Category Archives: book chapter

new book chapter

Academic, Announcements, Architecture, book chapter, game, , , ,

My/Tatiana Estrina’s chapter “On his roles as Professor and Research Fellow” should be available to order 16 January 2025.

In:

Hui, V., Scavnicky, R., & Estrina, T. (Eds.). (2024). Architecture and Videogames: Intersecting Worlds (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003408970. [If the DOI does not work try the Routledge website.]

“This book explores and affirms the emergent symbiosis between videogames and architecture, including insights from a diverse range of disciplines.

With contributions from authorities in both architecture and videogame industries, it examines how videogames as a medium have enlightened the public about the built environments of the past, offered heightened awareness of our current urban context, and presented inspiration for the future directions of architecture. A relatively nascent medium, videogames have rapidly transitioned from cultural novelty to architectural prophet over the past 50 years. That videogames serve as an interactive proxy for the real world is merely a gateway into just how pervasive and potent the medium is in architectural praxis. If architecture is a synthesis of cultural value and videogames are a dominant cultural medium of today, how will they influence the architecture of tomorrow?

The book is split into seven sections: Cultural Artifacts, Historic Reproduction, Production Technologies, Design Pedagogy, Proxies and Representation, Bridging Worlds, and Projected Futures.”

Open access book on paradata

3D and game editors, Academic, Announcements, archaeology, book chapter, digital heritage, Open Access, publication

M. Ioannides, D. Baker, A. Agapiou, & P. Siegkas (Eds.), 3D Research Challenges in Cultural Heritage V: Paradata, Metadata and Data in Digitisation. Springer Nature Switzerland. Open Access. https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-78590-0

I have a chapter in there.

Champion, E. (2025). Usable, Useful, Reviewable and Reusable Metadata. In M. Ioannides, D. Baker, A. Agapiou, & P. Siegkas (Eds.), 3D Research Challenges in Cultural Heritage V: Paradata, Metadata and Data in Digitisation (pp. 176-183). Springer Nature Switzerland. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-78590-0_15. Open Access.

free book chapter

Announcements, book chapter, digital heritage, Digital Humanities, game, Open Access, publication, serious games, virtual heritage, Virtual Reality

Our book chapter Galleries, Libraries, Archives and Museums [GLAM]-focused Games and Gamification is free to access until 21 October 2024. https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/S0065-283020240000054006/full/html

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.

Reflective experiences with immersive heritage

Academic, augmented reality, book chapter, digital heritage, Digital Humanities, serious games, virtual heritage, Virtual Reality, visualisation, ,

I have uploaded the author version of my chapter entitled “Reflective Experiences with Immersive Heritage” for

1st Edition

Difficult Heritage and Immersive Experiences

Edited By Agiatis Benardou, Anna Maria Droumpouki Copyright 2023

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.

Book, book chapter, , , , , , , ,

I’m looking forward to this book, I’m interviewed for a section in it and the rest of the content is interesting!

Champion, E., & Estrina, T. (2025: in press). On his roles as Professor and Research Fellow- Erik Champion. In V. Hui, R. Scavnicky, & T. Estrina (Eds.), Architecture and Videogames Intersecting Worlds. Routledge. https://www.routledge.com/Architecture-and-Videogames-Intersecting-Worlds/Hui-Scavnicky-Estrina/p/book/9781032528854

“The definitive resource on consolidating these interconnected fields, this book will mobilize the current generation of designers to explore and advance this synthesis.””This book explores and affirms the emergent symbiosis between video games and architecture, including insights from a diverse range of disciplines.

With contributions from authorities in both architecture and videogame industries, it examines how videogames as a medium have enlightened the public about the built environments of the past, offered heightened awareness of our current urban context, and presented inspiration and direction for the future directions of architecture. A relatively nascent medium, videogames have rapidly transitioned from cultural novelty to architectural prophet over the past 50 years. That videogames serve as an interactive proxy for the real world is merely a gateway into just how pervasive and potent the medium is in architectural praxis. If architecture is a synthesis of cultural value and videogames are a dominant cultural medium of today, how will they influence the architecture of tomorrow? Heavily illustrated with over 200 images, the book is split into seven sections: Cultural Artifacts, Historic Reproduction, Production Technologies, Design Pedagogy, Proxies and Representation, Bridging Worlds, and Projected Futures.

