Metadata in 3D file formats

3D and game editors, heritage, infrastructure, Linked Open Data, respositories

Something to explore at a later date but it seems X3D and Collada are recommended when placing metadata (like exif) in a 3D file.

VR silos and weak onsite mobile-based virtual heritage experiences

3D and game editors, digital heritage, virtual heritage, Virtual Reality, , ,

Has anyone written on gaps (in power, features, or connection, etc.) between offsite (desktop virtual environments (VEs), and headset VEs) and mobile device-based AR/MR that augments the experience onsite?

Seems to me the offsite desktop environments (and headset VR) experiences are often silos while the onsite/mobile (phone or tablet) AR/MR experiences are typically limited, break down easily, and don’t fully leverage connectivity potential.

I have seen papers on either platform, of course, but not papers explaining why we are missing great potential synergy between the two: offside VR/VE and onsite XR (MR AR).

New Book Chapter Planned

book chapter, ,

Last week I was asked if I would write a book chapter for an edited volume “Difficult Pasts and Immersive Experiences” to be published by Routledge (History, Heritage Studies & Archaeology series) in 2021, edited by Dr. Agiatis Benardou and Dr. Anna Maria Droumpouki.

I suggested a chapter on the theoretical problems but also potential interaction design-related ways to create more reflective virtual environments to engage with these “difficult pasts”. I have been inspired by an article on Forbidden Knowledge by Stanley Godlovich, but I have now lost that paper reference (here is another: https://philosophicaldisquisitions.blogspot.com/2020/04/can-we-morally-judge-past-on-williamss.html)

Current working title: Chronological Relativism: Retrovisiting Dark and Forbidden Heritage.

This Game Has History: Book publisher ideas requested

Conference

Just hypothetically, of course, say I had a “friend” interested in editing or co-editing a book on (insert famous game series name here) and..
.. if this “friend" was in talks with a consultant historian on the series, (by one of the biggest game companies in the world, who are famous for this series), set in historical periods, and was interested in editing a book on..

  • how its games can or could be used in a classroom
  • with articles from game designers, consultant historians, & scholars..
  • preferably with free online chapters (but currently no funding for OPAC charges)
  • possibly some chapters would be in French.

Which publisher would you recommend?
I have some experience with Springer, Routledge, Bloomsbury, Indiana University Press, ETC Press, less with OUP, MIT Press, ..

Latest Book Chapter We Are Working On

Conference

With Dr. Juan Hiriart, wrote a very short chapter for

Champion, E., & Hiriart, J. (2023: in press). Workshopping Board Games for Space Place and Culture. In C. Randl & M. Lasansky (Eds.), Playing Place: Board Games, Popular Culture, Space.

NB, the draft of the current chapters looks great so far!

To convey built heritage values and historical knowledge through boardgame design may seem an odd decision. Communicating space, place and culture thorough play is a challenge let alone through a medium inherently incapable of evoking the direct experience of inhabitation and three-dimensional insideness-outsideness. Engaging, social, quick to make and fast to learn or complex and nuanced,  we argue the wider milieu of boardgames, played, performed, and experienced, along with imaginative reconsiderations (to be discussed), can also evoke spatial experiences.

Boardgames such as Star Wars: The Interactive Video Board Game (Parker Brothers 1996), The Princes of Florence (Ravensburger, 2000), Cleopatra and the Society of Architects (Days of Wonder, 2006), Arkadia (Ravensburger, 2006), The Modern Architecture Game (NEXT Architects, 2012), Blueprints (Competo, 2013), Katsuyama water (EmperorS4, 2013), IMHOTEP (Kosmos, 2016),  The Architects of the Colosseum (Tasty Minstrel Games, 2016), and Architects of the West Kingdom (Garphill Games, 2018), demonstrate that boardgames can evoke some sense of spatiality and spatial relationships. Tokens or even gameboards can also be architectural elements or models. Architectural expositions are also increasingly featuring boardgames (Fulcher 2019).

A second challenge, of direct interest to architects, is how the interactivity of experiencing place can be simulated and appreciated through game design, the creation and maintenance of platial relationships by social and even political actors is not trivial (Galloway 2008). A third challenge inspires our research: how to convey historical information and cultural heritage via (board) game design. From the complex to the spontaneous, boardgames can be effective, visceral tools for cultural immersion, challenging cultural assumptions and preconceptions, encouraging discussion and collaboration between players, provoking insight and enjoyment with simple props or intricate rules (Figure 1). 

