Books by Erik M Champion
Rethinking Virtual Places, 2021
[FLYER ONLY: SORRY, THEY DON'T HAVE AN OPEN ACCESS POLICY] How would the humanities change if we ... more [FLYER ONLY: SORRY, THEY DON'T HAVE AN OPEN ACCESS POLICY] How would the humanities change if we grappled with the ways in which digital and virtual places are designed, experienced, and critiqued? In Rethinking Virtual Places, Erik Malcolm Champion draws from the fields of computational sciences and other place-related disciplines to argue for a more central role for virtual space in the humanities. For instance, recent developments in neuroscience could improve our understanding of how people experience, store, and recollect place-related encounters. Similarly, game mechanics using virtual place design might make digital environments more engaging and learning content more powerful and salient. In addition, Champion provides a brief introduction to new and emerging software and devices and explains how they help, hinder, or replace our traditional means of designing and exploring places. Perfect for humanities scholars fascinated by the potential of virtual space, Rethinking Virtual Places challenges both traditional and recent evaluation methods to address the complicated problem of understanding how people evaluate and engage with the notion of place.
Virtual Heritage: A Guide, 2021
Virtual heritage has been explained as virtual reality applied to cultural heritage, but this def... more Virtual heritage has been explained as virtual reality applied to cultural heritage, but this definition only scratches the surface of the fascinating applications, tools and challenges of this fast-changing interdisciplinary field. This book provides an accessible but concise edited coverage of the main topics, tools and issues in virtual heritage.
Leading international scholars have provided chapters to explain current issues in accuracy and precision; challenges in adopting advanced animation techniques; shows how archaeological learning can be developed in Minecraft; they propose mixed reality is conceptual rather than just technical; they explore how useful Linked Open Data can be for art history; explain how accessible photogrammetry can be but also ethical and practical issues for applying at scale; provide insight
into how to provide interaction in museums involving the wider public; and describe issues in evaluating virtual heritage projects not often addressed even in scholarly papers.
The book will be of particular interest to students and scholars in museum studies, digital archaeology, heritage studies, architectural history and modelling, virtual environments.
Cultural Heritage Infrastructures in Digital Humanities, 2017
What are the leading tools and archives in digital cultural heritage? How can they be integrated ... more What are the leading tools and archives in digital cultural heritage? How can they be integrated into research infrastructures to better serve their intended audiences? In this book, authors from a wide range of countries, representing some of the best research projects in digital humanities related to cultural heritage, discuss their latest findings, both in terms of new tools and archives, and how they are used (or not used) by both specialists and by the general public. [PAGE ONLY, TO READ GO TO ROUTLEDGE WEBSITE]
The Phenomenology of Real and Virtual Places., 2018
UPDATE: A preprint, not proofed and not correctly paginated version is attached.
"This is an Acc... more UPDATE: A preprint, not proofed and not correctly paginated version is attached.
"This is an Accepted Manuscript of book chapters published by Routledge in Phenomenology of Real and Virtual Places, in 2018, available online: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315106267 OR https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9781315106267
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.
Organic Design in Twentieth-Century Nordic Architecture, 2019
Organic Design in Twentieth-Century Nordic Architecture presents a communicable and useful defini... more Organic Design in Twentieth-Century Nordic Architecture presents a communicable and useful definition of organic architecture that reaches beyond constraints. The book focuses on the works and writings of architects in Nordic countries, such as Sigurd Lewerentz, Jørn Utzon, Sverre Fehn and the Aaltos (Aino, Elissa and Alvar), among others. It is structured around the ideas of organic design principles that influenced them and allowed their work to evolve from one building to another.
Erik Champion argues organic architecture can be viewed as a concerted attempt to thematically unify the built environment through the allegorical expression of ongoing interaction between designer, architectural brief and building-as process. With over 140 black and white images, this book is an intriguing read for architecture students and professionals alike.
This book explains how designing, playing and modifying computer games, and understanding the the... more This book explains how designing, playing and modifying computer games, and understanding the theory behind them, can strengthen the area of digital humanities. This book aims to help digital humanities scholars understand both the issues and also advantages of game design, as well as encouraging them to extend the field of computer game studies, particularly in their teaching and research in the field of virtual heritage.
