Category Archives: game

Centre for Playware – The MIT Media Lab of Denmark?

3D and game editors, design, Digital Humanities, game, virtual heritage

Fantastic stuff! Knew nothing about them when I worked in Denmark!

Constructing Kids

I  invited myself to pay Centre for Playware a visit. This is a department of Technical University of Denmark (DTU), just outside Copenhagen. I was a part of a research project with them and ATR about the robot Telenoid (read more about that project here).  A friend from that project is doing his PhD here and thought it might be a good idea to see what they have been doing lately.  Centre for Playware is a lab-style research department in the crossfield between play and technology. The place is small and the staff list contains less than 10 people, ahead of this is professor Henrik Hautop Lund. The projects are state of the art when it comes to innovating technology and play. They are all based on movements, sounds, games, modules, fun and learning – though learning isn’t the main goal!

Take the Modular Robotic Tiles…

View original post 432 more words

fascinating biofeedback equipment-BITalino kit

3D and game editors, Biofeedback, design, game, visualisation, , , , , ,

The low cost (€149/$197 + shipping and taxes) kit of modular blocks includes a swathe of physiological sensors that can be broken out to use individually or linked together and used in whatever combination you’re after. BITalino’s approach is plug and play, to keep things as simple as possible. The sensors in the kit can interface with computing platforms such as Arduino (and derivatives) and Raspberry Pi, says project lead Hugo Silva. BITalino also includes Bluetooth connectivity so can be used in desktop and mobile environments.

“Currently there are several APIs for platforms including Android OS, Java or Python; BITalino is also cloud / web compatible through a software framework based on WebSockets, HTML5 and CSS3,” he tells TechCrunch

http://techcrunch.com/2013/09/05/bitalino/

Sensors included in the BITalino kit are:

  • an EMG (electromyography) to track muscle activation
  • an EDA (electrodermal Activity) to measure skin activity/moisture levels
  • a LUX light sensor to monitor ambient light or (used in conjunction with a light source) to track blood volume pulse data
  • an ECG (electrocardiogram) to track heart rate, monitor stress etc
  • an accelerometer to track limb movements

The board also includes an LED block for visual feedback, a microcontroller unit and a power management block to power the other units.

Youtube video:

Not all in press is true

3D and game editors, game, press, virtual heritage, visualisation, , , , , ,

Just came across this link of an article to an article.

http://www.metaversejournal.com/2009/07/26/the-watch-virtual-worlds-in-the-news-81/

Never said half of this, don’t remember talking to the reporter/newspaper, and certainly don’t expect virtual worlds to overtake real-world travel and books, wow!

North Shore Times (NZ) – Study out of this world. “Virtual worlds and computer games aren’t only for teen cyberjunkies, says Massey University associate professor Erik Champion. He says computer games have enormous potential and tools to explore and interact with ancient cultures, distant places and inaccessible environments. The new media lecturer at the design school on the Albany campus is seeking designers to create more New Zealand-themed virtual worlds. “The challenge is to find new interactive ways to experience things through digital media,” he says. Dr Champion says those worlds will soon become more popular than travelling and book learning and the like.”

reconstructing 3D from photographs software

3D and game editors, design, game, visualisation, , ,

That software insight3D I was briefly looking into might not be maintained very well, people at blenderation forked it
http://sourceforge.net/projects/insight3dng/

Found another trial / commercial (?) product http://www.visualsize.com and allows you to compare against other software http://www.visualsize.com/photonav3d/summary.html

libmv – a structure from motion library – Google Project Hosting

CFP: Cultural Heritage, Creative Tools and Archives Workshop

Academic, Announcements, Conference, Digital Humanities, game, virtual heritage, , , , , , ,

DIGHUMLAB DK and the DIGITAL CURATION UNIT Athens are pleased to invite you to submit to a 2 day workshop on CULTURAL HERITAGE, CREATIVE TOOLS AND ARCHIVES.

