Category Archives: Book

CFP Chapters for Screen Tourism and Affective Landscapes (edited book)

Book, cfp, publication

Screen Tourism and Affective Landscapes (edited book)

Edited by Ear Zow Digital (University of South Australia), Jane Stadler (UQ) and Robert Peaslee (TTU).

We are soliciting contributions for an edited book that will explore the affective landscapes – both real and imaginary – in screen tourism.

Screen tourism is a burgeoning global industry whereby tourists visit locations that are featured in or are associated with film and television texts (e.g. filming locations, theme parks, the creator’s former abode). This simultaneously niche yet mainstream market has now extended the bucket list of travel destinations to include the likes of Westeros (Dubrovnik, Game of Thrones), Middle-earth (New Zealand, The Lord of the Rings), and Platform 9¾ (London, Harry Potter).

The book will explore how affective landscapes in screen tourism are sights/sites of transformation, play and possibility. It will broach a spectrum of topics, ranging from the tourist’s/fan’s affective response to place, to the strategic design of ventures to enhance the experiential through creating senses of place and narrative. The book will further advance discussions of the future potential of the industry (e.g. use of mixed/augmented reality).

Screen Tourism and Affective Landscapes will be a comprehensive collection of essays by international scholars and screen tourism practitioners, opening up a space for dialogue between the academy and industry. This interdisciplinary book will be informed by fields including cultural studies, tourism studies, media studies, cultural heritage and visualisation studies.

Possible areas of research include (but are not limited to):

  • narrative and affective landscapes
  • liminal spaces
  • embodied experiences
  • themed experiences and places
  • augmenting place through technology
  • modes of reality
  • (popular) cultural heritage and authenticity
  • the screen tourist’s gaze
  • fandom communities and engagement

Chapters are expected to be approximately 6000–7500 words.

Proposals should be sent by email (in a Word document) to the Editors by March 1, 2019. This should include an abstract (250 words) and a short contributor bio (one paragraph including institutional affiliation, position and recent publications). Please note that the submission date for accepted papers is October 4, 2019.

Contributors, please address all inquiries and proposals to:

Erik Champion (erik DOT champion at UNISA DOT edu DOT au)

NB post updated: editors changed, book reviewed positively, just need one or more chapters on African or Asian-focused screen tourism topics.

The Phenomenology of Real and Virtual Places

Academic, Announcements, Architecture, augmented reality, Book, Digital Humanities, publication, Virtual Reality, , , ,

New edited book out 8 November:

Champion, E. (Ed.). (2018). The Phenomenology of Real and Virtual Places. The Routledge Studies in Contemporary Philosophy series. Routledge. 08 November 2018 (ebook 26 October 2018 9781315106267). ISBN 9781138094079

Feel free to ask Routledge for a review form and book copy..

This collection of essays explores the history, implications, and usefulness of phenomenology for the study of real and virtual places. While the influence of phenomenology on architecture and urban design has been widely acknowledged, its effect on the design of virtual places and environments has yet to be exposed to critical reflection. These essays from philosophers, cultural geographers, designers, architects, and archaeologists advance the connection between phenomenology and the study of place. The book features historical interpretations on this topic, as well as context-specific and place-centric applications that will appeal to a wide range of scholars across disciplinary boundaries. The ultimate aim of this book is to provide more helpful and precise definitions of phenomenology that shed light on its growth as a philosophical framework and on its development in other disciplines concerned with the experience of place.