By looking at re-occurring issues in the design, playtesting and interface of serious games and game-based learning for cultural heritage and interactive history, this book highlights the importance of visualisation and self-learning in game studies and how this can intersect with digital humanities. It also asks whether such theoretical concepts can be applied to practical learning situations. It will be of particular interest to those who wish to investigate how games and virtual environments can be used in teaching and research to critique issues and topics in the humanities, particularly in virtual heritage and interactive history.
Contents: Introduction; Digital humanities and the limits of text; Game-based learning and the digital humanities; Virtual reality; Game-based history and historical simulations; Virtual heritage and digital culture; Worlds, roles and rituals; Joysticks of death, violence and morality; Intelligent agents, drama and cinematic narrative; Biofeedback, space and place; Applying critical thinking and critical play; Index.
Game Mods: Design, Theory and Criticism, Dec 20, 2012
Are games worthy of academic attention? Can they be used effectively in the classroom, in the res... more 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?
Playing with the Past, Jan 1, 2011
Book Chapters by Erik M Champion
Screen Tourism and Affective Landscapes The Real, the Virtual, and the Cinematic, 2023
The prospect and potential of videogame-induced tourism have only recently been discussed in acad... more The prospect and potential of videogame-induced tourism have only recently been discussed in academic publications. This chapter will examine three possible reasons why, provide evidence to the contrary, and suggest new developments that may accelerate the impact of videogames on tourism (and the related experiencing of affective landscapes). The main case study will be Assassin's Creed: Odyssey. This 2019 game draws the player into the exploration of idyllic and war-torn historic and mythic landscapes of Athens and Sparta, via questing and simulated violence. It also features a non-violent "Discovery" mode, photographic functions, and a Story Creator mode allowing quests (and in-game photos) to be designed and shared with other players. Beyond violent gameplay, Assassin's Creed: Odyssey allows the exploration of idyllic historic landscapes and heritage sites. Given the company employs both high-quality designers and professional historians (and archaeologists), we can employ such sandbox games as both a pre-visitation visualization tool and as a hybrid fictional factual learning environment.
Teaching the Middle Ages through Modern Games Using, Modding and Creating Games for Education and Impact, 2022
Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim 1 has great potential as a teaching and learning tool. The world of Skyri... more Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim 1 has great potential as a teaching and learning tool. The world of Skyrim, although sometimes labelled pseudo-medieval, 2 can aim for a level of historical accuracy comparable to many scholarly digital 3D reconstruction projects. These types of projects are now widely accepted as a vehicle for a new way of thinking about old topics, and as a valuable prompt for engaging students. The advantage of using Skyrim is that the historically informed mods 3 can be combined with sophisticated game mechanics to immerse and inspire students in procedural, contestable, and reconfigurable simulations. Through playful exploration, students can investigate the game world and engage with both the historically-informed and fantastical elements. But they can also become designers and investigate historical developments through the creation of new assets, modified game mechanics, and social storytelling. Designing simulations is a further learning experience and Skyrim's Creation Kit is thus also a pedagogical tool. In this chapter we will explore ways in which Skyrim can be used and modified to explain, through play, three related aspects of medieval society: culture, architecture, and landscape. We will then discuss its modding capability and conclude with some suggestions for how future Elder Scrolls games and mods could be leveraged as teaching and learning tools.
The Routledge Companion to Digital Humanities and Art History, 2020
Traditionally, art history has been viewed as a concern about the context of creation, curation, ... more Traditionally, art history has been viewed as a concern about the context of creation, curation, critique, and classification of art, but its range and focus is seldom agreed on. A conventional view of art history may suggest that, as a field, it is dedicated to issues of classification and the development of related expertise in curation and critique. Yet, if we follow the arguments of the nineteenth-century philosopher Konrad Fiedler, knowledge of historical form does not necessarily entail a knowledge of art, while knowledge of the history of art does not necessarily give one an understanding of art objects themselves, the material and symbolic qualities of an object of art, or deeper questions relating to the ontology of art.
Communicating the Past in the Digital Age: Proceedings of the International Conference on Digital Methods in Teaching and Learning in Archaeology (12-13 October 2018), 2020
One of the many but important dilemmas we may encounter in designing or critiquing games for arch... more One of the many but important dilemmas we may encounter in designing or critiquing games for archaeology (Champion 2015) is determining the why: why we should develop, buy, play, and teach specific games for the above disciplines. For archaeology, I propose there is a further important trifurcation: games aiming to convey an experience of arch aeology (Hiriart 2018); games aiming to show how systems, methods, findings, and unknowns interact either to produce that experience; or games revealing what is unknown or debated (how knowledge is established or how knowledge is contested).