The workshop is open to all but we in particular welcome participants drawn in the first instance from the DARIAH, ARIADNE, CENDARI, NeDiMAH and other EU cultural heritage networks. We envisage it will foster the growth of a community of practice in the field of digital heritage and digital humanities, leading to closer cooperation between participants and helping attendees develop tools and methods that can be used by the wider community.

Workshop themes

Cultural heritage, for the purposes of this workshop, is taken to consist of a broad spectrum of fields of scholarly research and professional practice relating to the study, management and use of the past, including but not limited to: archaeology, material culture studies, public history, intangible heritage, the visual and performing arts, visual culture, museums, and historical archives. We invite presentations of digital heritage tools and infrastructures, established projects and case-studies, state-of the art surveys, and original research contributions on the following themes:

· Cultural heritage information systems, ontologies and knowledge representation for material and visual culture.

· Data analysis, modeling, simulation, and visualization.

· Metadata, interoperability and integration of research data and scholarly resources.

· GIS, 3D graphic reconstruction and high end imaging.

· Digital preservation and curation of cultural heritage data, archives and documentation resources.

· Digital technology in fieldwork (e.g., archaeological data collecting and representation, excavation and survey data management, recording information “at the trowel’s edge”, processing survey and long series datasets, etc.).

· Digital scholarly publishing and public communication of cultural heritage.

· Sharing data and tools across European countries and partners.

· EU policy in digital heritage infrastructures, research, and cultural resource management.

· Any other topic relevant to the innovative application of digital technology to cultural heritage research, management and communication.

Presentation formats

· Project presentation: 20 minutes.

· Demonstration (of a tool, method, or project): 20 minutes.

· Paper presentation: 20 minutes plus 10 minutes of discussion time. Final papers accepted may be published in a journal (to be advised).

· Panel: 40-60 minutes involving 3-5 speakers.

Submission Information

· Format: At the top of the page include your name, your country, your institutional affiliation, your EU infrastructure/project affiliation (if applicable), the title of your paper, and the suggested format of your paper (project presentation, paper presentation, demonstration, or panel presentation). An AV projector will be provided but please indicate any other requirements.

· Submit: Emailyour proposal in RTF format to dighumlab@gmail.com with the title “Cultural Heritage Workshop”. If you wish to present a formal paper, you should submit an abstract of 500-1500 words, including references. For a project presentation, demonstration or panel you should submit a proposal of 300-500 words. If you wish to present on a panel, please indicate the names and affiliations of other participants (if known) on the submission document.

· Submission date: NEW EXTENDED DATE 1 May 2013, 17:00 Central European Time

Other information:

· Notification date: Wednesday, 24 April 2013 (may change).

· Date of Workshop: Wednesday, 26 and Thursday 27 June 2013.

· Cost of Workshop: free tea and coffee will be provided; we will try to find sponsorship for lunch for both days.

· Venue: National Museum of Denmark, Copenhagen, Denmark.

· For more information please contact: Dr Erik Champion, DIGHUMLAB Denmark, echa@adm.au.dk
Co-organisers: Associate Professor Costis Dallas, University of Toronto & Digital Curation Unit, Athens; Dr Agiatis Benardou, Digital Curation Unit, Athens; and Professor Panos Constantopoulos, Athens University of Economics and Business.

We would like to thank the ALLC: The European Association for Digital Humanities for co-funding and the National Museum of Denmark for hosting the workshop. This is a DARIAH associated event. Other associations with organizations are still to be confirmed.

CFP: Inaugural Games and Literary Theory Conference Valletta, Malta

Conference, Digital Humanities, game

University of Malta – Institute of Digital Games and the Department of English – International Conference Series in Games and Literary Theory

http://gamesandliterarytheory.wordpress.com/ 

University of Malta, 31st October-1st November 2013

This inaugural event in the Digital Games and Literary Theory Conference Series follows on from a successful International Workshop held at the University of Malta last year. That event established the scope, appeal and timeliness of interdisciplinary research involving Game Studies and Literary Theory. While there are ample conference opportunities for discussion of the impact of Game Studies on other fields in the Humanities and on the amenability, in turn, of Game Studies to critique by those fields, events where the affinities with Literary Theory take centre stage are, by comparison, quite rare. This is surprising.