Upcoming publications

Academic, Announcements

I have been busy writing job and grant applications and lecture presentations.

But still intending to publish/finish the below:

Pending, To Be Presented or Published

Books and edited books in press or under review

  • Champion, E. (2021: in press). Rethinking Virtual Places. Indiana University Press, Spatial Humanities series.
  • Champion, E. (Ed). (2021). Virtual Heritage: A Concise Guide. Ubiquity.
  • Lee, C. & Champion, E. (Ed). (2021: pending). Screen Tourism and Affective Landscapes. Edited book.
  • Proposing a book on VR and Philosophy, more details soon.

Book Chapters in press

  • Champion, E. (2021: pending). Biodiversity and Cultural Diversity: Virtual opportunities.” In Biodiversity in connection with Linguistic and Cultural Diversity. Vienna, Austria. Chapter accepted.
  • Champion, E. (2021: under review). “Not Quite Virtual: Techné between Text and World.” In Texts & Technology: Inventing the Future of the Humanities, edited by Anastasia Salter and Barry Mauer, University of Central Florida, Orlando Florida USA. Chapter.
  • Champion, E. (2021: under review). “Workshopping Game Prototypes for History and Heritage.” In Digital Humanities book, Politecnico di Torino, Italy. Aracne Publishing Company. Chapter.
  • Champion, E., Nurmikko-Fuller, T., & Grant, K. (2021: pending, invited). “Blue Sky Skyrim VR: Immersive Techniques to Engage with Medieval History.” In Games for Teaching, Impact, and Research edited by Robert Houghton, Winchester University. De Gruyter. Abstract accepted, full chapter due March 2021.
  • Champion, E. and Hiriart, J. (2021: pending). Game Prototyping with Board Games. In Playing Place: Board Games, Architecture, Space, and Heritage, edited by Chad Randl et al. Publisher to be advised.
  • Champion, E., & Hiriart, J. (2021 pending). Game Prototyping with Board Games. In C. Randl & M. Lasansky (Eds.), Playing Place: Board Games, Architecture, Space, and Heritage. Publisher to be advised.

Upcoming or Completed Recent Invited Talks/Keynotes

Journal articles now published

  • Champion, E. (2020: in press). Culturally Significant Presence In Single-Player Computer Games. ACM Journal on Computing and Cultural Heritage (JOCCH). URL: https://dl.acm.org/journal/jocch/ Update: now published.
  • Rahaman, H., Johnston, M., & Champion, E. (2020: in press). Audio-augmented Arboreality: Wildflowers and Language. Digital Creativity. Update: Now published.

Conference papers presented

Writing PhD proposals backwards

Academic,

I receive quite a few PhD proposals and they generally try to prove too much, and quote methods as if they are methodology (the latter is the study of methods, ideally explaining which methods are most suitable and why certain ones will be used here).

Many PhD proposals read more like trans-national proposals!

  • Is it about mentioned subject 1 or 2?
  • What is the specific site (and why)?
  • What sort of audience would be appropriate for the end product and for evaluation purposes (not the same thing, generally)?
  • Who decides it works/answers the research question?

It should read well, backwards. Imagine you finished your PhD thesis and now you are writing the summary BUT IN REVERSE:

1.       Future work will need to look at and develop _____

2.       My research finding is significant and useful because is _____

3.       I found this _____

4.       I decided the experimental design needed to be _____because of _____

5.       The local test site has these features is _____ and requirements is _____

6.       The specific field problem is _____

7.       Key terms relating to the current solutions and potential problem are is _____

8.       The overall research problem is _____

It is much clearer and quicker to read working (and ideally evaluable/verifiable) definitions of topic X and methods Y1 Y2 etc and why they are relevant to audience Z.

For example:

What are walking simulators designed to do, how do academia and industry measure their effectiveness, and how can they be used for virtual heritage (to increase engagement, or interactivity, or control by a domain subject expert)..

