I finally added this 2017 article online, but I noticed the overall issue (SAA Archaeological Record) has disappeared (or URL changed).
Article is:
Champion, E. (2017). Bringing Your A-Game to Digital Archaeology: Issues with Serious Games and Virtual Heritage and What We Can Do About It. SAA Archaeological Record: Forum on Digital Games & Archaeology, Vol. 17 No.2 (special section: Video Games and Archaeology: part two issue), pp. 24-27. March issue. PDF available at https://espace.curtin.edu.au/handle/20.500.11937/67358?show=full (and academia and researchgate).
I just wanted to compare simple mapping software for excell/CSV data input.
Here is trial version of https://www.maptive.com/map-excel-data/ (note huge watermark) of countries which invited me to speak there (physically or virtually). I may have missed a few but hey Canada, and South America, and Africa, what’s happening!?
There are a few that invited me (Iraq, Canada, France, Bulgaria) but it just didn’t work out. I didn’t count countries I have presented a conference paper in but there’s only a few more (Canada, Portugal, Thailand, Hong Kong-ok, not a country). But even such a simple exercise reveals I still travel quite a bit to Europe and the more famous European countries (perhaps a tad too much).
But more importantly, a free, well-featured, simple from .CSV to map app seems out of reach, currently. Maybe I have missed some.
Apparently there are quite a few free but you have to pay to download packages. All seem to use the same underling format etc, I thought this would take 5 minutes but QGIS etc take more time (the default appears to want you to upload lat. and long. for each place/city).
In February I will have 2 PhD projects open for candidates to apply at this new (merged) Adelaide University- Filter “History, Heritage and Archaeology”
Radical Co-Design for Filtered Affective Digital Heritage via AR and WebXR
This project explores how technology like Augmented Reality (AR) and WebXR can enhance visitor engagement with Galleries, Libraries, Archives and Museums (GLAM), particularly dark tourism sites such as prisons, through game design and storytelling. The project focuses on Adelaide Gaol, one of Australia’s oldest colonial buildings. By involving volunteer communities and former prisoners’ families in the radical co-design process, the research aims to develop AR-based experiences that convey personal narratives that can be filtered and tailored to visitors. Key research questions explore utilising radical co-design for dark tourism sites, whether escape-room style game design enhances engagement and how effectively content can be personalised. The project will use low-cost, open-access tools throughout, and will generate new insights applicable across the GLAM and tourism sectors.
Game Prototyping for Museums and Galleries
This project will examine the development and design of game prototypes for use in museums and galleries with content specialists to create interactive, augmented, or immersive exhibitions and/or the evaluation of these exhibitions and works. A number of methods may be considered and investigated, including Figma, ShapesXR, Blueprints, physical game demos, and other methods. Possible outcomes of the project include non-traditional research outputs as well as contributions to theoretical disciplinary knowledge.
I am working on a new grant, on a 22+ year old idea that was never implemented!
And I have mentioned the grants below, if not the chapters published this month, but just as a roundup (and I have to do this for my current university) here is a summary.
2024 ARC Discovery DP250104625: Champion, E., Kotarba, A., Greenop, K., & Gibbs, M. (2025). A Gamified 3D Cultural Heritage Platform for Archaeology and Architecture. Australia. $520,686. 3 years.
A Gamified 3D Cultural Heritage Platform for Archaeology and Architecture. Few research infrastructures support engaging and useful 3D heritage content for both archaeology and architecture. A user-focused, experiential immersive environment with AI content creation will be developed and evaluated. Audience and international expert feedback will create a flexible feature list. Workshops with museums and galleries will test the prototype’s usefulness for communication and preservation. The system will allow groups to explore 3D models in conjectural and imaginative contexts and pose counterfactual arguments. The project will also consider how to convey levels of authenticity and uncertainty. Outputs will be a website with open-source tools and data, publications, a conference and a demonstration as an exhibition.