We invite scholars with an interest in the conjunction of games and literary theory to submit abstracts between 1000 and 1500 words including bibliography. The deadline for submissions is April 30th 2013. Please submit your abstract in PDF format to gamelit2013@um.edu.mt.

All submitted abstracts are subject to a double blind peer review, which will be the basis for the programme committee’s selection of papers for the conference. A full paper draft must then be submitted by September 30th.

Papers will be made available to participants on the conference website. A selection of top papers from the conference will form a Special Issue of Game Studies focused on Literary Theory and Games. Notifications of acceptance will be sent out by June 15th , 2013.

upcoming book “Critical Gaming and Digital Humanities”..what have I missed?

Academic, Digital Humanities, game, virtual heritage, ,

I have been sent a book contract for the above, to be published in the Ashgate Digital Research in the Arts and Humanities series in 2014. I would like to thank the editor Dymphna Evans, and the anonymous reviewers, for some excellent suggestions.

Chapters that we agreed I would write on are as follows. Feel free to add comments on any major chapters or issues that I should focus on, have missed etc.

1.     The Limits of Text in Teaching the Humanities
2.     Game-based Learning and the Digital Humanities
3.     Simulating Culture and Ritual
4.     Fiction Eats Fact: Dilemmas in Virtual Heritage and Digital Archaeology
5.     The Joysticks of Death and Destruction: Violence Morality
6.     Virtual Reality, Visualization, and the Video Game
7.     The Body and the Brain as Game Controller
8.     Interactive Drama and Storytelling
9.     Gaming in the Classroom
10.  Conclusion: Reflective Game Design

CAA UK 2013: Game Issues for Scholarly Discourse or for Public Understanding

Conference, Digital Humanities, game, PhD, slides, virtual heritage, , , ,

I just gave a paper via Google hangout to CAU UK 2013 (Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology – UK Conference 22nd – 23rd February, 2013) in London.

Fullscreen Powerpoint did not seem to work but PDF did. Hmm.

I see some of the problems in Virtual Heritage//Digital Archaeology as how to

  • involve crowdsourcing
  • simulate ritual
  • design suitable and contextual interaction
  • design and evaluate meaningful learning
  • build templates so communities can develop their own interactive 3D environments
  • provide for archaeological scholars and the general public (separate environments, separate levels of detail, separate narratives?)

I forgot to say:

  • You can download related (free) book chapters in the ETC Press Game Mods book here.
  • Aarhus University has a PhD scholarship on Digital Heritage and Virtual Culture for those interested, very lucrative funding!
  • We hope to have a cultural heritage workshop in June on related issues.
  • End of October, Digital Heritage 2013, a vast collection of heritage conferences, will take place in Marseilles.
  • I have a book project on this and very happy to field suggestions about how game studies and game environments can advance to help virtual heritage and digital archaeology.

UPDATE: The slides and audio commentary are online at http://www.lparchaeology.com/caauk/game-issues-for-scholarly-discourse-or-for-public-understanding/

They are also at http://dougsarchaeology.wordpress.com/2013/02/25/game-issues-for-scholarly-discourse-or-for-public-understanding/

I cannot bring myself to listen to my own voice for any length of time (is that what I sound like, at least I did not try to sing) but a big thank you to the organizers.

The Journal of Interactive Humanities (new open access journal)

Digital Humanities, game, Journal, virtual heritage, ,

I have just joined The Journal of Interactive Humanities editorial board, should be interesting! Deadline for first papers is Feb 28.

The Journal of Interactive Humanities is a peer-reviewed, open access journal that provides an important forum for the development of new methods of outreach such as interactive games and media for museums, digitizing archives, cultural heritage preservation, and other endeavors in the humanities. Articles explore the intersection between narrative, interactive media, material culture, education and public outreach within the humanities from a variety of perspectives.