Foreword byJeff Malpas
Introduction by Erik Champion
1. The Inconspicuous Familiarity of Landscape by Ted Relph2. Landscape Archaeology in Skyrim VR by Andrew Reinhard

3. The Efficacy of Phenomenology for Investigating Place with Locative Media by Leighton Evans

4. Postphenomenology and “Places” by Don Ihde

5. Virtual Place and Virtualized Place by Bruce Janz

6. Transactions in virtual places: Sharing and excess in blockchain worlds by Richard Coyne

7. The Kyoto School Philosophy on Place: Nishida and Ueda by John W.M. Krummel

8. Phenomenology of Place and Space in our Epoch: Thinking along Heideggerian Pathways by Nader El-Bizri

9. Norberg-Schulz: Culture, Presence and a Sense of Virtual Place by Erik Champion

10. Heidegger’s Building Dwelling Thinking in terms of Minecraft by Tobias Holischka

11. Cézanne, Merleau-Ponty, and Questions for Augmented Reality by Patricia Locke

12. The Place of Others: Merleau-Ponty and the Interpersonal Origins of Adult Experience by Susan Bredlau

13. “The Place was not a Place”: A Critical Phenomenology of Forced Displacement Neil Vallelly

14. Virtual Dark Tourism in The Town of Light by Florence Smith Nicholls

Digital Humanities, Libraries, and Partnerships FREE preprint chapters

Academic, Announcements, Book, Digital Humanities, Open Access, publication, ,

Preprint versions of chapters appearing in Digital Humanities, Libraries, and Partnerships: A Critical Examination of Labor, Network, and Community. Eds. Robin Kear and Kate Joranson. Chandos, 2018.

Final versions of all chapters appear in the published version of the book, available here:

Introduction, Robin Kear and Kate Joranson: http://d-scholarship.pitt.edu/33818/

Chapter 2: “Our Marathon: The Role of Graduate Student and Library Labor In Making The Boston Bombing Digital Archive” by Jim McGrath and Alicia Peaker. http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/M62Z8Fht

Chapter 3: “Digital Humanities as Public Humanities: Transformative Collaboration in Graduate Education.” by Laurie N. Taylor, Poushali Bhadury, Elizabeth Dale, Randi K. Gill-Sadler, Leah Rosenberg, Brian W. Keith, Prea Persaud: http://ufdc.ufl.edu/AA00048267/00001

Chapter 4: “Exploring the Moving Image: The Role of Audiovisual Archives as Partners for Digital Humanities and Cultural Heritage Institutions” by Adelheid Heftberger. In Digital Humanities, Libraries, and Partnerships: A Critical Examination of Labor, Network, and Community, edited by Robin Kear and Kate Joranson, Chandos, 2018, 45-57. http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/M66S19

Chapter 6: Glass, E. R. (2018). Engaging the knowledge commons: setting up virtual participatory spaces for academic collaboration and community. In Digital Humanities, Libraries, and Partnerships: A Critical Examination of Labor, Network, and Community. UC San Diego. Retrieved from https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6zp934sm

Chapter 7: Miller, Karen, Erik Champion, Lise Summers, Artur Lugmayr, and Marie Clarke. 2018. “Chapter 7 – The Role of Responsive Library Makerspaces in Supporting Informal Learning in the Digital Humanities.” In Digital Humanities, Libraries, and Partnerships, 91-105. Chandos Publishing. Retrieved from https://maker.library.curtin.edu.au/book-chapter-published/

Chapter 10: “Digital Humanities as Community Engagement: The Digital Watts Project” by Melanie Hubbard and Demrot Ryan: http://digitalcommons.lmu.edu/librarian_pubs/93/

Chapter 11: Russell, Beth. “The Collaborative Project Management Model: Akkasah, an Arab Photography Project.” Digital Humanities, Libraries, and Partnerships: A Critical Examination of Labor, Network, and Community, edited by Robin Kear and Kate Joranson, Chandos, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/2451/41680

The Phenomenology of Virtual Places (observations)

Announcements, Book, game, publication, virtual heritage, Virtual Reality, ,

Just submitted a draft of the above edited book of 14 proposed chapters to Routledge, to their Research in Phenomenology series.

The Phenomenology of Virtual Places is an edited book on the history, implications and usefulness of phenomenology for real places and virtual places, with chapters by philosophers, cultural geographers, architects and archaeologists.

I won’t summarize the chapters right now as the series editors have the right to ask for major subtractions, additions and revisions but I am very happy about the range of disciplines, perspectives and topics.