The definitive resource on consolidating these interconnected fields, this book will mobilize the current generation of designers to explore and advance this synthesis.”

new book chapter out

Academic, book chapter,

Apologies it is not open access!

Champion, E., & Rahaman, H. (2024). DH-XR: Extended Reality’s Relevance to the Digital Humanities. In C. Sin-wai, M. Kin-wah, & S. M. Leung (Eds.), Routledge Encyclopedia of Technology and the Humanities. Routledge. https://www.routledge.com/Routledge-Encyclopedia-of-Technology-and-the-Humanities/Sin-wai-Kin-wah-Ming/p/book/9781032049427

In the chapter entitled ‘DH-XR: Extended Reality’s Relevance to the Digital Humanities,’ Professor Erik Champion of the University of South Australia and Dr Hafizur Rahaman of Curtin University explore the use of digital technology in the dissemination of cultural heritage. They cover 3D models, virtual/extended reality, and game design and discusses issues and challenges involved in these technologies. They also introduce immersive (digital) literary as a relevant learning skill for cultural heritage in this digital age.

Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museums [GLAM]-focussed Games and Gamification

Academic, Announcements, augmented reality, book chapter, heritage, serious games, virtual heritage, Virtual Reality, , , ,

New book chapter out! Sorry, not open access.

Champion, E., & Emery, S. (2024). Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museums [GLAM]-focussed Games and Gamification. In J. Nichols & B. Mehra (Eds.), Data Curation and Information Systems Design from Australasia: Implications for Cataloguing of Vernacular Knowledge in Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museums (Vol. 54, pp. 67-83). Emerald Publishing Limited. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0065-283020240000054006.

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.

Assassin’s Creed in the Classroom

3D and game editors, Academic, Announcements, archaeology, Architecture, augmented reality, Book, book chapter, digital heritage, Digital Humanities, game, heritage, publication, serious games, virtual heritage, Virtual Reality, Virtual travel, , , , , ,

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.

https://degruyter.com/document/isbn/9783111250724/html

Erik Champion and Juan Hiriart
Introduction: History’s Playground or a Stab in the Dark?

Marc-André Éthier and David Lefrançois
Chapter 1: Historical Video Games and Teaching Practices

Chu Xu, Robin Sharma and Adam K. Dubé
Chapter 2: Discovery Tour Curriculum Guides to Improve Teachers’ Adoption of Serious Gaming

Ylva Grufstedt and Robert Houghton
Chapter 3: Christian Vikings Storming Templar Castles: Anachronism as a Teaching Tool

Julien A. Bazile
Chapter 4: Ludoforming the Past: Mediation of Play and Mediation of History through Videogame Design

Nathan Looije
Chapter 5: Exploring History through Depictions of Historical Characters in Assassin’s Creed Odyssey

Juan Hiriart
Chapter 6: Empathy and Historical Learning in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla Discovery Tour

Kevin Péloquin and Marc-André Éthier
Chapter 7: The Discovery Tour as a Mediated Tool for Teaching and Learning History

Angela Schwarz
Chapter 8: Discovering the Past as a Virtual Foreign Country: Assassin’s Creed as Historical Tourism

Hamish Cameron
Chapter 9: Classical Creations in a Modern Medium: Using Story Creator Mode in a University Assignment

Kira Jones
Chapter 10: Assassin’s Creed @ The Carlos: Merging Games and Gallery in the Museum

Manuel Sánchez García and Rafael de Lacour
Chapter 11: From the Sketchbook to Assassin’s Creed Valhalla: An Experiment in Architectural Education

Ear Zow Digital
Chapter 12: Assassin’s Creed As Immersive and Interactive Architectural History

Playing Place: Board Games, Popular Culture, Space

3D and game editors, Announcements, Architecture, augmented reality, board game, Book, book chapter, digital heritage, Digital Humanities, game, visualisation

Playing Place: Board Games, Popular Culture, Space

 will be released tomorrow by MIT Press.

