Category Archives: virtual heritage

new old article available

3D and game editors, Academic, Digital Humanities, game, serious games, virtual heritage

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).

No longer working: Society for American Archaeology URL: http://www.saa.org/Portals/0/Record_March_2017.pdf

Above image AI-generated by wordpress based on post (not in article!)

#CFP call for journal articles

cfp, publication, virtual heritage

#CFP call for papers Journal of Digital Media & Interaction (JDMI)

Special Issue on Cultural Heritage in the Digital Age: Innovative Approaches to Preservation and Promotion

We invite original and unpublished contributions addressing theoretical advances and practical applications of emerging technologies, methodologies, and cross-disciplinary collaborations in Cultural Heritage preservation and promotion. Contributions from computer science, digital humanities, cultural studies, anthropology, and media studies are encouraged to foster an interdisciplinary dialogue on the future of cultural heritage preservation in the digital era.

🔗 Learn more and submit here: https://proa.ua.pt/index.php/jdmi/call_papers

đŸ—“ïž Submission deadline: March 31, 2025

Working on a book with questions posted here

3D and game editors, Academic, heritage, publication, virtual heritage, Virtual Reality

I’m writing a short book, “3D Visualization as Critical Heritage”. I’ll post questions on earzow.com as I work through chapters: 3D As Argument; Culturally Significant Presence; Immersive Literacy; The Vanishing Virtual; The Heritage Multiverse. Chapter titles are draft but hopefully I will stick to them. The book will be in the Critical Heritage series at https://www.cambridge.org/core/publications/elements/critical-heritage-studie

Sorry I don’t have funds for open access publication.

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.

CFP Digital Heritage 2025 Siena Italy 8-13/9/25

Academic, Announcements, cfp, Conference, digital heritage, heritage, virtual heritage, Virtual Reality, workshop

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.

https://digitalheritage2025.unisi.it/call-for-paper

I thought it was going to be in Thailand in December 2025, so best not to ask me any details but go to the website!

Videogames, Heritage and Tourism

Academic, augmented reality, Presentation, virtual heritage, Virtual Reality, Virtual travel,

I gave an online talk on the above to Hiroshima University today.

I have 4 excellent questions from the students to research and hopefully answer:

  • Which videogames specifically led to real-world tourism? I add here, and what if one’s that are also in film or tv or in book form?
  • Of those games transformed into virtual tourism, which ones incorporated local cultural context?
  • How can we stop virtual tourism from creating false memories?
  • Is there anywhere in the world where virtual heritage is checked for authenticity by organisations (such as UNESCO?)

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.

Defining Paradata, Metadata and Data (free webseminar)

digital heritage, heritage, virtual heritage, ,

I was invited to present online my thoughts on paradata and metadata in digital heritage today, a free webinar run by the UNESCO chair of digital cultural heritage staring 2PM Central European Time. More details are here. Talks are 10-15 minutes each…  


1st Webinar on Defining Paradata, Metadata & Data for Documenting 2D/3D Digital Cultural Heritage (DCH) [yes if you miss this there will be another one]…