Der Modelle Tugend 2.0 Digitale 3D-Rekonstruktion als virtueller Raum der architekturhistorischen Forschung, 2019
This chapter analyses the gap between digital historical models, and
proposes that instead of dev... more This chapter analyses the gap between digital historical models, and
proposes that instead of developing stand-alone models that we design
in terms of components, components of scholarly ecosystems and audience-oriented learning systems. The focus here is not on individual projects or technological limitations but on the lack of clear and replicable explicit terminology, methodology, assessable, replicable evaluation, and scholarly infrastructure. The success of virtual heritage projects as both a communication and preservation medium depend on community involvement, including scholars, students, the wider public, but also the original shareholders. There is also great potential for more focussed usability studies to verify the effectiveness of interaction and contextual learning. How interaction is intended, what actually takes place and how to archive it separately from the model are difficult issues, but they need to be solved. I will also briefly discuss four major themes potentially of great import to a virtual heritage repository: consumer VR; research groups attempting to avoid the problems of silo projects; publication of 3D models in journals; and real-time streaming of distributed components in a game engine. This chapter also suggests ten criteria to determine whether and to what extent virtual heritage models can solves these issues.
Cultural Heritage Infrastructures in Digital Humanities, 2017
Digital Humanities might appear a recent phenomenon. Yet almost seventy years have gone by since ... more Digital Humanities might appear a recent phenomenon. Yet almost seventy years have gone by since Father Roberto Busa initiated his Digital Humanities project: the computer-assisted lemmatization of the complete Thomistic corpus (http://www.corpusthomisti-cum.org/). Although Busa first conceived of this project in 1946, it took him nearly four decades to realize it; leveraging the power of the digital computer as an ordering machine capable of processing and listing potentially infinite amounts of textual data. The development of the first computational analysis of archaeological materials, a numerical classification of Eurasian Bronze axes conducted by Jean-Claude Gardin and Peter Ihm in the late 1950s (Cowgill 1967; Huggett 2013) introduced a different aspect of computer-based research: one that brought to the fore the possibilities afforded by digital methods for dimension reduction, discovery and visualization of latent structures of complex data. Fast-forwarding to the present day, two surprisingly distinct communities have already emerged in digital arts and humanities research. On the one hand, Digital Humanities, at least until very recently, appeared preoccupied with transforming the traditions of text-based humanities computing, drawn directly from library collections and scholarly practice. Digital Heritage, on the other hand, has drawn more from theories and practices in digital archaeology and the digital representation of material culture but has often gained attention for its adoption of cutting-edge visualization and virtual reality technology. While driven by the traditions of custodian institutions such as museums, galleries, libraries, and archives and special collections, Digital Heritage leverages the capabilities of contemporary technologies in visualizing and representing cultural objects beyond text, and occasionally borrows ideas from the entertainment industry. Digital Heritage might influence Digital Humanities in terms of lessons learnt from visu-alization, scanning / recording, 3D photorealistic modelling, GPS and mapping technologies , and possibly even instructional design and serious game development. But Digital 1
The Phenomenology of Real and Virtual Places, 2018
In this chapter I will put forward five important questions arising from the major writings of No... more In this chapter I will put forward five important questions arising from the major writings of Norwegian architectural theorist Christian Norberg-Schulz (1926–2000) regarding his discussion of place as dwelling. These key aspects are: his conflation of dwelling with place; simplifying to a poetical but confusing extreme the concept of region; his avoidance of the role of culture in the making and perception of place; the lack of discussion of the body and embodiment in the appreciation of both architecture and place; and a concentration on architectural form and typology at the expense of care, change, and erosion.
The second half of the chapter will discuss how virtual places (particularly those that wish to display and communicate aspects of culture such as history and heritage) need to consider issues of people, not just as social avatars but also in terms of their “thrown” embodiment and how they influence and are influenced by material culture as a messy, accumulative force; social worlds as place-distinguished realms of power and influence, not simply as topographical or climatic regions; and the enrichment and forgetting of virtual places through care and neglect. I will argue that these elements (as components of dwelling) impact on virtually mediated dwelling and inhabitation as well as on virtual presence.