I do have some observations

  1. One thing very much under-represented is the unconventional, the alternative and the non-Western or not so obviously Western (and I don’t like the term “Western” but what are better options here)?
  2. Also, the connections and distinctions between phenomenology and ethnography are perhaps still to be explored, especially for game and VR evaluation.
  3. Phenomenology deserves even more criticism. It is either obvious, or difficult and subtle, available to all or best practiced by trained phenomenologists (or is that, people trained to detect or extract or train phenomenological accounts).
  4. Writing introductions to edited books can be very difficult.
  5. How HMDs will challenge our notions of embodiment and social presence in VR will be a very big thing.
  6. Locative media raise very interesting research avenues for embodiment and the concept of place.
  7. And on a workflow-related note, if the publisher doesn’t give you a complete, formal template at the start, stick to your own and demand it be used by all authors even if the final template changes. Saves a world of pain.
  8. Also, game and VR companies would save us all trouble by clearly saying which screenshots can be used in academic books or provide a pathway for a quicker permissions/rejections process. If your images are in a book, it is free PR!

Crafting the past-resources and chapter

Book, virtual heritage, ,

http://www.digit2017.com/discover/

See esp http://www.digit2017.com/discover/crafting-the-past/resources-crafting-the-past/

I met Jeff Saunders last year at the Interactive pasts conference, he and Stephen Reid presented this

 Jeff Sanders & Stephen Reid (Dig It! 2015)

Crafting the Past

Last year, Dig It! 2015, a year-long celebration of Scottish archaeology, reached out to new audiences. One of the most popular initiatives came from a partnership with a games-based learning specialist known as ImmersiveMinds. The resulting and ongoing project, called ‘Crafting the Past’, uses Minecraft to bring archaeology to life by recreating real sites on a one-to-one scale, including a Pictish hillfort, 18th-century palladian mansion and Roman fortlet. Players take part in digital archaeological digs, explore heritage sites and even redevelop ruined buildings. Crafting the Past has support from the gaming community thanks to Multiplay, as well the archaeology community, with special thanks to the AOC Archaeology Group and a range of heritage organisations. This presentation will explore the lessons learned throughout the development, launch and management of this project and how unique partnerships can break down barriers in unexpected ways.

Their chapter (with Julianne McGraw) is free online

https://www.sidestone.com/books/the-interactive-past

  1. Crafting the Past: Unlocking new audiences
    Julianne McGraw, Stephen Reid & Jeff Sanders

The latest book that isn’t (yet)

Academic, augmented reality, Book, Digital Humanities, heritage, virtual heritage, Virtual Reality,

The book that isn’t, I just drafted and sent for internal academic/publisher review a book on virtual places. So it may be modified, it may not get finally published (not sure what happens, I signed a contract) but I cannot resist listing some of the issues it tries to cover, hope they are issues for you too..

Continue reading The latest book that isn’t (yet) →

Rough Outline on Architected Place

Academic, Book, Conference, design, virtual heritage, Virtual Reality, ,

I am finishing a chapter (Chapter 3: ‘Architected’ Places) for my own book on Virtual Places, but the structural arc has escaped me until now. It will be polemical and controversial so I need to rewrite it to show that I realize this, there will be gaps and generalizations.

The basic premises are:

  1. Architectural theory is essentialist.
  2. Architectural tools are instrumentalist, architects don’t work on or near the site, as they need specialist tools connected to databases not to experiences.
  3. Architectural media is loath to include people and architectural spaces don’t work as places without people (Marseilles, by Le Corbusier, Mies van der Rohe’s Barcelona Pavilion, architectural masterpieces tend to be pavilions).
  4. Architects are not trained in user experience design and evaluation.
  5. Nor are architects trained in interactive media, their tools (see argument 2) are instrumentalist and passive.
  6. Traditional architectural craft is embodied, sited, takes time and records care. This is less and less the case.
  7. So applying theories of architecture, or practices of architectural design to interactive digital media in order to create virtual places, may well leave some gaps. How to resolve these in the design of virtual places? Corruption? Fancy theory? Post modernism? No, through embodiment, multimodality, role-play (and thematic affordances), allowing user-infill, environmental change to affect the design environment, and digital personalized patinas, materials that show the effect of time, wear and care.