New journal article

Journal, publication

New article out today:

Dawson B, Joseph P, Champion E. Evaluating User Experience of a Multimedia Storyteller Panorama Tour: The Story of the Markham Car Collection. Collections. 2020;16(3):251-278. doi:10.1177/1550190620940966. URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1550190620940966

A storyteller panorama tour, The Story of the Markam Car Collection, was developed as an example for museums and cultural institutions concerning the use of panoramas combined with multimedia to tell stories of specific large objects (antique cars). It was designed for multiple platforms to involve and engage audiences via large curved screens while allowing for access via portable devices. Understanding users’ requirements is essential when designing and developing virtual museum tours. Measuring digital productions’ usability is an ongoing challenge that affects the improvement of user experience and the actual output. A variety of techniques and approaches are available to test digital productions’ usability and the related user experience. It is possible to measure and evaluate the production’s usefulness, including users’ engagement and understanding. However, the best method for assessing museum-related digital productions varies depending on aims, capacity, audience, and local context. In this paper, we demonstrate the strategy we employed to evaluate the particular storyteller panorama tour’s usability, user experience, engagement, and resulting audience understanding. The results of the evaluations showed that storyteller panorama tours could be an effective, attractive, and engaging storyteller method for cultural institutions. However, the findings also indicated that the users’ age, gender, and computer-related experience influence the use and enjoyment levels. We share our experiences and offer an example of how to evaluate a storyteller panorama tour. We believe that the presented evaluation strategy would be applicable to other museum-related projects, as well.

Writing grant applications the wrong way

Academic

I should know better. I get fascinated by a problem, plan it in my head, spend too much time on costing things, over-simplify for clarity’s sake, then run out of time explaining why it is significant and novel. Wrong order, wrong emphasis.

Why not:

  1. Read the marking rubrics.
  2. Start with an immediate problem you can provide evidence has not yet been addressed and reasons why the solution is so important.
  3. Write a few lines about the amazing solution even though you have not created/proved/invented it yet.
  4. Then explain (again) why it is so hard to discover/make/prove/provide but you’ve got this.
  5. Then try to work out steps (backwards, you can re-sort order in MS Excel for example, or Word if you want the reordering done via tables) how to make the impossible possible.
  6. Change the “I Made This Amazing Thing” to “How I will Make This Amazing Thing”.
  7. Change the title from what it is (because people no doubt will be confused by your oh so clever title because they have not and may not read line 32) to X Solves Y for Z.
  8. Tick off against the marking rubrics.

UNESCO Chair of Cultural Heritage and Visualisation

Academic, Digital Humanities, heritage, UNESCO Chair, , , ,

The 2016-2020 UNESCO Chair of Cultural Heritage and Visualisation has ended. First UNESCO Chair at Curtin. Less than 4 years, but various awards/prizes, media releases and press interviews, 3 Australian Research Council (+international) grants, some grant applications still pending.

The next big publication, in February 2021, will be an edited book on virtual heritage, published by Ubiquity Press, edited by Erik Champion. Online chapters will be open access, and suitable for university course reading lists.

Papers available at https://computation.curtin.edu.au/research/groups/unesco-chair-cultural-heritage-visualisation/ but needs updating.

I’d like to thank Hafizur Rahaman, our two PhD students Mafkereseb Bekele and Ikrom Nishanbaev, and the many collaborators and colleagues we met on the journey.

#CFP Culture and Computing C&C2021 Conference

Academic, cfp, Conference, Digital Humanities,

I have been invited by Professor Matthias Rauterberg, Eindhoven University of Technology, onto the program board of C&C: 9th International Conference on Culture and Computing, part of HCI International, 24-29 July 2021, Washington DC, USA, http://2021.hci.international/c&c.html

Culture and Computing is an important research area which aims to address the human-centred design of interactive technologies for the production, curation, preservation and fruition of cultural heritage, as well as developing and shaping future cultures. There are various research directions in the relations between culture and computing: to preserve, disseminate and create cultural heritages via ICT (cf. digital archives), to empower humanities research via ICT (cf. digital humanities), to create art andexpressions via ICT (cf. media art), to support interactive cultural heritage experiences (cf. rituals), and to understand new cultures born in the Internet, Web and Entertainment (cf. net culture, social media, games). The International Conference on Culture and Computing provides an opportunity to share research issues and discuss the future of culture and computing

Submissions

Paper abstracts are due 16 October 2020. Full papers are due 29 January 2021.

