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.”
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.
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
Digital Heritage Congress is the big meta-conference of the digital heritage/virtual heritage field. I have been to the first one in Marseille (2013) and reviewed for others.
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.
#CFP three-day DiGRA Australia Game Studies conference 5th – 7th of February, 2025, University of South Australia, Adelaide, South Australia. Abstracts due 4 October. Theme: “Communities of Practice and Play”. Free registration.
So it appears to me that I over-publish and I want to step back from the mill and concentrate on other projects of value to me and to others. I have a few journal articles and chapters to complete, maybe a keynote, and maybe a new (short) book-we shall see.
The last two years I have been swamped trying to complete many publication demands on me and I’ve also been subject to what appears to be daily request from journals of unproven repute who address me by name and complain I don’t answer them or review for them. These are unsolicited. And I review far too often.
With a refocus on quality over quantity, and hopefully a personal reappraisal of where I am providing scholarly and general value to others and work satisfaction to myself, this sometimes blog may change.
It has also become apparent to me that the field of virtual heritage is only valued by many as a testcase for technology, and the work required to understand the many dynamic and vastly-changing fields is underrated by many.
This issue has not gone away with the sudden promise of generative AI. However, this is a promise of instant captivation with no guarantee of longterm cultural value.
I know it is the second half of the year but it is hopefully a new year for me.
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 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