studies in Digital Heritage 4(1), 1–15. Available: https://doi.org/10.14434/sdh.v4i1.26218
- Collar, Anna and Eve, Stuart James. 2021. "Fire for Zeus: using Virtual Reality to explore meaning and experience at Mount Kasios." World Archaeology 52.3, 521-538. Available: https://doi.org/10.1080/00438243.2021.1920458
- Xiaocheng Ma. 2021. "VR and Cultural Heritage Recreation." Arts Management & Technology Laboratory 2021-10-26. Available: https://amt-lab.org/blog/2021/10/vr-and-cultural-heritage-recreation
- Isabel Pedersen, Nathan Gale, Pejman Mirza-Babaei & Samantha Reid. 2017. “More than meets the eye: The benefits of augmented reality and holographic displays for digital cultural heritage.” Journal on Computing and Cultural Heritage 10.2. Available: https://uxrlab.ca/wp-content/uploads/papers/2017-cultural-ar-jcch.pdf
- Akrivi Katifori, Maria Roussou, Sara Perry, George Drettakis, Sebastian Vizcay, and Julien Philip. 2018. "The EMOTIVE Project-Emotive Virtual Cultural Experiences through Personalized Storytelling." In Cira@ euromed, pp. 11-20. Available: http://vcg.isti.cnr.it/Publications/2018/%20RPCMPDV18/paper2.pdf
- Reinhard, Andrew Douglas. 2019. Archaeology of Digital Environments: Tools, Methods, and Approaches. PhD thesis, University of York. (Esp. ch. 1 "Introduction"; ch. 2 "Video Games.") Available: https://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/26499/
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Look at some of the free games on Itchio, and play just enough to get a feel of the gameplay, quality, affordances. You might like to try one or two from each category including: Archaeology, VR, AR. Think about how each game, in particular, and the platform and technologies in general, could be used in learning or research. Report on your thoughts, and compare notes with others, in the discussion forum here.
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Based on these ideas and discussions, come up with your own concept for either:
- an AR game based on your own locality or an archaeological site/archaeologically rich area you know well, involving photogrammetry, geolocation, and an engine like Niantic; or
- a VR game/exploration platform for a site that could be both imaged and reconstructed and then built in something like Unity.
You are not expected to build these games or even understand how the software works—even better for your imagination to be unfettered by the limitations of the technology!—but think about the possibilities and outcomes. What audiences would you address your games to? What would be the learning outcomes? What development would you need to make this work? Share these ideas in the discussion forum.
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(optional) Continue to think about your game design over the next couple of weeks, and try to come up with some storyboards, mock-ups, high-level design factors. (These can be pen-and-paper, or using whatever technology you are comfortable with.)