14:00-14:10  Harry Verwayen  DG. Europeana Foundation. NL 
Opening remarks 
14:10-14:20 Marinos Ioannides, et al UNESCO Chair on DCH at Cyprus University of Technology. CY 
Paradata, Metadata & Data for a digital #MemoryTwin 
14:20-14:35  Isto Huvila Invited KEYNOTE Uppsala University. SE 
Datafication of archaeological archiving and the preservation of what? 
14:35-14:50  Luisa Ammirati, et al UNOSAT/UNITAR. CH, UNESCO WHC, FR 
Paradata and metadata in an immersive digital heritage experience 
14:50-15:05  Erik Champion University of South Australia. AU 
Usable, Useful, Reviewable and Reusable Metadata 
15:05-15:20  Carla Schroer, et al Cultural Heritage Imaging (CHI). US 
Building Reliable and Reusable Complex Digital Representations: The Digital Lab Notebook 
15:20-15:35 Daniel Pletinckx Visual Dimension bvba. BE 
3D Heritage is Heritage, we should treat it as such 
15.35-15:50 Tony Cassar, et al Heritage Malta. MT 
Challenges of 3D Digitisation of Cultural Heritage 
15:50-16:05 Shuyi Yin, et al Columbia University. US 
Blockchain Technology for Enhanced Documentation and Management of Built Heritage in Historic Cities 
16:20-16:35 Jean-Baptiste Barreau Archéologie des Amériques (ArchAm), CNRS. FR 
Three-Dimensional Reconstruction of an Egyptian Saqiya: A Computational Approach to Preserving Cultural Heritage and Water Management Systems 
16:35-16:50 Antoine Isaac, et al Europeana Foundation. NL 
Making the Europeana Data Model a better fit for documentation of 3D objects
16:50-17:05 Raffaella Brumana, et al Politecnico di Milano. IT 
HBIM quality information model to manage surveying, stratigraphic units and transformations into paradata. The mausoleum of Cecilia Metella and the Castrum Caetani 
17:05-17:30 Discussion Session & Closing Remarks

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 Creedâ€č 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-AndrĂ© 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 PĂ©loquin and Marc-AndrĂ© 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 SĂĄnchez GarcĂ­a 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

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

PhD scholarship: Heritage Tours (Adelaide)

Academic, Announcements, augmented reality, heritage, job, PhD, Postgraduate Scholarship, virtual heritage

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.

Project stipend is $32,500 a year and the project supervisors are Associate Professor Ear Zow Digital, Dr. Susanah Emery and Dr. Michele Jarldorn.

ICOMOS General Assembly

Academic, Digital Humanities, heritage, virtual heritage

I’m sorry I have not been updating this blog very frequently.

I spent a week in Sydney (at my expense but for a good cause): ICOMOS. I am a member of ICIP ICOMOS but to be honest I don’t seem to be very involved or I don’t know (currently) what is happening. They had their meeting as I was travelling to ICOMOS General Assembly, we co-chairs of the Scientific Symposium had to meet at 7.30 every day and Tuesday and Thursday was a full on Digital Heritage program that I have mixed feelings about.

The concerns I have about Digital Heritage seem shared by the others, but I only had 15 minutes to talk and they decided (because of others, and the screen having to reset) that there were no Q&A for my session. I think in future I will work with more specialist audiences at smaller events, I don’t think my involvement at these bigger conferences is very effective, it will be more relevant for others.

During our day break (the session was split into Tuesday and Thursday with a visit in between to the Blue Mountains, (I don’t know why, but perhaps it wasn’t such an issue after all) I visited the Australian National Maritime Museum and had a brief conversation with the submarine HMAS Vampire volunteer, an ex-submariner about when things go wrong (footnote: he was lucky the sub only had practice torpedos, they return to the nearest acoustic object if they can’t find their target, a lesson he learnt all too well). It was fascinating listening to him.

Anyway, my talk was on difficult decision-making with digital heritage, a response to https://heritagedecisions.leeds.ac.uk

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).

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

New article out: 3D & Panoramas

3D and game editors, Academic, Announcements, digital heritage, Open Access, publication, virtual heritage

OA paper written with Dr Hafizur Rahaman and Dr David McMeekin on panorama +3D tools! “Outside Inn: Exploring the Heritage of a Historic Hotel through 360-Panoramas” in MDPI Heritage: Special Issue Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and GIS for Built Heritage.