National Interest Test Statement:Examples of 3D heritage content showcasing archaeology and architecture are rare, limiting opportunities for the Australian public to engage with culture and history. To address this gap, the project will develop a gamified 3D cultural heritage platform to make archaeological and architectural heritage accessible and interactive. Technologies including artificial intelligence and 3D interactive modelling will create immersive, educational experiences that engage the public with historical narratives. This platform will deliver multiple benefits. Economically, the cultural tourism sector will be enhanced by enriching visitor engagement with innovative storytelling and exhibition tools. Socially, Australia’s national identity and civic pride will be strengthened by making cultural heritage more accessible and engaging. Environmentally, the digitalisation approach will protect archaeological sites and built heritage, preserving these critical and non-renewable assets for future generations. The project will collaborate with cultural and educational institutions to maximise outcomes beyond academia, promoting the platform’s use in public education programs and exhibitions. Targeted workshops and a website with open-source tools will facilitate its adoption, contributing significantly to national and cultural discourse. Aligning with broader national interests, this project positions the platform as a pioneer in digital cultural preservation and educational innovation.
2024 ARC LIEF GrantLE250100051: “The Australian Emulation Network Phase 2 – Extending the Reach.” Awarded to Prof Melanie Swalwell; Prof Sarah Teasley; Dr Helen Stuckey; Dr Stephanie Harkin; Prof Sean Cubitt; Dr Kirsten Day; A/Prof Peter Raisbeck; A/Prof Erik Champion; Prof Simon Biggs; Dr Margaret Borschke; A/Prof Elizabeth Tait; Dr Caroline Wilson-Barnao; Dr Kim Machan; Dr Ashley Robertson; Mr Adam Bell. $544,947. 2 years.
The Australian Emulation Network Phase 2 – Extending the Reach. This project aims to extend the reach of the Australian Emulation Network, conserving born digital artefacts and making them accessible for research purposes. High value collections from university archives and the GLAM sector requiring legacy computer environments will be targeted. The project expects to generate new knowledge across media arts, design, and architecture. Expected outcomes include stabilising and providing researchers with emulated access to born digital cultural artefacts, sharing legacy computer environments across the network, and expanding the Australian software preservation Community of Practice, building skills in preserving and emulating digital cultural artefacts across an expanded set of domains and institutions.
National Interest Test Statement:The project aims to extend national emulation infrastructure, more than doubling the size of the existing Australian Emulation Network by adding 22 new institutional nodes. This addresses the national challenge of preserving and accessing Australia’s born digital heritage. Born digital heritage faces several forms of obsolescence. Consequently, much born digital material has not been collected, is inaccessible because of its reliance on legacy computing environments, and at risk of loss. The project will provide the tools and skillsets required so that professionals in the university and Galleries, Libraries, Archives and Museum (GLAM) sectors have confidence in collecting, preserving and emulating complex digital artefacts. Securing digital heritage materials and making these available to the researchers who need access to them promises to deliver new knowledge in the inter-related fields of digital art, design, and creative practice, delivering research with social and cultural benefits. Making emulation infrastructure available to more national and state institutions will improve access to digital collections in keeping with the national cultural policy, and ensure that the benefits extend well beyond academia to the wider public. This investment will ensure a sustainable, resilient network that can address the needs of diverse collections across the nation, including in regional areas.
BOOK CHAPTERS
Champion, E. (2024). Caught Between a Rock and a Ludic Place: Geography for Non-geographers via Games. In: Morawski, M., Wolff-Seidel, S. (eds) Gaming and Geography. Key Challenges in Geography. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-42260-7_3
In this talk, I will explore the increasing promise of extended reality (XR), new sensory data and immersive experiences, and recent emerging visualisation strategies for conveying increasingly immersive and data-driven possibilities for the museum sector. Some recent projects I will cover include the Australian Cultural Data Engine, the Time Layered Cultural Map of Australia, and smaller case studies and experiments in data-driven story-mapping, mixed, augmented, and virtual reality. A key issue is immersive literacy: how designers can cater to the visualisation and navigation issues of the general public not yet experienced in these emerging rich, multimodal, but potentially overpowering or confusing immersive experiences. I will sketch out concepts that may be borrowed from game design to engage, entice, and also encourage audiences to explore this new and more immersive world of big data.