I have chosen the major writings of Norberg-Schulz (Norberg-Schulz 1971, 1980, 1985, 1988) partly because he was a formative influence on architects (Wilken 2013) but I should note here that his writings also attracted strong criticism. Alberto Pérez-Gómez (Pérez-Gómez 2009) criticized Norberg-Schulz’s theory of “genius loci”, while Malpas (Malpas 2013, 2015) and others (Jiven and Larkham 2003) voiced concerns regards Norberg-Schulz’s emphasis on architectural dwelling and reading of Heidegger. Cacciari denounced Norberg-Schulz’s writings for “nostalgia” (Cacciari 1993) and Wilken (Wilken 2013) added that genius loci was “strongly traditional and nostalgic”.
Despite these criticisms, various writers and architects have drawn on Norberg-Schulz and have sometimes re-incorporated a Norberg-Schulz reading of Heidegger into a more formalist architectural theory (Thiis-Evensen 1987), or applied both thinkers to ancient and modern architecture (Ramzy 2015, Haddad 2010, El-Bizri 2011).
Yet in virtual place design, Norberg-Schulz’s theory of phenomenology has received scant attention (Saunders et al. 2011), even if concepts like dwelling and a sense of place (Genius Loci) as well as embodiment (Coyne 1999, Crick 2010) are desirable if elusive goals in computer games, virtual places and virtual worlds. Are the criticisms of Norberg-Schulz’ theory of genius loci, sense of place, and dwelling valid? And, despite these criticisms, is this theory of any interest to real-world architecture or to virtual place design?
Arqueología Computacional. Nuevos enfoques para el análisis y la difusión del patrimonio cultural, 2017
Resumen: ¿Cómo podemos transmitir los valores e interpretaciones del patrimonio cultural aplican... more Resumen: ¿Cómo podemos transmitir los valores e interpretaciones del patrimonio cultural aplicando la realidad virtual a bajo costo, de una manera apropiada en términos contextuales y que resulte educacional mente efectiva y colaborativa? Aunque se han llevado a cabo excelentes investigaciones sobre la presencia social en entornos virtuales (Swinth y Blascovich, 2002), la investigación sobre el diseño y evaluación de la presencia cultural, es decir, la percepción de otra cultura cuando ésta es “retratada” y vivenciada en un entorno virtual, todavía se halla rezagada. Y cuando sí se ha explorado la presencia cultural, la investigación no se ha dirigido a mejorar la experiencia del patrimonio culturalmente significativo (riva et al., 2002). Por otra parte, organizaciones como la unesco no han aportado lineamientos sobre cómo determinar si la experiencia del usuario logra las metas previstas, tanto por los diseñadores, como por las demás partes involucradas en un proyecto (Champion, 2011, 2015). Una posible solución para la arqueología digital es investigar y emplear juegos comerciales que puedan modificarse (i.e. modded ). En este artículo se propor ciona una división esquemática de cómo los juegos podrían ayudar a comunicar la arqueología digital y el contenido relacionado con ésta; además, se analizarán cuando menos cuatro áreas importantes que nece sitan una mayor investigación en el futuro.
Palabra clave: juegos educativos, patrimonio cultural virtual, interacción temática.
Abstract: How can we transmit the values and interpretations of cultural heritage (using virtual reality) in ways that are relatively inexpensive, contextually appropriate, educationally effective, and collaborative? While much excellent research has been undertaken on social presence in virtual environments (Swinth y Blasco vich, 2002), research on the design and evaluation of cultural presence (i.e. the perception another culture is portrayed and experienced in a virtual environment) lags behind. Where cultural presence has been explored, it has not been directed towards the experiencing of culturally significant heritage (riva et al., 2002), and organizations such as unesco have not prescribed how to determine if the user experience achieved the goals of the designers and shareholders (Champion, 2015, 2011). one possible solution for digital archaeology is to deploy commercial games that allow themselves to be modded (as in modified). This paper will provide a simple classification of the ways in which gamebased examples may help communicate digital archaeology and related content, and argue that there are at least four major areas of research that need to be investi gated further.
The Interactive Past: Archaeology, Heritage, and Video Games, 2017
Introduction This paper focuses on how generic game-based interaction could help improve the desi... more Introduction This paper focuses on how generic game-based interaction could help improve the design of video games for archaeological (and heritage) purposes. I will address three questions:
Cultural Heritage Infrastructures in Digital Humanities, 2017
The success of virtual heritage projects, through the careful inspection, contextualization and m... more The success of virtual heritage projects, through the careful inspection, contextualization and modification of 3D digital heritage models with virtual reality technology, is still problematic. Models are hard to find, impossible to download and edit, in unusual, unwieldy or obsolete formats. Many of the freely available models are standalone 3D meshes with no accompanying metadata or information on how the acquisition of the data. Few have information on if or how the models can be shared (and if they are editable). Fewer still quantify the accuracy of the scanning or modelling process, or make available 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 likely to be in unwieldy 3D Formats. For example, 3D models encased in the proprietary PDF format 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 due to 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.