 

Book in preparation “Organic Design in Twentieth-Century Nordic Architecture”

Architecture, Book, publication, ,

Yes I know I don’t normally write in architectural history (any more) but this research gave me a great deal of insight into place design and virtual space non-place design. Even though the first draft is not due to August next year, I’d just like to thank Routledge for allowing me the chance to publish in this area.

I wrote this book because I realised there was very little of critical import on what organic really means (it is often used as a compliment or a criticism without an explanation). I did not know why Nordic architects seldom featured in global architectural history books and yet those who visited their buildings were in such admiration. Indeed I also wanted to explore how Nordic architects could incorporate modernism without turning their backs on earlier styles and traditions, for they were seldom either modernist or postmodernist.

The Broad Theme/ back cover:

Can a communicable and thus useful definition of ‘Organic Architecture’ be made? In this book I say yes, there is both a practical and therefore useful definition of ‘Organic Architecture’ if we view it as an attempt to thematically unify the built environment through the allegorical expression of on-going interaction between the designer and the forces of flux and change in the real world.

I have focused on the works and writings of major twentieth-century architects of Nordic countries structured around three major premises:

  • The most prominent architects of the four major Nordic countries were influenced by similar principles.
  • The works of these prominent architects can be seen as evolving from several major ideas traceable thought their buildings.
  • From the ideology of their writings these architects made explicit claims as to the existence of such ideas in their work.

Book in preparation “Designing The ‘Place’ Of Virtual Space”

3D and game editors, Announcements, Book, Digital Humanities, visualisation, ,

Indiana University Press just approved the contract for the following book in their Spatial Humanities Series. The chapters may change slightly over the next half-year, and final publication is of course dependent on a full final academic review, but here is my plan for it (and I would appreciate suggestions, links, readings to add to the final product).

Title: Designing The ‘Place’ Of Virtual Space

Despite the many architects talking about virtual environments in the early 1990s (Novak, 2015, Novak and Novak, 2002, Packer and Jordan, 2002, Wiltshire, 2014), there is relatively little publicly accessible research on making, experiencing and critiquing virtual places is only in conference papers, book chapters and edited collections. These forms of academic literature are also more likely to be found in the computational sciences, and are not often or easily accessed by humanities scholars. So I have an overall purpose here: to communicate with humanities scholars the importance of understanding how digital and virtual places are designed, experienced and critiqued.

I suggest that technology is not the fundamental problem in designing virtual places. Are there specific needs or requirements of real places that prevent us from relying on digital media and ‘online worlds’ experts? Or is it not so much that the new tools are currently too cumbersome or unreliable, but instead it is our conventional understanding of place design and platially situated knowledge and information that needs to change?

Secondly, I will review concepts in various space and place-related disciplines, both historically and in terms of digital media, to examine where they converge or diverge, and which methods and tools are of relevance to digital (and especially virtual) place-making. Here I suggest the terms Place, Cultural Presence, Game and World are critically significant. Clearer definition of these terms would enrich clarify and reveal the importance of real-world place design but also for virtual world design in terms of interaction, immersion and meaning. I will then apply these terms and concepts to virtual worlds, virtual museums and online game-environments to see if the theories and predictions match what happened to the various digital environments.

Thirdly, I will describe recent development in neuroscience and how they may help our understanding of how people experience, store and recollect place-related experiences. Can these discoveries help our design of virtual places? The chapter on learning and especially place-learning will benefit from this survey of recent scientific research.

Fourth, this book will cover game mechanics, and how they can be used in virtual place design to make digital environments more engaging and the learning content more powerful and salient. The importance of interaction design is typically underplayed, under-reported and under-evaluated. We still have not truly grasped the native potential of interactive digital media as it may augment architecture, and that is why debate on the conceptual albeit thorny issues of the subject matter is still in its infancy. I believe that understanding game mechanics is of great relevance to virtual place designers and I will put forth an argument as to why, a clear definition of game mechanics and an explanation of different types of game mechanics suited to differing design purposes.