This research project investigates the potential of 360-panorama tours to improve the situated and contextual interpretation, virtual visitation, and spatial understanding of recorded or simulated built heritage sites. Our chosen case study was the Subiaco Hotel, a significant heritage building designed by Summerhayes Architecture, which we documented using 360-degree photographs and linked with other media to create an interactive 360-panorama tour. Today, 360-degree panorama tours such as Google Street View enable the virtual exploration of heritage sites and historic buildings. They demonstrate limited interaction and immersion across a range of platforms and devices, without the requirement of expensive virtual reality headsets, but typically do not integrate other media to leverage spatially richer ways to communicate the historical developments of architectural interiors and exteriors. The primary goals of this study were to establish a comprehensive step-by-step workflow for creating an interactive tour of a significant heritage site, demonstrate how other media such as text, videos, and 3D models can be linked, gather feedback from cultural heritage professionals, and offer future research directions and development guidelines. Apart from detailing an optimized workflow for developing interactive 360-degree virtual tours for heritage buildings, we also offer guidelines for optimal panoramic tour creation and implementation.

Keywords: 360-panoramas; heritage; virtual tour; historic hotel; Summerhayes Architecture; Subiaco Hotel; heritage interpretation; conservation; workflow; linked data

URL: https://mdpi.com/2571-9408/6/5/232 and PDF: https://mdpi.com/2571-9408/6/5/232/pdf

CITE: Rahaman, H.; Champion, E.; McMeekin, D. Outside Inn: Exploring the Heritage of a Historic Hotel through 360-Panoramas. Heritage 2023, 6, 4380-4410. https://doi.org/10.3390/heritage6050232

Norway in October

Academic, serious games, virtual heritage

Have been invited to the Norwegian University of Science and Technology – NTNU in Trondheim to give a talk and possibly a workshop for echoing.eu (“Recovery of cultural heritage through higher education-driven open innovation”).

And it looks like I may have funds for a book launch in Bristol, a talk at Salford University (near Manchester) and a talk at Cardiff University in Wales. Still to fully organize the UK side trip though.

Assassin’s Creed in the Classroom: History’s Playground or A Stab in the Dark?

Academic, Announcements, virtual heritage, Virtual Reality, Virtual travel, , , , , , , , ,

The book contract is signed, the chapter authors are completing their chapters, and we have a book cover image from Ubisoft (not this one, this is a screenshot from AC Origins Discovery Tour), I just need to update my own chapter and references.

Assassin’s Creed in the Classroom: History’s Playground or A Stab in the Dark?

Editors: Erik Champion, Juan Hiriart

Publisher: De Gruyter, Video Games and the Humanities series

Section 1: History Through Play

  • Historical Video Games and Teaching Practices,  Marc-AndrĂ© Éthier, David Lefrancois
  • Discovery Tour Curriculum Guides To Improve Teachers’ Adoption of Serious Gaming, Chu Xu, Robin Sharma, Adam K. DubĂ©
  • Christian Vikings storming Templar Castles: Anachronism as a Teaching Tool, Ylva Grufstedt, Robert Houghton
  • Ludoforming The Past: Mediation Of Play And Mediation Of History Through Videogame Design, Julien Bazil

Section 2: Cultural History, Tours And Tourism

  • Studying Greek Culture Through Historical Characters In Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, Nathan Looije
  • Empathy and Historical Learning in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla Discovery Tour, Juan Hiriart
  • Ubisoft’s Ancient Greece Discovery Tour as a Pedagogical Tool for a School Trip, Kevin PĂ©loquin, Marc-AndrĂ© Éthier
  • Discovering The Past As A Virtual Foreign Country: Assassin’s Creed As Historical Tourism, Angela Schwarz

Section 3: Narration, Creation, and Exhibition

  • Classical Creations in a Modern Medium: Using Story Creator Mode in a University Assignment, Hamish Cameron
  • Assassin’s Creed @ the Carlos: Merging Videogames and Education in the Gallery, Kira Jones
  • From the Sketchbook to Assassin’s Creed Valhalla: An Experiment in Architectural Education, Manuel Sanchez Garcia,  Rafael de Lacour
  • Assassin’s Creed As Immersive and Interactive Architectural History, Erik Champion