Serious games research typically uses modified computer games as virtual learning environments. V... more Serious games research typically uses modified computer games as virtual learning environments. Virtual heritage projects typically aim to provide three-dimensional interactive digital environments that aid the understanding of new cultures and languages, rather than merely transfer learning terms and strategies from static prescriptive media such as books. As an intersection between the two fields, game-based historical learning aims to provide ways in which the technology, interactivity, or cultural conventions of computer gaming can help afford the cultural understanding of the self, of the past, or of others with mindsets quite different to our own. This chapter will outline the major technological, pedagogical, and evaluation issues pertinent to game-based historical learning, provide working definitions of virtual learning that may lend themselves to evaluations, and endeavor to explain how specific issues of game-based historical learning may be addressed. It will also forecast trends and suggest approaches to help focus this diverse field.
In 2007 China began to host science fiction conferences. An invited speaker, the British writer N... more In 2007 China began to host science fiction conferences. An invited speaker, the British writer Neil Garmin (2013), said their reasoning was to encourage innovation. So the Chinese visited Apple, Microsoft and Google to discover that the forward- looking and innovative workers at these companies credited science fiction with helping their imagination. Gaiman’s motive was to encourage reading, especially of fiction, but it also underlines another aspect to culture. A substantial part of our current and past cultures rely on a large amount of escapism, idealism, intangible values and implicit yet shifting belief systems.
The cultural geographer Yi-Fu Tuan (1998) even went so far as to declare the basis of culture to be that which is not seen:“Seeing what is not there lies at the foundation of all human culture”. This definition raises two interesting dilemmas for the visualisation of past cultures. How do we see what is not there? And how can we convey a sense of a past or distant culture if we are in fact attempting to simulate their symbolic expressions of escape?
This chapter will try to answer the questions via two case studies of student projects: a game-simulation of the Chinese literature classic Journey to the West; and four touch-screen games that attempted to convey a conceptual rather than literary-based expression of the four great arts of China and of Taoist thought. Issues in developing digital heritage applications for different cultural audiences will also be discussed.
Uploads
Books by Erik M Champion
Leading international scholars have provided chapters to explain current issues in accuracy and precision; challenges in adopting advanced animation techniques; shows how archaeological learning can be developed in Minecraft; they propose mixed reality is conceptual rather than just technical; they explore how useful Linked Open Data can be for art history; explain how accessible photogrammetry can be but also ethical and practical issues for applying at scale; provide insight
into how to provide interaction in museums involving the wider public; and describe issues in evaluating virtual heritage projects not often addressed even in scholarly papers.
The book will be of particular interest to students and scholars in museum studies, digital archaeology, heritage studies, architectural history and modelling, virtual environments.
"This is an Accepted Manuscript of book chapters published by Routledge in Phenomenology of Real and Virtual Places, in 2018, available online: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315106267 OR https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9781315106267
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.
Erik Champion argues organic architecture can be viewed as a concerted attempt to thematically unify the built environment through the allegorical expression of ongoing interaction between designer, architectural brief and building-as process. With over 140 black and white images, this book is an intriguing read for architecture students and professionals alike.
By looking at re-occurring issues in the design, playtesting and interface of serious games and game-based learning for cultural heritage and interactive history, this book highlights the importance of visualisation and self-learning in game studies and how this can intersect with digital humanities. It also asks whether such theoretical concepts can be applied to practical learning situations. It will be of particular interest to those who wish to investigate how games and virtual environments can be used in teaching and research to critique issues and topics in the humanities, particularly in virtual heritage and interactive history.
Contents: Introduction; Digital humanities and the limits of text; Game-based learning and the digital humanities; Virtual reality; Game-based history and historical simulations; Virtual heritage and digital culture; Worlds, roles and rituals; Joysticks of death, violence and morality; Intelligent agents, drama and cinematic narrative; Biofeedback, space and place; Applying critical thinking and critical play; Index.