#CFP Euromed 2020: Free, virtual

Conference, ,

#CFP http://euromed2020.eu 8th Internatonal Conference on Digital Heritage, 2-5 November, 2020, technically Cyprus but online (virtual), free. Papers due 15 September.

Papers published in LNCS by Springer.

Co-chairs Marinos Ioannides (UNESCO Chair, Digital Cultural Heritage), Eleanor Fink (ex Getty Digital), Lorenzo Cantoni (UNESCO Chair in ICT) & me!

Fantastic keynotes: http://euromed2020.eu/keynote-speakers

Plus workshops:

Workshop 1 – Registration is mandatory for all, free participation – (Date to be announced)

Title: The 2nd EU Workshop on how digital technologies can contribute to the preservation and restoration of Europe’s most important and endangered cultural heritage sites.

Workshop 2 – Registration is mandatory for all, free participation – (Date to be announced)

Title: The 5th  International Workshop on 3D Research Challenges in Cultural Heritage to be organized by the EU H2020 ERA Chair Mnemosyne project.

Virtual Heritage in Focus

Digital Humanities, virtual heritage

It is a working title (so will change, no doubt, any suggestions?) but here is the working chapter structure sent off for review today (hopefully) with an expected audience, undergraduate digital archaeology/museum studies/heritage students (open access version online):

 Foreword: Classrooms and ProjectsTo be advised
0Virtual Heritage: What is it?Professor Erik Champion
13D Archaeological Reconstructions: The Art of Reasoned SpeculationMr. Robert Barratt
2Photogrammetry: What, How and WhereDr Hafizur Rahaman
3Animating the PastDr Michael Carter
4Mapping Ancient Heritage With Digital ToolsAssoc. Prof Anna Foka, Dr David McMeekin / et al.. 
5Hybrid Interactions in Museums: Why Materiality Still MattersProf Luigina Ciolfi
6Video Games as concepts and experiences of the pastDr Aris Politopoulos, Dr Angus Mol
7Mixed Reality: A Bridge or a Fusion between Two Worlds?Mr. Mafkereseb Bekele
8Getting it Right and Getting it Wrong in Digital Archaeological EthicsDr L. Meghan Dennis (to be added)
9Evaluation in Virtual HeritageAssoc. Prof Panayiotis Koutsabasis
10Authenticity in PreservationProfessor Erik Champion

Perhaps Digital Humanities..

Digital Humanities

should be defined by its aims rather than any “essence” ..

Corso di dottorato di ricerca inSTUDI STORICO-ARTISTICI E AUDIOVISIVICiclo(XXX)Titolo della tesi “APPLICAZIONE DEL DIGITAL STORYTELLINGCOME RISORSA PER IL DIGITAL HERITAGE ITALIANO” Ph.D. thesis, 2018, Massimo Siardi, Udine.

Una delle riflessioni più efficacinel riunire le istanze diverse delle digitali humanities è quella di Erik Champion che sottolinea come la DH«at a fundamental level considers how to integrate computing with humanities & attempts to understand how both computing & humanities must change»

So a definition of DH by aims (what it looks for) rather than essence (what it looks like).

I don’t quite remember writing this in 2015 but I am glad I did.

New OA article: “A Comparative Evaluation of Geospatial Semantic Web Frameworks for Cultural Heritage”

Announcements, digital heritage, Digital Humanities, Open Access, publication, , ,

“A Comparative Evaluation of Geospatial Semantic Web Frameworks for Cultural Heritage” has been published in Heritage and is available online.

by Ikrom Nishanbaev 1,*, Ear Zow Digital 1,2,3 and David A. McMeekin 4,5

Abstract:

Recently, many Resource Description Framework (RDF) data generation tools have been developed to convert geospatial and non-geospatial data into RDF data. Furthermore, there are several interlinking frameworks that find semantically equivalent geospatial resources in related RDF data sources. However, many existing Linked Open Data sources are currently sparsely interlinked. Also, many RDF generation and interlinking frameworks require a solid knowledge of Semantic Web and Geospatial Semantic Web concepts to successfully deploy them. This article comparatively evaluates features and functionality of the current state-of-the-art geospatial RDF generation tools and interlinking frameworks. This evaluation is specifically performed for cultural heritage researchers and professionals who have limited expertise in computer programming. Hence, a set of criteria has been defined to facilitate the selection of tools and frameworks. In addition, the article provides a methodology to generate geospatial cultural heritage RDF data and to interlink it with the related RDF data. This methodology uses a CIDOC Conceptual Reference Model (CRM) ontology and interlinks the RDF data with DBpedia. Although this methodology has been developed for cultural heritage researchers and professionals, it may also be used by other domain professionals.