Champion, E. (2024). Caught Between a Rock and a Ludic Place: Geography for Non-geographers via Games. In M. Morawski & S. Wolff-Seidel (Eds.), Gaming and Geography: A Multi-perspective Approach to Understanding the Impacts on Geography (Education) (pp. 49-61). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-42260-7_3
Conference papers, articles, books, and blogs have already examined how aspects of cultural geography can be explored through video games. This paper will explain how games and game engines can be modded (modified) to allow players to explore aspects of GeoHumanities, in particular, place and presence, from a perspective aligned with a selection of concerns and methods in cultural geography and critical geography.
While they are increasingly popular in urban settings, digital escape rooms can be experienced physically, digitally, virtually, or in hybrid form, inside or outside (Lucarelli 2019), or a combination of both. Their potential as learning environments has been well-researched (Makri, Vlachopoulos, and Martina 2021; Charlo 2022), as has their potential for a range of domains: engaging audiences with museum and gallery collections (Smith 2017; Antoniou, Dejonai, and Lepouras 2019; Back et al. 2019; Schaffman 2017), showcasing tourism attractions (Pakhalov and Rozhkova 2020) or even visualising big data (Lior 2020).
They have also been used to test educational techniques (McFadden and Porter 2018; Karageorgiou, Mavrommati, and Fotaris 2019; Pozo-Sánchez, Lampropoulos, and López-Belmonte 2022) and allow the training of unlikely skills and concepts, such as computer programming (Yllana-Prieto, González-Gómez, and Jeong 2023). They can integrate analogue and digital content (Krekhov et al. 2021), exist purely in the virtual realm (Pozo-Sánchez, Lampropoulos, and López-Belmonte 2022), or combine human-driven, mechanical or “smart” interaction and sensory devices (Karageorgiou et al. 2021).
But what makes a creative digital escape room? How can creative experiences be shared? How can creative content be explored and appreciated? How can creative decision-making, insight, and teamwork be fostered and encouraged? Are there digital escape rooms that allow themselves to be creatively reframed, reconfigured, or otherwise modified or extended?
We are equally open to submissions on hybrid (digital and physical) escape rooms, virtual escape rooms, and escape rooms that redefine, provoke or extend stereotypes and conventions of escape room design.
Examples include but are not limited to:
Creative content, creative design, creative user input, or creative experiences arising from digital escape room design;
The implications of different genres, platforms, equipment or the mode of delivery on creative engagement;
Trends, relationships, and influences relating to digital escape room design;
The dynamic relationships between tools, interaction, surroundings, and environment;
Design tools and design methods;
Historical, pedagogical, and/or auto-ethnographic accounts of digital escape rooms;
Critical reflections and interventions on the relationship of digital escape rooms, changing social phenomena, culture, and creativity;
Accounts and analyses of engagement and evaluation of digital escape room experiences.
Submission requirements:
Submission to this special issue is a two-stage process. Authors interested in contributing are invited to submit an extended abstract (500 words) for review. The extended abstract should include the following information: (1) Name of author(s) with email addresses and affiliation, if applicable, (2) Title of the paper, (3) Body of the abstract, (4) Preliminary bibliography, (5) Short bio(s). Please email abstracts directly to the editors listed below. Authors whose abstracts are accepted will then be invited to submit a full paper (up to 7000 words). Full papers will then be double blind peer reviewed for acceptance into the special issue. Note that acceptance of an abstract alone does not imply acceptance for publication in the journal. Upon acceptance of the abstract, you will be sent further authors’ guidelines based on the Digital Creativity guidelines (Instructions for Authors) at https://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/NDCR.