Open Access Policy

JIH will be archived in Rochester Institute of Technology’s institutional repository, the RIT Digital Media Library: http://ritdml.rit.edu. Authors are permitted to archive their individual work(s) in their respective institution’s open access repositories. This journal provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge.

Ch16 “History and Cultural Heritage in Virtual Environments” sent to OUP

Digital Humanities, game, virtual heritage, visualisation, , ,

Oxford Handbook of Virtuality
Chapter 16: History and Cultural Heritage in Virtual Environments

Keywords: History, heritage, games, evaluation methods, cultural heritage, HCI, multi-user interaction, virtual worlds, virtual reality, 3D interfaces.

Abstract

Applying virtual reality and virtual world technology to historical knowledge and to cultural heritage content is generally called virtual heritage, but it has so far eluded clear and useful definitions, and it has been even more difficult to evaluate. This article examines past case studies of virtual heritage; definitions and classifications of virtual environments and virtual worlds; the problem of convincing, educational and appropriate realism; how interaction is best employed; the question of ownership; and issues in evaluation. Given the premise that virtual heritage has as its overall aim to educate and engage the general public (on the culture value of the original site, cultural artifacts, oral traditions, and artworks), the conclusion suggests six objectives to keep in mind when designing virtual worlds for history and heritage.

cfp: Transmedia storytelling: London, Monday, 17 June

Academic, Conference, design, Digital Humanities, game, ,

http://ica2013transmedia.wordpress.com/about/

The objective of this preconference is to create an interdisciplinary environment for exchanging research experiences on transmedia storytelling. 21st century media convergence processes – that could be interpreted not only as a concentration of media ownership but as a complex series of operations that involve technological, professional, and cultural aspects – have completely changed the traditional communication landscape. In this context, many contemporary media productions are characterized by: 1) the expansion of their narrative through different media (film, TV, comics, etc.) and platforms (blogs, YouTube, etc.), and 2) the creation of user-generated contents that contribute to expanding the original story. In 2003 Henry Jenkins defined such productions as transmedia storytelling. In this preconference we place transmedia storytelling at the centre of a scientific exchange environment.

Transmedia storytelling is one of the main strategies of media companies, and a significant practice for the consumers that cooperate in the expansion of a narrative. On the other side, transmedia storytelling is an interdisciplinary research object that can be studied under different approaches: Media Studies, Political Economy, Media Economics, Narratology, Ludology, Film Studies, Semiotics, Ethnography, etc. International research on TS is expanding but it is still a fragmented field. In this context the objectives of the preconference are:

  • To discuss the state of transmedia research in the world
  • To present, diffuse and discuss the cutting edge studies on transmedia around the world.
  • To offer an interdisciplinary environment for exchanging methodologies, approaches to and experiences in transmedia research
  • To consolidate an international network of transmedia researchers.

The creation of exchange environments like this preconference will facilitate interactions between scholars and consolidate the research of one of the most important experiences of contemporary media.

This preconference will provide a venue for innovative scholars from around the world who are doing research in exploring transmedia storytelling. It will give them a chance to gather and discuss the challenges that transmedia experiences pose not only for the audiences but for those doing research on media economy, media narratives or media anthropology. The one-day preconference will be comprised of formal panel presentations, one keynote panel, opportunities for informal discussions, and time for networking. The preconference is open to anyone who is interested in transmedia storytelling.