The fifth aim of this book is to give a brief introduction to new and emerging software and devices and explain how they help, hinder or replace our traditional means of designing and exploring places-is technology always an improvement here?

The last subject chapter will then explore evaluation methods (both traditional and recent), which address the complicated problem of understanding how people evaluate places, and whether this knowledge can be directly applied to the evaluation of virtual places.

Chapters

  1. Place Theory Applied to Virtual Environments
  2. How Mind Remembers Space, How Places are Meaningful and Evocative
  3. Dead or Dying Virtual Worlds
  4. Place Affordances of Virtual Environments Learnt From Affordances in Real Places
  5. Place Interaction and Mechanics
  6. Learning from Place
  7. Place-Making Devices, Place-Finding Devices
  8. Evaluation
  9. Conclusion

New Digital Humanities series ARCHumanities Press

Announcements, Book, Conference, Digital Humanities, Open Access, publication, , ,

Dymphna Evans, new editor at www.arc-humanities.org (THE APPLIED RESEARCH CENTRE IN THE HUMANITIES AND PRESS LTD) informed me they are developing a digital humanities list on digital humanities.
I don’t know the press but I vouch for Dymphna as editor (she was the editor for Critical Gaming: Interactive History and Virtual Heritage, when she was at Ashgate before it became Routledge).
As well as publishing monographs and collections they are launching a series of short books (20-40,000 words).

Refer https://mip-archumanitiespress.org/series/impact/
The Arc Impact book offers a new route to publication at Arc Humanities Press connecting and looking beyond medieval studies to contemporary humanities research issues. The Arc Impact book offers a route to publish for scholars who have undertaken a specific research project, which does not lend itself to publishing as a traditional journal article or a long-form academic monograph. A more generous word count and faster turnaround time than a journal article allows for rapid publication of results, more scope for case study material and a more immediate impact on the field. The books are typically 20-40,000 words long and priced at an affordable level with open access options.

Review of Critical Gaming: Interactive History and Virtual Heritage

3D and game editors, Academic, archaeology, Biofeedback, Book, Conference, Digital Humanities, virtual heritage, Virtual Reality, ,
Internet Archaeology (@IntarchEditor)
16/02/2016, 7:52 PM
NEW! Review of Critical Gaming: Interactive History and Virtual Heritage dx.doi.org/10.11141/ia.40… @nzerik pic.twitter.com/TMsT7pHRx1

I have to say I found this a fair and interesting book review, my book was intended more as a primer for ideas for others to both reflect on and design (as well as evaluate) virtual heritage and interactive history projects but the change in jobs (and countries) chapter structure and word parameters resulted in some chapters to be less in-depth than the topics deserved. And as I noted on Twitter there is at least one (and probably several) reasons for the apparently too-dominant focus on built heritage! So sorry archaeologists but thanks to all for retweeting the review!

archaeology publishers mostly in the area of digital archaeology and video games

Academic, archaeology, Book, digital heritage, Digital Humanities, game, heritage, Open Access, press, publication, virtual heritage, , , , , ,

I have been given a deadline of February 3 to source funding for a flight to the Netherlands to the “Interactive Pasts” Value conference 4-5 April 2016. They said they hope to publish an edited book from the conference and I asked them if they had heard of the below publishers (although they probably have their own) so I added the below links. Hope this is of use to someone. Happy to add links to publishers that I have missed.

Call for Book Chapters: “Place and the Virtual”

Architecture, Book, cfp, heritage, publication, virtual heritage, Virtual Reality, , ,

I am seeking 8-12 chapters for an edited book on “Place and the Virtual”. Proposed chapters can be on

  1. Definitions, main concepts, historical interpretations.
  2. Critical reviews of virtual places (theoretical or individual existing or past or future examples).
  3. Investigations into the similarities dissonances and differences between real places and virtual places.
  4. Applications of theories in other fields to the design or criticism of virtuality and place.
  5. Implications of related technologies, social trends, issues and applications.