Reference
Important Dates
Abstracts due: January 13, 2025;
Full papers due: March 31, 2025 – full essays due via ScholarOne;
Final versions due: June 30, 2025– deadline for final/revised articles;
Antoniou, Angeliki, Marios Ilias Dejonai, and George Lepouras. 2019. ‘Museum escape’: A game to increase museum visibility. Paper presented at the Games and Learning Alliance: 8th International Conference, GALA 2019, Athens, Greece, November 27–29, 2019, Proceedings 8.
Back, Jon, Svante Back, Emma Bexell, Stefan Stanisic, and Daniel Rosqvist. 2019. The quest: An escape room inspired interactive museum exhibition. Paper presented at the Extended Abstracts of the Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play Companion Extended Abstracts.
Charlo, José Carlos Piñero. 2022. “The Rise of Educational Escape Rooms: Designing Games as Formative Tasks.” In Handbook of Research on the Influence and Effectiveness of Gamification in Education, 143-63. IGI Global.
Karageorgiou, Zoi, Eirini Mavrommati, and Panagiotis Fotaris. 2019. Escape room design as a game-based learning process for STEAM education. Paper presented at the ECGBL 2019 13th European Conference on Game-Based Learning.
Karageorgiou, Zoi, Konstantinos Michalakis, Markos Konstantakis, Georgios Alexandridis, and George Caridakis. 2021. Smart Escape Rooms for Cultural Heritage: A Systematic Review. Paper presented at the Proceedings of the European Conference on Games-based Learning.
Krekhov, Andrey, Katharina Emmerich, Ronja Rotthaler, and Jens Krueger. 2021. “Puzzles Unpuzzled: Towards a Unified Taxonomy for Analog and Digital Escape Room Games.” Review of. Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction 5 (CHI PLAY):1-24.
Lior, Solomovich. 2020. “Studying big data using virtual escape rooms.” Review of. International Journal of Advanced Statistics and IT&C for Economics and Life Sciences 10 (1):23-30.
Makri, Agoritsa, Dimitrios Vlachopoulos, and Richard A Martina. 2021. “Digital escape rooms as innovative pedagogical tools in education: A systematic literature review.” Review of. Sustainability 13 (8):4587.
McFadden, Colin, and S Porter. 2018. Augmented reality escape rooms as high-engagement educational resources. Paper presented at the ICERI2018 Proceedings.
Pakhalov, Alexander, and Natalia Rozhkova. 2020. “Escape rooms as tourist attractions: Enhancing visitors’ experience through new technologies.” Review of. Journal of Tourism, Heritage & Services Marketing (JTHSM) 6 (2):55-60.
Pozo-Sánchez, Santiago, Georgios Lampropoulos, and Jesús López-Belmonte. 2022. “Comparing Gamification Models in Higher Education Using Face-to-Face and Virtual Escape Rooms.” Review of. Journal of New Approaches in Educational Research 11 (2):307-22.
Schaffman, A. 2017. “Escaping the Mundane: Using Escape Rooms in a Museum Setting.” In MuseumNext: RISK. Melbourne, Australia: MuseumNext.
Yllana-Prieto, Félix, David González-Gómez, and Jin Su Jeong. 2023. “The escape room and breakout as an aid to learning STEM contents in primary schools: an examination of the development of pre-service teachers in Spain.” Review of. Education 3-13:1-17. doi: 10.1080/03004279.2022.2163183.
Engaging with digital heritage requires understanding not only to comprehend what is simulated but also the reasons leading to its creation and curation, and how to ensure both the digital media and the significance of the cultural heritage it portrays are passed on effectively, meaningfully, and appropriately. The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization defines ‘digital heritage’ to comprise of computer-based materials of enduring value some of which require active preservation strategies to maintain them for years to come.
With the proliferation of digital technologies and digital media, computer games have increasingly been seen as not only depicters of cultural heritage and platforms for virtual heritage scholarship and dissemination but also as digital cultural artefacts worthy of preservation. In this chapter, we examine how games (both digital and non-digital) can communicate cultural heritage in a galleries, libraries, archives, and museums [GLAM] setting. We also consider how they can and have been used to explore, communicate, and preserve heritage and, in particular, Indigenous heritage. Despite their apparently transient and ephemeral nature, especially compared to conventional media such as books, we argue computer games can be incorporated into active preservation approaches to digital heritage. Indeed, they may be of value to cultural heritage that needs to be not only viewed but also viscerally experienced or otherwise performed.