Submission by 4 Feb: http://ica2013transmedia.wordpress.com/submission_process/

Game Mods: Design, Theory and Criticism (ETC Press)!

design, Digital Humanities, game, virtual heritage, , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Erik Champion (Ed). (2012). Game Mods: Design, Theory and Criticism

Are games worthy of academic attention? Can they be used effectively in the classroom, in the research laboratory, as an innovative design tool, as a persuasive political weapon? Game Mods: Design, Theory and Criticism aims to answer these and more questions. It features chapters by authors chosen from around the world, representing fields as diverse as architecture, ethnography, puppetry, cultural studies, music education, interaction design and industrial design. How can we design, play with and reflect on the contribution of game mods, related tools and techniques, to both game studies and to society as a whole?
Contributors include: Erik Champion, Peter Christiansen, Kevin R. Conway, Eric Fassbender, Jun Hu, Alex Juarez, Friedrich Kirschner, Marija Nakevska, Natalie Underberg.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 License

Purchase from Lulu.com, or Download for free

For more information, and to purchase or to read the chapters, visit

http://www.etc.cmu.edu/etcpress/content/game-mods

The ETC Press is an academic and open-source publishing imprint that distributes its work in print, electronic and digital form. Inviting readers to contribute to and create versions of each publication, ETC Press fosters a community of collaborative authorship and dialogue across media. ETC Press represents an experiment and an evolution in publishing, bridging virtual and physical media to redefine the future of publication.

Visit   http://www.etc.cmu.edu/etcpress/

Can the past and history be shared? Abstract accepted for Digital Past conference

Conference, design, Digital Humanities, game, virtual heritage,

Paper and workshop proposal accepted for Digital Past conference 2013 @ Monmouth Wales, 20-21 February 2013. URL:http://www.digitalpast2013.blogspot.co.uk/

Paper: Can the past and history be shared?

There is an interesting divide between historians and the public that must be debated, how to best use virtual heritage, and digital media in general, to learn and share historical knowledge and interpretation. Heritage and history do not have to be a series of slides; space-time-intention can now be depicted and reconfigured. Teaching history through digitally simulated ‘learning by doing’ is an incredibly understudied research area and is of vital importance to a richer understanding of heritage as lived.

However, the actual spatial implications of siting learning tasks in a virtual environment are still largely un-researched. Evaluation of virtual environments has been relatively context-free, designed for user freedom and forward looking creativity. It is still much more difficult to create a virtual place that brings the past alive without destroying it.

There has been an explosion in virtual heritage conferences this century. In the last year alone, there have been calls for digital cultural heritage or virtual heritage by Graphite, VSMM, New Heritage Forum, VRST, VAST, DIME, Archäologie & Computer, and DACH, just to name a few. An outside observer may believe that such academic interest, coupled with recent advances in virtual reality (VR), specifically in virtual environment technology and evaluation, would prepare one for designing a successful virtual heritage environment. Game designers may also be led to believe that games using historical characters, events or settings, may be readily adaptable to virtual heritage. This paper will advance key contextual issues that question both assumptions.

Beacham, R., Denard, H., & Niccolucci, F. (2006). London charter for the computer-based visualization of cultural heritage. Retrieved from http://www.londoncharter.org/introduction.html
Fredrik, D. (2012). Rhetoric, Embodiment, Play: Game Design as Critical Practice in the Art History of Pompeii. Meaningful Play 2012 conference paper.
Retrieved from http://meaningfulplay.msu.edu/proceedings2012/mp2012_submission_178.pdf

Submission 2: Workshop Suggestion: Prototyping and Visualizing Virtual Places
This workshop will primarily be a primer for using 3D visualisation, modelling, video editing and game technologies as quick prototyping and scenario design tools. If attendees request it, time may also be spent on attendee issues, solutions, previous experience, and case studies in utilizing these or similar tools. As well as an overview of these tools and an explanation of their comparable features , there will also be a brief presentation of the presenter’s work in using these tools for designing for cultural and historical interaction.

The proposed workshop will run for 90 minutes. The purpose will be to overview 3D modelling, rendering and animation packages for creating digital places and visualisations of past cultures . The convener will bring the required applications, and make available applications either from a website or via a USB stick.