Typical book chapter length: 5,000–8,000 words

Current Status of Proposal: The book proposal will be sent to the below editors for review when I have approximately 8-12 chapter abstracts.
Submission format: by email or attached word or RTF (rich text format) document, approximately 300-500 words.
Deadline for chapter abstracts: Still considering applications.

Email your abstract to: erik DOT champion AT Curtin DOT edu DOT au

Proposed to be part of a new planned Bloomsbury Books Series: Thinking Place, Series Editors Jessica Dubow and Jeff Malpas.Please distribute to interested parties.

call for chapters for edited book “Phenomenology, Place and Virtual Place”

Academic, Book, cfp, Digital Humanities, ,

Phenomenology, Place and Virtual Place: can phenomenology help us convey and understand the ‘virtual place’ experience?

I am seeking 3-5 chapters for an edited book on the history, implications and usefulness of phenomenology for real places and virtual places, with chapters by philosophers, cultural geographers, architects and archaeologists.

Main themes:

1 Phenomenology, definitions, main concepts, historical interpretations.

2 Critical reviews of phenomenology, successes failures and lessons learnt.

3 Strengths and weaknesses of phenomenology compared to other methods.

4 Context-specific and discipline-specific applications of phenomenology applied to place.

5 Particular place-centric phenomenological investigations, issues and applications.

6 Phenomenology applied to virtual places.

There are currently seven proposed authors (see below) but I am aiming to include three to five more authors though an open call for abstracts. Topic 3 is still to be addressed (as well as, to some extent, Topic 2) so I would be particularly happy to receive abstract/chapter submissions on these two topics. You may also notice we currently only have male authors, I asked four leading female writers/philosophers and they were all busy so I would be very happy for a wider and more inclusive spread of perspectives.

Current Proposed Chapters

Introduction by Distinguished Professor Jeffrey Malpas, University of Tasmania.

1 Phenomenology’s Preoccupations and Place, Professor Bruce Janz, University of Central Florida, United States of America.

2 An Encumbering, Confining Reality: Comparing and Contrasting Real Reality and Real Places with Virtual Reality and Virtual Places, Professor David Seamon, Kansas State University.

3 The Inconspicuous Familiarity of Landscapes, Professor Ted Relph, Emeritus Professor University of Toronto.

4 Heidegger’s Bauen, Wohnen, Denken in terms of Minecraft, Dr. Tobias Holischka, Katholische Universität Eichstätt-Ingolstadt

5 Attention in virtual reality, Professor Richard Coyne, University of Edinburgh

6 Hermeneutics, Horizon and ‘Sense of Place’ Affordances in Virtual Environments, Professor Erik Champion, Curtin University

7 Using Mixed Reality to undertake archaeological phenomenology, Dr Stuart Eve, University of York

Typical book chapter length: 5,000–8,000 words
Philosophical emphasis: Yes as it is intended to be part of a series in Phenomenology (Philosophy) this will be a factor. However I would also be happy to receive submissions from writers with overlapping interests.

Current Status of Proposal: Have discussed with the editor of Routledge Research in Phenomenology and the book proposal will be sent to him for review when I have approximately 10-12 authors. We currently have seven authors.

Submission: by email or attached word or RTF document, approximately 300-500 words.

Deadline for chapter abstracts: Sunday 7 February 2016.

Deadline for draft chapters: Good question but I don’t know! I would probably aim for September 2016.

Email your abstract to: erik DOT champion AT Curtin edu au

Virtual Heritage Models: in Search of Meaningful Infrastructure

Book, infrastructure, virtual heritage, , , ,

Above is title of book chapter being revised/reviewed for Ashgate’s Cultural Heritage Creative Tools and Archives (edited book).

At 7,799 words I hope I am not asked to revise upwards!