The explosion in the development and communication of digital humanities has seen fascinating digital visualisation projects. Some focus on slavery and massacre, such as the Monroe and Florence Work Today website, (Monroe & Florence Work Unknown), a database and mapping platform of lynching in America, Slave voyages visualized by SLADE magazine (Kahn and Bouie 2015) and in Australia the Colonial Frontier Massacres in Australia 1788-1930 map, Australia. (Allam and Evershed 2019; Ryan 2019). Some focus on outright horror, others use digital technology to convey contestation and issues of ambiguity. Despite the growth and spread of these digital humanities visualisation projects, parallel and accessible examples in immersive virtual heritage are harder to find. Over the last three decades, immersive technologies (especially as “new” media) have embraced digital heritage to create showstopping instant experiences, but existing, durable examples of virtual heritage (virtual reality applied to cultural heritage) are relatively rare, and examples of difficult heritage far rarer. To review and address this gap, I will summarize dilemmas in present research on immersion, presence and immersivity; cover recent developments in virtual, augmented and mixed reality technology. Then, inspired by UNESCO charters, indigenous manifestos and ethical design principles in digital humanities, (Hepworth and Church 2018), I will attempt to formulate a theoretical framework with criteria and guidelines to help immersive environment designers address the depiction or evocation of difficult pasts.
I should note a potential conflict of interest. I am a keynote, but looks like they haven’t yet used my sent bio! Anyway, hope to see you there, happy to receive links and news about big GLAM data viz and immersive and game-like experiences!
Yes the venue is very close (walking distance I think) to that site…
Edit image from conference site, not my own. I’ll add attribution when I find the details.
I was invited to this Symposium last month in Seoul, the 16 May talks were great, the hotel and heritage tour were very impressive, and I hope the conference proceedings will be published.
Fensham, R., Summer, T. D., Cutter, N., Buchanan, G., Liu, R., Munoz, J., Smithies, J., Zheng, I., Carlin, D., Champion, E., Craig, H., East, S., Hay, C., Given, L. M., Macarthur, J., McMeekin, D., Mendelssohn, J., & van der Plaat, D. (2024). Towards a National Data Architecture for Cultural Collections: Designing the Australian Cultural Data Engine. Digital Humanities Quarterly, 18(2). https://www.digitalhumanities.org/dhq/vol/18/2/000678/000678.html
This article summarises the aims, methods, information architecture, outputs, and innovations of the Australian Cultural Data Engine (ACD-Engine), a project that harnesses leading cultural databases to build bridges to research, industry, and government. The project investigates digital heritage collections, data ontologies, and interoperability, building an information architecture to enhance the open sharing of Australian cultural data. Working with a cross-disciplinary team, the ACD-Engine establishes conceptual and technical frameworks for better understanding the platforms and uses of cultural data across a range of national and international contexts. This new cyber-infrastructure advances cultural data aggregation and interoperability whilst prioritising data quality and domain distinctiveness to answer new research questions across disciplines. As such, the ACD-Engine provides a novel approach to data management and data modelling in the arts and humanities that has significant implications for digital collections, digital humanities, and data analytics.
There are intern (unpaid, sorry) projects available at IVE UniSA (and at University of Auckland).
I’m excited to announce the launch of the 2024 virtual intern program for the Empathic Computing Laboratory and IVE AR/VR research centre.
We have 21 great projects in AR/VR/XR, brain computing interfaces, AI, etc that you can do without leaving home.