Tools Previewed
Google Sketchup
Google Sketch up is both a free and commercial 3D application which offers simple modeling and rendering features, a huge warehouse of free 2D and 3D assets, and can export to Blender, Unity,

Unreal UDK (via kmz4 format) and Google Earth.
Blender 3D runs on MAC PC and Linux, Blender is totally free, and the new version 2.5 and its derivatives offers a much improved interface. The bulk of the workshop will concentrate on Blender, as not only is it an impressive modeling and rendering package, but it also offers interesting compositing and video editing features. Blender also has a simple game engine and has possibilities for exporting to Apple iOS.
UNITY has free and trial versions, runs on MAC, PC, Android and iOS, and game consoles. It can import many formats, and is easy to learn, or to add assets to. Scripting can be by JavaScript, Python or C# but there are standard assets and add-ons that can create 3D objects and environments very quickly. It can also create webplugins that run inside browsers or even inside MOODLE.

The best game and virtual environment journals?

Academic, game, Journal, virtual heritage, ,

How do you measure the reach, quality and effectiveness of journals in the areas of game studies and virtual environments? Many of them do not clearly feature impact factors, but by using commercial software one may be able to get a better idea of how well they help the h-index of submitted papers. I won’t get into the debate here on open access journals but as some of the below journals are open access, and some are extremely expensive, this should also be a consideration, especially if one is writing also for a non-academic audience (such as game designers).

I have been reading a few articles on how book chapters do not get cited (Anderson, 2012; Bishop, 2012) and whether academics should write book reviews (Toor, 2012). In Virtual Heritage research many conferences are not fully published and indexed, while the book chapters are seldom cited.  There are some good articles out there on how to get published (Armstrong, undated), but why bother if one is not cited? Lack of citations probably also means that one is not read by a serious professional audience.

And I note in (my) area, some of the more famous journals appear to be

NB related VR/VE/ graphics journals impact factors here.

*I am on the editorial boards of the above journals.

UPDATE: you can compare the above journals at SCIMAGOJR website.

Prototyping for Ownership Workshop at Media Architecture Biennale

Architecture, Conference, design, game, virtual heritage

On 15 November i.e. yesterday, I attended the “Prototyping for Ownership” workshop, run by

Klaus Birk (Media Design, DHBW & Information Environments, UAL London)
Roman Grasy (Intuity Media Lab). >Their company is based in Germany.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

The workshop had 2 groups. Our group of between 5-9 people (it varied!) spent the day choosing little pictures, noting down ideas to them, on creating media architecture on problems close to us. There was a Kinect and VVV (runs nicely with Kinect), augmented reality trackers, a 360 degree mouse, and a macbook pro with after affects (you can guess what I ended up doing).

Some of my ideas are in the slide show above.

My group chose my idea of a giant phonogram set into a square, people would run around tracks or grooves of the phonogram, which would start tracks of music, their speed and rhythm would be tracked, affecting the music, and gestures could affect the timbre. Small orchestral pits in the corners of the square would allow sound editing via mechanical or visual (projected) buttons. Also there would be exercise levers that would control the music just like dials on a sound editing desk (may attach sketch later). Shells or pipes in the side streets would faintly play current or past performances, to draw people to the square. We also thought of a catch the light or animated sprites game, that would be derived from the spinning carousal-musical tracks, on the surrounding urban facades, and there could be small lasers inside the tracks, broken by the shadows of the dancers.

There is also a video of us dancing to the start stop Fat Boy Slim track while being rotated. Too embarrassing to add here, to be honest. So I hope they don’t choose this video part of the prototype to show at the Biennale! (Edit: Klaus has, oh well, I am stuck in the office so if it is shown today I won’t know about it).

Part of our kinect interface for the “anti travelator” or “magic urban roundabout” prototype is below, it worked, you step into the light (the magic circle) and the music turns on, you step out, it stops. Ideally it would record your height and changing y position to change tracks in the music and pitch. Truly a magic circle!

NB the twitter handle for the conference is @MABiennale website address is http://mab12.mediaarchitecture.org/

It also runs on Saturday at Godsbanen, Aarhus (great venue for this sort of thing).