Dr Juan Hiriart and I have a chapter in it:

Workshopping Board Games for Space Place and Culture.

Full reference:

E. Champion and J. Hiriart. Workshopping Board Games for Space Place and Culture. In: Playing Place: Board Games, Popular Culture, Space, edited by C. Randl and D. M. Lasansky. MIT Press 2023. ISBN: 9780262047838.

Book Details

New book, new cover?

Announcements, Architecture, Book, book chapter, digital heritage, Digital Humanities, serious games, Virtual travel, visualisation

Champion, E., & Hiriart, J. (Eds.). (2023: accepted). Assassin’s Creed in the Classroom: History’s Playground or a Stab in the Dark? De Gruyter: Video games and the Humanities series.

It looks like the “Assassin’s Creed in the Classroom: History’s Playground or a Stab in the Dark?” edited book is close to the contract stage, and hopefully will be published by the end of the year…what sort of cover image do you suggest? For De Gruyter’s “Video Games and the Humanities” series (must suit their theme colour):

degruyter.com

Video Games and the Humanities

This series provides a multidisciplinary framework for scholarly approaches to video games in the humanities.

Chapter out

Announcements, book chapter, Digital Humanities, , , ,

Reimagining the Humanities edited by Mauer and Salter is out! I wrote a chapter in there somewhere. https://lnkd.in/dgfpc_CK ISBN 978-1-64317-346-7

Champion, E. (2023). Not Quite Virtual: Techné between Text and World. In B. Mauer & A. Salter (Eds.), Reimagining the Humanities (pp. 282). Parlor Press. https://parlorpress.com/products/reimagining-the-humanities


Out in print oh so soon

Academic, Announcements, augmented reality, Book, book chapter, digital heritage, Digital Humanities, publication, serious games, virtual heritage, Virtual Reality, Virtual travel

Books

Playing with the Past: Into the Future (second edition, ebook out soon)

Screen Tourism and Affective Landscapes: The Real, the Virtual, and the Cinematic-I’m a co-editor but have a chapter on videogame tourism in there somewhere..

Book Chapters

Working on now/sent

  • Champion, E., Stadler, J., Lee, C., & Peaslee, R. (Eds.). (2023: In press). Screen Tourism and Affective Landscapes: the Real, the Virtual, and the Cinematic. Routledge. https://www.routledge.com/Screen-Tourism-and-Affective-Landscapes-The-Real-the-Virtual-and-the/Champion-Lee-Stadler-Peaslee/p/book/9781032355962. 
  • Champion, E., & Hiriart, J. (2023: In press). Workshopping Board Games for Space Place and Culture. In C. Randl & D. M. Lasansky (Eds.), Playing Place: Board Games, Popular Culture, Space. MIT Press. 08/2023.
  • Champion, E. M. (2023: In press). Digital Heritage Ethics. In A. Pantazatos, T. Ireland, J. Schofield, & R. Zhang (Eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Heritage Ethics. Routledge. 
  • Champion, E., & Emery, S. (2023: Pending). Gamification of Cultural Heritage as a resource for the GLAM sector. In J. Nichols & B. Mehra (Eds.), Data Curation and Information Systems Design from Australasia: Implications for Cataloguing of Indigenous Knowledge in Galleries, Libraries, Archives and Museums. Routledge. 
  • Champion, E. (2022: In press). Not Quite Virtual: Techné between Text and World. In B. Mauer & A. Salter (Eds.), Reimagining the Humanities. Parlor Press. 