Apply now and get the chance to work and publish with some of the best researchers in the world. See https://lnkd.in/g-WFSeJ
by Mark Billinghurst
I have 2 projects listed (at the end of the PDF):
VIP Project List- March 2024
Project 20: 3D and panoramic interactive viewer
Review software (preferably open access and low cost) that can offer interactive and interesting ways to combine 3D models and panoramic backgrounds. Ideally the 3D model or aspects of the panorama can communicate with the viewer and / or with each other. Ideally the software can be modified and works across a variety of platforms. To give you an idea of recent related work, this paper examines software for historic architecture “Outside Inn: Exploring the Heritage of a Historic Hotel through 360-Panoramas” MDPI Heritage 2023, presentations using 3D: https://www.mdpi.com/2571-9408/6/5/232
Student Skills and Background:
● Essential: ○ Experience with 3D media, panoramas and html scripting
● Desirable: ○ JavaScript
Expected Deliverables: ● Project leading to an academic publication and working proof of concept
Project 21: Augmented Reality Workflows and Prototype Tools for Museums
Develop a simple and clear visual workflow or software wizard to provide non-programmers from the museum sector a way to visualize how their historic collections can be interacted with via AR phone-based software, ideally software that does not require downloading specialised apps (for example, works in the browser). It is ideally useful for android or apple phone-based operating systems, and allows for interactivity. The aim is to use this tool or schema in workshops with museum (GLAM) people to help them develop AR-based games even if they don’t have programming or interaction design experience. A way to gather data on how the tool or examples could be used would be an added benefit.
Student Skills and Background:
● Essential: ○ Skills in diagrams or mockups
● Desirable:
○ Interest in Augmented Reality for Android or Apple or other.
○ Interest in interaction design/user experience design Expected Deliverables:
● A workflow, a demo, and material for possible academic paper for a conference or a journal.
In “Chapter 19: Digital Humanities and Visible and Invisible Infrastructures” by Gimena del Rio Riande, the chapter declared on page 249:
They recall how already by 2014, following Karen Knorr- Cetina in 2001 (“Objectual Practice”), Erik Champion (“Researchers as Infrastructure”) had anticipated the emergence of DH infrastructures as dynamic ecosystems. These works could give anyone the impression that technology is always one and identical, that its users speak the same language, that institutions are run in the same way globally, and that we all have the same degree of digital literacy.”
My point about scholaly ecosystems was that students, teachers and users are vital parts of these digital ecosystems if they are to be ecosystems (not just a range of products). The audience has to be actively involved (“give the impression”) for the good of both parties. Given this, (and the writer probably does not know I am from one of the least populated and remotest countries in the world with non-European heritage), there is no way an objective and prescient reader of my works could be led to believe or try to persuade anyone that I promote a homogenous and universal digital infrastructure.
I do however believe in interoperability, shared transactional frameworks and some form of freemium system as a balance between public access and shareholder rights.
I am not sure why fake polemic battles are needed.
Reference:
del Rio Riande, Gimena (2022). Digital Humanities and Visble and Invisible Infrastructures. In Global Debates in the Digital Humanities. (USA): University of Minnesota Press.
Athough I am increasingly concerned with the logistics and environmental cost of longdistance travel I have agreed to visit Belgium for the last week of February for research administration reasons. I arrive a day early and heritage researchers were kind enough to offer to meet me at the University of Antwerp, I may give a lecture or feedback on staff and student papers. I’ve never had the opportunity to visit beyond Brussels (and Ghent remains on my wish list) so to get a chance to visit Antwerp and talk digital heritage is rather wonderful. Happy to talk to any like minded souls on some of the potential challenges and issues.
Last November I was invited to give game design workshops (and talks) in Norway and Iceland (and talks in England and Wales) in October and then I visited Norfolk Island in December. Hopefully for a future research grant application. Very exciting way to finish 2023.
Assassin’s Creed‹ in the Classroom History’s Playground or a Stab in the Dark? HAS been published by De Gruyter, on 18 December. Thanks to my co-editor Dr Juan Hiriart, and our authors.
The eCHOing project is inviting you to a lunch lecture, join us for an exciting event that explores the fascinating world of visitor experiences in the GLAM sector (Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museums). Photo: gunnerus.no NTNU UB
TUESDAY17 OCTOBER Hands-on Game Design Workshop, TRONDHEIM NORWAY, 09:30-14:30
Join us for an exciting event that explores the fascinating world of visitor experiences in the GLAM sector (Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museums).