View Full-Text

PDF Version: https://www.mdpi.com/2571-9408/3/3/48/pdf

Not actually published yet, but accepted

Academic, archaeology, digital heritage, Digital Humanities, game, heritage, Journal, publication, serious games, virtual heritage, Virtual Reality, , , , ,

I’m very happy that my rather large article “Culturally Significant Presence
In Single-Player Computer Games” has been accepted for the ACM Journal on Computing and Cultural Heritage. This is despite its 12,587 words covering 4 major games, and attempting to be more conceptual and provocative than normal in a traditional ACM IT-oriented journal..

Very good reviewers too, actually. They made me work hard. I think my abstract is a bit over JOCCH length so that may change but at moment it is:

Cultural presence is a term that researchers have used to explain and evaluate cultural learning in virtual heritage projects, but less frequently in video games. Given the increasing importance of video games to cultural heritage, this paper investigates explanations of cultural presence that could be communicated by games, especially concerning UNESCO and ICOMOS definitions of cultural significance. The aim is to determine if cultural presence can be communicated via video games and across a range of game genres.

Observations derived from game prototyping workshops for history and heritage were incorporated to help develop a teachable list of desirable game elements. To distinguish itself from the vagueness surrounding theories of cultural presence, a theory of culturally significant presence is proposed. Culturally significant presence requires three components: culturally significant artifacts and practices; an overarching framework of a singular, identifiable cultural viewpoint; and awareness by the participant of both the culturally significant and the overarching cultural framework and perspective (which gives cultural heritage sites, artifacts and practices their cultural significance and relational value).

As awareness of cultural presence requires time to reflect upon, single-player games were chosen that were not completely dependent on time-based challenges. Another criterion was cultural heritage content, the games must simulate aspects of cultural heritage and history, communicate a specific cultural framework, or explore and reconstruct a past culture. Four games were chosen that simulate a culture, explain archaeological methods, portray indigenous intangible heritage, or explain historical-based ecosystems of the past based on educational guidelines. The games are Assassin’s Creed: Origins (and its Discovery Tour); Heaven’s Vault; Never Alone; and a Ph.D. game project: Saxon. Their genres could be described as first-person shooter/open world/virtual tour; dialogue-based puzzle game; 2D platform game; and turn-based strategy game.

The aim is not to evaluate the entire range of interactive and immersive virtual environments and games, but to examine the applicability and relevance of the new theory, and to ascertain whether the four games provided useful feedback on the concept and usefulness of culturally significant presence. A more clearly demarcated theory of cultural presence may not only help focus evaluation studies but also encourage game developers to modify or allow the modification of commercial games for classroom teaching of digital heritage. Game content, core gameplay, secondary gameplay, and game mechanics could be modified to engagingly compel players to consider cultural heritage values and perspectives that are not their own.

Board games expose the triple-layering of mechanics

design, game, serious games, ,

I’ve been thinking, one of the problems with the concept of game mechanics is it is not always clear who the mechanics work for, and at what level. Mechanics can refer to and include:

  1. The designer’s intentions.
  2. The actual consequences and results of the system-based code in the wild.
  3. The understanding and intentions of the player.
  4. The staging and real-world unfolding of events due to code, circumstance, and player’s decisions.

Tabletops (physical boardgames) remove the abstraction of code and system-based rules.

  1. The designer’s intentions.
  2. The staging and real-world unfolding of events due to code, circumstance, and player’s decisions.
  3. The understanding and intentions of the player.

I want to move from simple prototypes to playable boardgames to digital implementations of serious games. Creating reactive rather than reflective players, for this purpose, extrinsic learning, would not be ideal.

And adding the missing layer of code to the playability and immediateness of physical games/boardgames/physical prototypes should not get in the way of engagement and understanding. But it often does. SO: understanding how to add rather than destabilize with that fourth step, CODE, would be of use to me.