Conference paper

book chapter out: Reflective Experiences with Immersive Heritage

Academic, Announcements, book chapter, digital heritage, Digital Humanities, serious games, virtual heritage, Virtual Reality

Google told me I can buy my chapter today in this book out soon “Difficult Heritage and Immersive Experiences” my chapter is “Chapter 2. Reflective Experiences with Immersive Heritage” #chapter #difficultheritage #darkheritage

In this chapter I will examine difficult and dark heritage. Others have articulated the overlap and potential different connotations and spheres of influence of dark heritage and difficult heritage (Thomas et al. 2019). For the sake of expediency, I will not attempt to distinguish between difficult heritage and dark heritage (a term imported from dark tourism) as I am particularly interested in the difficult interaction aspects of communicating dark heritage due to the technical challenges of virtual heritage, gaps or immaturity in virtual heritage as a distinct scholarly field, and the still to be fully explored role and impact of virtual heritage as an immersive and interactive medium capable of coaxing, encouraging and affording reflectivity.

CRC distraction

Academic, Book, book chapter, publication,

Sorry I have been distracted by a Cooperative Research Centre application (plus two books in press and one book proposal under review) but normal service will resume shortly.

Speaking of which, these should be out relatively shortly:

Books:

Champion, E. (2022: in press). Playing with The Past: Into the Future. 2nd edition. Human–Computer Interaction Series. Springer-Nature.  ISBN: 978-3-031-10931-7. Due 30.10.2022. Edit: may be 19 Nov 2022 according to the HCI book series website.

Champion, E., Stadler, J., Lee, C., and Peaslee, R. (Ed). (2023: in press). Screen Tourism and Affective Landscapes: The Real, The Virtual, and the Cinematic. Routledge Cultural Heritage and Tourism Series. Contracted. ISBN 9781032355962. Due 30.12.2022.

Book chapter:

Champion, E., Nurmikko-Fuller, T., & Grant, K. (2022: invited). Chapter 12 Alchemy and Archives, Swords, Spells, and Castles: Medieval-modding Skyrim. In R. Houghton (Ed.), Teaching the Middle Ages through Modern Games, UK: De Gruyter Oldenbourg. https://doi.org/doi:10.1515/9783110712032. To be published 24 October 2022. (Some content seems available online already or via academic institutions).

Screen Tourism and Affective Landscapes

Academic, Announcements, Book, book chapter, digital heritage, Digital Humanities, game, Virtual travel,

If anyone would like a review/inspection copy of the edited book “Screen Tourism and Affective Landscapes: The Real, the Virtual, and the Cinematic” (out 30.12.2022, cover to come) there is a link on the webpage.

  1. Introduction
  2. Screen Tourism: Marketing the Moods and Myths of Magic Places
  3. Windshield Tourism Goes Viral: On YouTube Scenic Drive Videos of U.S. National Parks
  4. “Forever Bali”: Surf Tourism and Morning of the Earth (1972)
  5. Locating Fellini: Affect, Cinecittà, and the Cinematic Pilgrimage
  6. Walking in Cary Grant’s footsteps: the Looking for Archie walking tour
  7. Vancouver Unmoored: Hollywood North as a Site of Spectres
  8. Always The Desert – Creating Affective Landscapes Through Visual Storytelling In Breaking Bad
  9. Nordic Noir and miserable landscape tourism
  10. Serial Killer Cinema and Dark Tourism: The Affective Contours of Genre and Place
  11. Down the Rabbit Hole: Disneyland Gangs, Affective Spaces, and Covid-19
  12. Immersive Worlds and Sites of Participatory Culture: The Evolution of Screen Tourism and Theme Parks
  13. Hobbiton 2.0, 20 years on: Authenticity and Immersive Themed Space
  14. Swords, Sandals, and Selfies: Videogame-induced Tourism

Swords Sandals and Selfies

3D and game editors, Academic, book chapter, Digital Humanities, game, serious games, virtual heritage, visualisation, , ,
An abstract from a draft chapter. I have written the chapter but hope to revise it further. It is for a book entitled Screen Tourism and Affective Landscapes, out, I hope, early 2023.