Whether you’re a student curator, librarian, archivist, or museum enthusiast, this event is a must-attend to stay ahead in the ever-evolving GLAM landscape.
In this half-day workshop Erik Champion will help small groups of 4 brainstorm (“ideate”) ideas to create engaging games using a simplified working definition of computer games, and with the help of physical items. Although these game ideas could eventually become digital games, escape rooms, augmented or mixed reality projects, this introductory workshop will concentrate on creating and testing physical (analogue) demos and simple prototypes. Although Erik’s focus has been on history and heritage games, this workshop will be open to other types of games, but particularly on those where players can learn beyond the game, and where the game is a series of engaging challenges. You may bring your own idea for a game, or develop a game idea on the day in a group. No programming necessary.
Work in interdisciplinary groups with real life problems
Be an agent of change as your ideas will help professionals reach a wider audience for their cultural institutions!
Learn the fundamentals of serious games and why so many fail.
Discover how paper prototyping in groups can help you quickly create engaging game ideas.
Short bio for NTNU workshop
Erik Champion tutors game jam projects in South Australia at UniSA, and has hosted game design workshops in Australia, Italy, Poland, the United States, Qatar, and Finland, and co-hosted remotely a game design workshop with school children in Rapa Nui (Easter Island) with Dr Juan Hiriart. He is currently working on research projects with Tencent Games and Ubisoft. He wrote Playing With The Past: Into The Future (Springer 2022), and edited the open access book Virtual Heritage: A Guide (Routledge, 2021) and has written books on the intersection between video games and cultural heritage. He has honorary appointments at Curtin, UWA, and ANU and was recently a visiting professor at the University of Jyvāskylā, Finland, a partner of the Centre of Excellence in Game Studies (https://coe-gamecult.org/).
Skills required: none.
The eCHOing project is an EU-funded programme that aims to foster collaboration through open innovation between universities and 29 cultural institutions in five European countries. Don’t miss out on this unique opportunity to gain valuable insights from our invited gaming guru and writer of the book PLAYING WITH THE PAST.
WEDNESDAY18 October MediaCity, Salford University, MANCHESTER, ENGLAND, UK, 15:00-19.00
This talk will examine how key challenges in digital heritage involving 3D models could be brought to life and re-opened to interpretation by game design, and how game-like interaction could also help increase the richness and immersive qualities of XR (extended reality) and virtual tourism. Can 3D models, the scholarly information surrounding them, and the involvement of the public be brought closer together? And can we harness the speed and complexity of new technologies to ensure both the data and our understanding of that data can be recorded, interpreted, and shared more fairly, openly, and democratically?
Reflective Experiences with Immersive Heritage (Difficult Digital Heritage)
Despite the growth and spread of digital humanities visualisation projects, parallel and accessible examples in immersive virtual heritage are harder to find. Over the last three decades, immersive technologies (especially as “new” media) have embraced digital heritage to create spectacular experiences, but existing and durable examples of virtual heritage (virtual reality applied to cultural heritage) are relatively rare, while examples of difficult heritage far rarer. In this talk I will summarize relevant dilemmas in presence research, and recent developments in virtual heritage, reflect on some difficult lessons learnt, and offer some recommendations as to how we could address the depiction or evocation of difficult pasts in the near future.
BIO
Erik Champion is an Enterprise Fellow at UniSA, Emeritus Professor at Curtin University, Honorary Research Fellow at UWA, and Honorary Research Professor at ANU. He has published books and papers on serious games and game mods, virtual heritage, virtual world phenomenology, digital humanities infrastructures, and architectural history.
Partnering with the Adelaide Gaol, we are looking for a PhD student to explore a project that looks at tourism of places with challenging histories in respectful and personalised ways using Augmented Reality.
You need to be eligible to complete a PhD to apply and you can find the eligibility requirements link at the bottom of the UniSA Project Page.
Ear Zow Digital