Alternative title: Preserving the Heritage Component of Virtual Heritage

Abstract:
Teaching virtual heritage through the careful inspection, contextualization and modification of 3D digital heritage models is still problematic. Models are hard to find, impossible to download and edit, in unusual, unwieldy or obsolete formats, and many are standalone 3D meshes with no accompanying metadata or information on how the data was acquired, how the models can be shared (and if they can be edited), and how accurate the scanning or modeling process was, or the scholarly documents, field reports, photographs and site plans that allowed the designers to extract enough information for their models. Where there are suitable models in standard formats that are available from repositories, such as in Europeana library portal, they are encased in PDF format and cannot be extended, altered or otherwise removed from the PDF. Part of the problem has been with the development of virtual heritage; part of the problem has been with a lack of necessary infrastructure. In this chapter I will suggest another way of looking at virtual heritage, and I will promote the concept of a scholarly ecosystem for virtual heritage where both the media assets involved and the communities (of scholars, shareholders and the general public) are all active participants in the development of digital heritage that is a part of living heritage.

—About 7000 words later —

Conclusion: A New Virtual Heritage Infrastructure

I hope I have been clear about three major points. I have argued that virtual heritage will not successful as digital heritage if it cannot even preserve its own models and it will not be effective if it cannot implement digital technologies great advantages: real-time reconfiguration to suit the learner, device and task at hand; individual personalization; increased sense of agency; automatic tracking and evaluation mechanisms; and filtered community feedback. My suggestion is to implement not so much a single file format but to agree upon a shared relationship between assets. For want of a better word, I have described the overall relationship of components of virtual heritage infrastructure as a scholarly ecosystem.

Secondly, in this new age of digital communication the 3D model must be recognized as a key scholarly resource (Di Benedetto et al., 2014). As a core part of a scholarly ecosystem the model should be traceable, it should link to previous works and to related scholarly information. I suggest that the model should be component-based so that parts can be directly linked and updated. Web models would be dynamically created at runtime. The model should be engaging so extensive playtesting and evaluation is required to ensure it actually does engage its intended audience. As part of a scholarly infrastructure, the 3D model format (and all related data formats) should be easy to find and reliable. It should not require huge files to download or it should at least provide users with enough information to decide whether and what to download. Metadata can also help record the completeness, measurement methodology and accuracy of the models and Linked Open Data can help connect these media assets in a sensible and useful way.

Thirdly, the community of scholars, students and the wider public should be involved and we must endeavour to meaningfully incorporate their understanding, feedback and participation, this is a core requirement of UNESCO World Heritage status. Community involvement is a must for scholars as well and so I suggest that the virtual heritage projects dynamically link to journals and refereed conference papers and to the list of tools and methods that were used in the project. A robust feedback system could help continually improve the system. Other shareholder issues such as varying levels of learning skills, and varying levels of knowledge required or cultural knowledge that needs to be hidden (privacy and ownership issues) should also be incorporated into the project.

Theoretical Issues for Game-based Virtual Heritage

3D and game editors, Book, digital heritage, Digital Humanities, heritage, ,

Another book chapter published

Theoretical Issues for Game-based Virtual Heritage

Abstract:

This paper critiques essential features in prominent theories of serious games, and compares them to interaction features of commercial computer games that could be used for history and heritage-based learning in order to develop heuristics that may help future the specific requirements of serious game design for interactive history and digital heritage.

Champion, E. (2015). Theoretical Issues for Game-based Virtual Heritage. In M. Ebner, K. Erenli, R. Malaka, J. Pirker & A. E. Walsh (Eds.), Immersive Education (Vol. 486, pp. 125-136): Springer International Publishing.