The prospect and potential of videogame-induced tourism has only recently been discussed in academic publications. I will examine three possible reasons why, I will provide evidence to the contrary, and suggest new developments that may accelerate the impact of videogames on tourism (and the related experiencing of affective landscapes). My main case study will be Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey. This 2019 game draws the player into the exploration of idyllic and war-torn historic and mythic landscapes of Athens and Sparta, via questing and simulated violence. It also features a non-violent “Discovery” mode, photographical functions, and a Story Creator mode allowing quests (and in-game photos) to be designed and shared with other players. Beyond violent gameplay, Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey allows the exploration of idyllic historic landscapes and heritage sites. Given the company employs both high-quality designers and professional historians (and archaeologists), we can employ such sandbox games as both a pre-visitation visualisation tool and as a hybrid fictional and yet also factual learning environment.

Virtual Heritage: How Could It Be Ethical?

Academic, book chapter, Conference, Digital Humanities, virtual heritage,

Abstract

Draft of latest book chapter (before revisions) by the editors. Now onto the next book chapter!

Ranging from modified adaption of commercial games (game mods) to multi-million-dollar 3D visualizations and web-based projects, virtual heritage projects have showcased cutting-edge technology and provided insight into understanding past cultures. Virtual heritage has the potential to safeguard unique cultural treasures from the ravages of war and neglect, with interaction techniques to communicate knowledge across time and linguistic divides.

Despite these advantages, at its core, Virtual Heritage (virtual reality and related immersive and interactive digital technology applied to cultural heritage) implies something not real, but an illusion simulated or artificially projected. It typically relies on highly specialized capture, rending and hosting technology created by highly trained individuals, running on high-powered equipment manufactured at great environmental cost. And the original material it simulates can be sacred, stolen, or contested. There are consequences and ethical implications for this illusory but expensive medium of cultural heritage (and, typically, “cultural heritage” means other peoples’ cultures), whether complicitly generated or not. While the research field of virtual heritage is several decades old, its specific ethical issues have not been extensively addressed (Hepworth and Church, 2018, de Broglie, 2018, Frischer, 2019), and specific challenges are not often covered by, say, digital archaeological ethics discussion (Dennis, 2021, Dennis, 2020).

To provide an overview of these ethical issues, four issues will be discussed in this chapter. Who determines the content, cultural ownership and overall decision-making; how both the depiction of personal or sacred assets and traces of people no longer with us, obsessions with photorealism rather than the complex topic of authenticity, and the dangerous allure of gamification; what needs to be preserved and related environmental issues; where and when the audience should be involved, motivated, and their feedback fed back into current and future projects.

Keywords: Cultural heritage, virtual heritage, virtual reality, serious games.

new book project in screen tourism and landscapes

Academic, augmented reality, Book, book chapter, Digital Humanities, game, Virtual Reality, visualisation, ,

With two fine co-editors our edited book proposal on the above topic has been through the review process and judged fit for publication with helpful and positive comments.

It still has to pass the publisher editorial meeting in January but our editor there does not see any problems. Given we still need formal approval, I hope to announce more details in a month or so. We do still need a chapter or more on Asia but otherwise I am very happy with our authors and draft chapters. Congratulations everyone!

Virtual Heritage: How Could It Be Ethical?

Announcements, archaeology, book chapter, virtual heritage, , , ,

Latest book chapter in the works:

Virtual Heritage: How Could It Be Ethical? Invited chapter for The Routledge Handbook of Heritage Ethics, Andreas Pantazatos, Tracy Ireland, John Schofield and Rouran Zhang (eds.), Routledge, 2023.

Ranging from modified adaption of commercial games (game mods) to multi-million dollar 3D visualizations and web-based projects, virtual heritage projects have showcased cutting-edge technology and provided insight into understanding past cultures. While the research field of virtual heritage (virtual reality and related immersive and interactive digital technology applied to cultural heritage) is several decades old, its specific ethical issues have not been extensively addressed.

Six issues will be discussed in this chapter: cultural ownership; the depiction of humans no longer with us; obsessions with photorealism rather than the complex topic of authenticity; environmental costs; accidental social alienation; and the gamification of serious, traumatic, or personal content.