Category Archives: visualisation

New PhD vacancies open February

Academic, Announcements, archaeology, augmented reality, Digital Humanities, heritage, PhD, serious games, vacancies, virtual heritage, Virtual Reality, visualisation,

In February I will have 2 PhD projects open for candidates to apply at this new (merged) Adelaide University- Filter “History, Heritage and Archaeology”

https://adelaideuni.edu.au/research/research-degrees/research-projects/

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.

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.

CAA2024 Session on Archaeogames

3D and game editors, Announcements, archaeology, augmented reality, cfp, game, heritage, virtual heritage, Virtual Reality, visualisation

#CFP did I mention Dr Juan Hiriart and I are organizing an archaeogames session? @CAA2024AKL in Auckland New Zealand, 8-12 April? No?

Paper deadline: 19 October.

Venue: Built on the embers of my old condemned student flat.

URL: https://2024.caaconference.org/sessions/#S12

Keywords: #caa #archaeology #games #reuse #auckland #newzealand

October Travels in Europe

Academic, Announcements, digital heritage, Digital Humanities, game, heritage, publication, serious games, virtual heritage, Virtual Reality, visualisation

I think that should be enough for awhile…

Free event: GLAM Games

Academic, Announcements, Digital Humanities, heritage, Presentation, virtual heritage, Virtual Reality, visualisation

GLAM Games: Gaps and Glimmers in the Visitor Experience

Bradley Forum Level 5 Hawke Building 50-55 North Terrace, Adelaide

25 September from 9.30. Book a free ticket at Eventbrite.

GLAM Games: Gaps and Glimmers in the Visitor Experience

Join us for an exciting event that explores the fascinating world of visitor experiences in the GLAM sector (Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museums).

Discover the gaps and glimmers in the visitor journey as we delve into the latest trends and strategies to enhance engagement and create memorable experiences.

Date: Mon Sep 25 2023 Time: 09:30 AM ACST Location: Bradley Forum, Level 5, Hawke Building, UniSA City West Campus, 55 North Terrace, Adelaide, SA

Immerse yourself in a day filled with insightful discussions, interactive workshops, and networking opportunities with industry experts and like-minded professionals.

Whether you’re a curator, librarian, archivist, or museum enthusiast, this event is a must-attend to stay ahead in the ever-evolving GLAM landscape.

Don’t miss out on this unique opportunity to gain valuable insights and exchange ideas with fellow GLAM enthusiasts. Register now to secure your spot!

SCHEDULE:

9.30 Intro & talk Associate Professor Erik Champion (UniSA) Learning Through Play

10.00 Peter Tattersall (Head of Visitor Engagement, National Maritime Museum (Sydney)) What are you playing at? Contested histories, video games, classrooms, and museums

10.30 MORNING TEA (provided)

11.00 Dr Melissa Rogerson (University of Melbourne) Avoiding “analogue” – combining physical components with technologies to make new playful experiences

11.30 Dr Bernardo Pereira (ANU) Insights from a Computer Science Escape Room Experience

12.00 Drs Terhi Nurmikko-Fuller & Katrina Grant (ANU) Lo-fi Games in GLAM

12.30 Dr Susannah Emery, George Martin & Sophia Booij (UniSA) “Escaping the classroom” – engaging students with history

1.00 LUNCH

2.00 Natalie Carfora & Claudia von der Borch (MOD. Museum) Designing Museum Experiences: Learnings from George Alexander Foundation Fellowships

2.30 Peter Tullin (Remix) The changing landscape for the cultural and creative industries

3.00 Sam Haren (Sandpit) Bringing Intimacy Back to Digital Interactions

3.30 AFTERNOON TEA (provided)

4.00 Dr Juan Hiriart (the University of Salford UK (virtual)) Co-designing indigenous games: South America and beyond

Above image: Gallery & Museum AR-game workshop, Finland 2021 (copyright Erik Champion).

This event was supported by a Creative UniSA grant and with the help of the Department for Industry, Innovation and Science (South Australia).

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.

New Journal article

Academic, Announcements, Conference, digital heritage, heritage, Journal, Linked Open Data, Open Access, publication, visualisation, Web GIS

Our article “Exploring Historical Australian Expeditions with Time-Layered Cultural Maps” has been published in IJGI and is available online:

Website: https://www.mdpi.com/2220-9964/12/3/104
PDF Version: https://www.mdpi.com/2220-9964/12/3/104/pdf

Exploring Historical Australian Expeditions with Time-Layered Cultural Maps

The Australian Time Layered Cultural Map platform was created to help digital humanities scholars investigate how online geospatial tools could provide exemplars to their humanities colleagues on how historical collections and cultural data could be extended and re-examined with geospatial tools. The project discussed here investigated how Recogito/TMT could effectively extract spatial and temporal data from pure text-based historical information and generate time-layered interactive maps of that spatio-temporal data using accessible and user-friendly software. The target audience was humanities scholars relatively new to geospatial technologies and relevant programming systems. The interactive maps were created with two free, open-source web applications and one commercial GIS (Geographic Information System) mapping application. The relative pros and cons of each application are discussed. This paper also investigates simple workflows for extracting spatiotemporal data into RDF (Resource Description Framework) format to be used as Linked Open Data.