CFP: The History of Games International Conference | HASTAC

Conference, design, game

CFP: The History of Games International Conference | HASTAC.

Montréal, 21-23 June 2013

29 August, 2012 – 20:06 — Henry Lowood
The History of Games International Conference

1st edition: Working With, Building, and Telling History
Montreal, Canada. June 21st – 23rd 2013
Organizers: Espen Aarseth (IT University of Copenhagen), Raiford Guins (Stony Brook University), Henry Lowood (Stanford University), Carl Therrien (Université de Montréal).

Submissions

Proposals should be at least 1000 words in length (plus references) and include a title, author’s name, affiliation and short C.V., and provide a clear synopsis for a 20-minute conference length paper.
Deadline for proposals: December 15th 2012.
Please send proposals to Laine Nooney (laine.nooney@gmail.com).

new book chapter out: Travels in Intermedia[lity]

design, Digital Humanities, game, , , , ,

Today I received my copy of

Travels in Intermedia[lity]: ReBlurring the Boundaries (Interfaces: Studies in Visual Culture) [Paperback]

It took a long time to see this in print, so congratulations to the editor for his perserverance, and to the publishers, quite a nice looking book!

Table of contents includes the following chapters

• Travels in Intermedia[lity]: An Introduction – Bernd Herzogenrath

• Four Models of Intermediality – Jens Schröter
• Intermediality in Media Philosophy – Katerina Krtilova
• Realism and the Digital Image – W. J. T. Mitchell
• Mother’s Little Nightmare: Photographic and Monstrous Genealogies in David Lynch’s The Elephant Man –Lars Nowak
• Laughs: The Misappropriated Jewels, or A Close Shave for the Prima Donna – Michel Serres
• Words and Images in the Contemporary American Graphic Novel – Jan Baetens
• Music for the Jilted Generation: Techno and | as Intermediality – Bernd Herzogenrath
• Genuine Thought Is Inter(medial) – Julia Meier
• Theater and Music: Intermedial Negotiations – Ivana Brozi
• The Novel as Hypertext: Mapping Thomas Pynchon’s Against the Day – Brian W. Chanen
• Delightful Vistas: Revisiting the Hypertext Garden – Mark Bernstein
• Playing Research: Methodological Approaches to Game Analysis – Espen Aarseth
• The Nonessentialist Essentialist Guide to Games – Ear Zow Digital
• “Turn your Radio on”: Intermediality in the Computer Game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas – Gunter Süss
• Television as Network—Network as Television: Experiments in Content and Community – Ben Sassen
• Social Media and the Future of Political Narrative – Jay David Bolter

 

http://www.upne.com/TOC/TOC_1611682595.html

It is part of the University of New England Press Interfaces: studies in visual culture series

Oxford Handbook of Virtuality: History and heritage in virtual worlds abstract

Academic, Digital Humanities, game, virtual heritage, , ,

Here is the latest abstract for my chapter for the Oxford Handbook of Virtuality, edited by Mark Grimshaw. The chapter was written and sent to OUP some time ago, no doubt there will be changes, but I am happy to take comments or suggestions etc.

History and Heritage in Virtual Worlds

Keywords: History, heritage, games, evaluation methods, cultural heritage, HCI, multi-user interaction, virtual worlds, virtual reality, 3D interfaces.

Applying virtual reality and virtual world technology to historical knowledge and to cultural heritage content is generally called virtual heritage, but it has so far eluded clear and useful definitions, and it has been even more difficult to evaluate. This article examines past case studies of virtual heritage; definitions and classifications of virtual environments and virtual worlds; the problem of convincing, educational and appropriate realism; how interaction is best employed; issues in evaluation; and the question of ownership. Given the premise that virtual heritage has as its overall aim to educate and engage the general public (on the culture value of the original site, cultural artifacts, oral traditions, and artworks), the conclusion suggests six objectives to keep in mind when designing virtual worlds for history and heritage.