It gives the reader an idea of my upcoming book:

Critical Gaming: Interactive History and Virtual Heritage (Digital Research in the Arts and Humanities)

The Egyptian Oracle Project: Ancient Ceremony in Augmented Reality (Bloomsbury Egyptology)

3D and game editors, Book, digital heritage, Digital Humanities, heritage, , , ,

Strange, authors don’t have a copy yet, and it says the book will be available from July 30 but my library already has a copy. Anyway, I wrote an introductory chapter on virtual heritage and the other chapters will be of interest to Egyptologists, Classicists, AI researchers, puppeteers, and of course Virtual Heritage designers..

http://www.amazon.com/The-Egyptian-Oracle-Project-Bloomsbury/dp/1474234151

For more than 2,000 years, between 1500 BCE and 600 CE, the Egyptian processional oracle was one of the main points of contact between temple-based religion and the general population. In a public ceremony, a god would indicate its will or answer questions through the movements of a portable cult statue borne by priests or important members of the community.

The Egyptian Oracle Project is an interactive performance that adapts this ceremony to serve as the basis for a mixed-reality educational experience for children and young adults, using both virtual reality and live performance. The scene is set in a virtual Egyptian temple projected onto a wall. An oracle led by a high priest avatar (controlled by a live human puppeteer) is brought into the presence of a live audience, who act in the role of the Egyptian populace. Through the mediation of an actress, the audience interacts with the avatar, recreating the event.

The series of carefully focused essays in this book provides vital background to this path-breaking project in three sections. After a brief introduction to educational theatre and virtual reality, the first section describes the ancient ceremony and its development, along with cross-cultural connections. Then the development of the script and its performance in the context of mixed-reality and educational theatre are examined. The final set of essays describes the virtual temple setting in more detail and explores the wider implications of this project for virtual heritage.

new book chapter in “The Egyptian Oracle Project Ancient Ceremony in Augmented Reality”

Book, Digital Humanities, heritage, ,

Editor(s): Robyn Gillam, Jeffrey Jacobson, Published: 30-07-2015 Format:PDF eBook

See more at: http://www.bloomsbury.com/au/the-egyptian-oracle-project-9781474249256/#sthash.HybJBxFg.dpuf

For more than 2,000 years, between 1500 BCE and 600 CE, the Egyptian processional oracle was one of the main points of contact between temple-based religion and the general population. In a public ceremony, a god would indicate its will or answer questions through the movements of a portable cult statue borne by priests or important members of the community.

The Egyptian Oracle Project is an interactive performance that adapts this ceremony to serve as the basis for a mixed-reality educational experience for children and young adults, using both virtual reality and live performance. The scene is set in a virtual Egyptian temple projected onto a wall. An oracle led by a high priest avatar (controlled by a live human puppeteer) is brought into the presence of a live audience, who act in the role of the Egyptian populace. Through the mediation of an actress, the audience interacts with the avatar, recreating the event.

The series of carefully focused essays in this book provides vital background to this path-breaking project in three sections. After a brief introduction to educational theatre and virtual reality, the first section describes the ancient ceremony and its development, along with cross-cultural connections. Then the development of the script and its performance in the context of mixed-reality and educational theatre are examined. The final set of essays describes the virtual temple setting in more detail and explores the wider implications of this project for virtual heritage.

Table Of Contents

Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Background to the Project and This BookIntroduction (Robyn Gillam, York University, Canada, and Jeffrey Jacobson, Carnegie Museum of Natural History, USA)PART I The Egyptian Oracle
Chapter 1: Historical Foundations (Robyn Gillam)
Chapter 2: Cross-Cultural Analysis (Robyn Gillam)
Chapter 3: The Virtual Temple of Horus and Its Egyptian Prototypes (Robyn Gillam)

PART II The Performance
Chapter 4: Technical Description (Jeffrey Jacobson)
Chapter 5: Mixed Reality Theater and the Oracle (Josephine Anstey and David Pape, University of Buffalo, New York, USA)
Chapter 6: Educational Purpose and Results (Jeffrey Jacobson)

PART III The Technology
Chapter 7: Puppetry and Virtual Theater (Lisa Aimee Sturz, Red Herring Puppets, Asheville, North Carolina, USA)
Chapter 8: Introduction to Virtual Heritage (Erik Champion, Curtin University, Perth, Australia)
Chapter 9: The Virtual Temple: Construction and Use (Jeffrey Jacobson)

Conclusion (Robyn Gillam and Jeffrey Jacobson)