PhD Opportunity #2: Escape Room Design

PhD, visualisation, ,

PhD study opportunity* at the University of South Australia (in Adelaide, South Australia) https://unisa.edu.au/research/degrees/participatory-museum-game-design

“ln this project-based research degree, you will investigate and design learning kits for museums and communities and small classes to create escape rooms (physical or hybrid or via a game engine) to help students develop their own learning by designing escape rooms for others. “

*Sorry, there are no degree fees for locals but there is also no scholarship funding attached to this one.

Playing with the Past: Into the Future

Announcements, digital heritage, Digital Humanities, game, publication, virtual heritage, Virtual Reality, Virtual travel, visualisation

I believe my latest book (well second edition) is out today, “Playing with the Past: Into the Future” (in the Human–Computer Interaction Series) https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-10932-4 but it just takes to me to my own university library link so I’ll have to take my own word for it!

Since the turn of this century (and even earlier), a plethora of projects have arisen to promise us bold new interactive adventures and immersive travel into the past with digital environments (using mixed, virtual or augmented reality, as well as computer games). In Playing with the Past: Into the Future Erik Champion surveys past attempts to communicate history and heritage through virtual environments and suggests new technology and creative ideas for more engaging and educational games and virtual learning environments.

This second edition builds on and updates the first edition with new game discussions, surveys, design frameworks, and theories on how cultural heritage could be experienced in digital worlds, via museums, mobile phones, or the Metaverse. Recent games and learning environments are reviewed, with provocative discussion of new and emerging promises and challenges.

Playing with the past: INTO The Future (2023)

Milan in June 2023

Academic, Architecture, augmented reality, Conference, Digital Humanities, talks, Virtual Reality, visualisation, workshop

I have received an invitation from the ERC Advanced Project “An-iconology. Theory, History, and Practices of Environmental Images” (AN-ICON) hosted by the Department of Philosophy “Piero Martinetti” (https://an-icon.unimi.it/) to speak at the “AN-ICON” International Workshop in MILAN June 2023. An honour to be invited.

We are now organising the workshop “Real Space-Virtual Space. Aesthetics, Architecture and Immersive Environments,” scheduled on 19th-21st June 2023, dedicated to the dialogue between virtual spaces, architecture and urban planning. We will investigate this intertwining which is more and more relevant at both practical and academic level by adopting a transdisciplinary and multimethodological approach – including aesthetics, phenomenology, media studies, architectural design, urban planning, cultural heritage studies. 

The workshop will be held at the University of Milan and Milano Triennale (https://triennale.org/), the renowned Italian institution dedicated to design and architecture. 

PhD Project Call, no fees

Announcements, augmented reality, Digital Humanities, game, job, PhD, serious games, Virtual Reality, visualisation, , , , , , ,

PHD project in Adelaide, no scholarship but no fees, with cool museum partner (https://mod.org.au):

The successful candidate will investigate and design learning kits for museums, communities and small classes to create escape rooms either physical or hybrid, or via a game engine. The kit will provide resources and interaction strategies to help budding escape room designers plan escape rooms for their compatriots, and in doing so learn for themselves how to create tricky interactive puzzles, quizzes and physical riddles based on principles in science, mathematics or history. The instructions will be either via virtual examples through a game engine or game engine exporting to VR, or via online instruction videos using the latest instructional video expertise.

Successful completion of the project will provide you with experience in boardgame, physical escape room, digital game or VR escape room design including scripting, prototyping, digital modelling, and potentially animation experience. As well as a background in human-computer interaction and education. Thus, you will be provided with the skills for a successful and exciting research or industry career in a diverse range of areas. 

What you’ll do

In this project-based research degree, you will review, design and evaluate design resources (physical and digital) for the creation of escape rooms by design students.

You will engage and partner with MOD. staff and deploy IVE, VR and AR equipment, as well as run and evaluate escape room design workshops.

Where you’ll be based

You will be based at UniSA Creative, incorporating the South Australian School of Art, which brings together the disciplines of architecture, planning, art and design, journalism, communication and media, film and television and the creative industries to produce flexible graduates with multidisciplinary capabilities. Our research explores the complexities of the world around us. We engage in future-focused, cross-disciplinary research and consultancy to produce inspired solutions that are human-centred and sustainable.  

https://www.unisa.edu.au/research/degrees/designing-an-escape-room-toolkit

Talk in Iceland, June 16.

3D and game editors, Academic, Announcements, archaeology, Digital Humanities, Presentation, virtual heritage, Virtual Reality, visualisation,

I wish! (Well, hopefully next year)… but anyway, I will give a 20-25 minute talk by Zoom, on Thursday June 16. The PHIVE conference (PROMOTING HERITAGE IN VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENTS) is kicked off by the President of Iceland, a noted Professor of History, and a few months older than me (so I still have time to become a head of state).

Title

Into the Heritage-Verse

Abstract

Proponents of virtual reality, extended reality, and the “Metaverse’ suggest the digital future of multiple entertainment and education worlds is imminent. And the field of virtual heritage (virtual reality and related technologies) is arguably over three decades old already.

If this is true, and given that we are saturated by phone-media, apps, and games, why is it so hard to find example of virtual heritage? What is stopping the uptake of these new technologies? And how can we use these new, imminent, and hyped devices and platforms for the benefit of digital heritage, or are there conceptual challenges still to be resolved?

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.

PhD scholarship available

Announcements, augmented reality, HCI, heritage, PhD, serious games, virtual heritage, Virtual Reality, visualisation, ,
A Framework for Developing Educational Games in and with Australian Museums

This PhD project focuses on reviewing challenges and successes in Australian museums (MOD, National Maritime Museum and the South Australian Museum) with the aim to develop a participatory open-ended game framework to encourage greater engagement, wider audiences, and increased visitation, as well as reuse of content, data, and related media.

The successful candidate will focus on either the evaluation and framework based on interviews, surveys and workshops with museum experts, or on developing overall game mechanics examples (game prototypes) showcasing best practice game techniques for showcasing Australian museum content, promoting reuse.

This project is funded for reasonable research expenses. Additionally, a living allowance scholarship of $28,854 per annum is available to Australian and New Zealand citizens, and permanent residents of Australia, including permanent humanitarian visa holders. A fee-offset or waiver for the standard term of the program is also included. For full terms and benefits of the scholarship please refer to our scholarship information.

URL here.

Immersive Challenges for Museums & Heritage Sites

3D and game editors, Announcements, augmented reality, digital heritage, Digital Humanities, heritage, serious games, virtual heritage, Virtual Reality, visualisation, Web GIS

I will give a talk tonight via Zoom to UniSA IVE colleagues on the above topic.

Time: 4PM

2022 IVE Research Seminar Series

Please join our next IVE Seminar.

Presenter:


Prof. Erik Champion

Enterprise Fellow, UniSA Creative


Title:
Immersive Challenges for Museums and Heritage Sites


Abstract:

This talk will cover recent and persistent challenges facing museums, practical issues with the implementation of virtual reality, games and gamification, and some case studies exploring potential solutions, particularly in the area of cultural heritage.

Bio:

Erik Champion is currently Enterprise Fellow (Architecture, Creative) at the University of South Australia; Emeritus Professor at Curtin University; Honorary Research Professor at ANU; and Honorary Research Fellow at UWA. He was recently a chief investigator on 4 Australian Research Council grants, Curtin University’s first UNESCO Chair (of Cultural Visualisation and Heritage) and Visualisation theme leader and Steering Committee member of the Curtin Institute for Computation. 

https://people.unisa.edu.au/Erik.Champion

Date & Time: 5 April 2022 (Tuesday) 4pm (Adelaide ACST — Australian Central Standard Time UMT +9 hours 30 minutes)

Where: Zoom

3D, Maps and DBPedia

3D and game editors, Academic, Announcements, archaeology, Digital Humanities, infrastructure, Linked Open Data, PhD, visualisation, Web GIS

The UNESCO Chair of Cultural Heritage and Visualisation (10/2016 – 09/2020) project at https://unesco-chv.curtin.edu.au will be shut down in June 2022.

Before then feel free to look at the online Australian map platform with 3D models, Linked Open Data, DBpedia, open data etc… https://unesco-chv.curtin.edu.au/mapplatform but please allow 20-30 seconds for some of the larger 3D models to load.

It was developed for Ikrom Nishanbaev’s PhD project, (supervised with Dr David McMeekin), the thesis by publication has just been successfully reviewed.

Thank you to Ikrom, David, the GIS and cultural heritage people who provided feedback and the reviewers.

Interesting to note Ikrom started the PhD in humanities then when I left Curtin University he moved to Science and Engineering. So it is arguably a truly interdisciplinary Digital Humanities project.

One of his papers received an award. The papers are listed at:

https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=vmha0GcAAAAJ&hl=en

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!

Living Digital Heritage 2021

Academic, Announcements, archaeology, augmented reality, digital heritage, Digital Humanities, heritage, infrastructure, serious games, Symposium, virtual heritage, Virtual Reality, visualisation

I was given the honour of opening Living Digital Heritage conference with a keynote today and full congratulations to Frederik Hardtke and the other organizers at Macquarie University’s Centre for Ancient Cultural Heritage & Environment (twitter @cachemq) in Sydney, a great range of papers, all presented on Zoom. Finishing Sunday 7 November (when I fly to South Australia to take on a new role so I may miss a little of it).

If you are interested you may be able to follow via the above twitter links, I don’t know if they still accept registration but it was free.