Book Chapters by Erik M Champion
proposes that instead of developing stand-alone models that we design
in terms of components, components of scholarly ecosystems and audience-oriented learning systems. The focus here is not on individual projects or technological limitations but on the lack of clear and replicable explicit terminology, methodology, assessable, replicable evaluation, and scholarly infrastructure. The success of virtual heritage projects as both a communication and preservation medium depend on community involvement, including scholars, students, the wider public, but also the original shareholders. There is also great potential for more focussed usability studies to verify the effectiveness of interaction and contextual learning. How interaction is intended, what actually takes place and how to archive it separately from the model are difficult issues, but they need to be solved. I will also briefly discuss four major themes potentially of great import to a virtual heritage repository: consumer VR; research groups attempting to avoid the problems of silo projects; publication of 3D models in journals; and real-time streaming of distributed components in a game engine. This chapter also suggests ten criteria to determine whether and to what extent virtual heritage models can solves these issues.
The second half of the chapter will discuss how virtual places (particularly those that wish to display and communicate aspects of culture such as history and heritage) need to consider issues of people, not just as social avatars but also in terms of their “thrown” embodiment and how they influence and are influenced by material culture as a messy, accumulative force; social worlds as place-distinguished realms of power and influence, not simply as topographical or climatic regions; and the enrichment and forgetting of virtual places through care and neglect. I will argue that these elements (as components of dwelling) impact on virtually mediated dwelling and inhabitation as well as on virtual presence.
I have chosen the major writings of Norberg-Schulz (Norberg-Schulz 1971, 1980, 1985, 1988) partly because he was a formative influence on architects (Wilken 2013) but I should note here that his writings also attracted strong criticism. Alberto Pérez-Gómez (Pérez-Gómez 2009) criticized Norberg-Schulz’s theory of “genius loci”, while Malpas (Malpas 2013, 2015) and others (Jiven and Larkham 2003) voiced concerns regards Norberg-Schulz’s emphasis on architectural dwelling and reading of Heidegger. Cacciari denounced Norberg-Schulz’s writings for “nostalgia” (Cacciari 1993) and Wilken (Wilken 2013) added that genius loci was “strongly traditional and nostalgic”.
Despite these criticisms, various writers and architects have drawn on Norberg-Schulz and have sometimes re-incorporated a Norberg-Schulz reading of Heidegger into a more formalist architectural theory (Thiis-Evensen 1987), or applied both thinkers to ancient and modern architecture (Ramzy 2015, Haddad 2010, El-Bizri 2011).
Yet in virtual place design, Norberg-Schulz’s theory of phenomenology has received scant attention (Saunders et al. 2011), even if concepts like dwelling and a sense of place (Genius Loci) as well as embodiment (Coyne 1999, Crick 2010) are desirable if elusive goals in computer games, virtual places and virtual worlds. Are the criticisms of Norberg-Schulz’ theory of genius loci, sense of place, and dwelling valid? And, despite these criticisms, is this theory of any interest to real-world architecture or to virtual place design?
Palabra clave: juegos educativos, patrimonio cultural virtual, interacción temática.
Abstract: How can we transmit the values and interpretations of cultural heritage (using virtual reality) in ways that are relatively inexpensive, contextually appropriate, educationally effective, and collaborative? While much excellent research has been undertaken on social presence in virtual environments (Swinth y Blasco vich, 2002), research on the design and evaluation of cultural presence (i.e. the perception another culture is portrayed and experienced in a virtual environment) lags behind. Where cultural presence has been explored, it has not been directed towards the experiencing of culturally significant heritage (riva et al., 2002), and organizations such as unesco have not prescribed how to determine if the user experience achieved the goals of the designers and shareholders (Champion, 2015, 2011). one possible solution for digital archaeology is to deploy commercial games that allow themselves to be modded (as in modified). This paper will provide a simple classification of the ways in which gamebased examples may help communicate digital archaeology and related content, and argue that there are at least four major areas of research that need to be investi gated further.
Where there are suitable models in standard formats that are available from repositories, such as in Europeana library portal, they are likely to be in unwieldy 3D Formats. For example, 3D models encased in the proprietary PDF format 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 due to 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.
The cultural geographer Yi-Fu Tuan (1998) even went so far as to declare the basis of culture to be that which is not seen:“Seeing what is not there lies at the foundation of all human culture”. This definition raises two interesting dilemmas for the visualisation of past cultures. How do we see what is not there? And how can we convey a sense of a past or distant culture if we are in fact attempting to simulate their symbolic expressions of escape?
This chapter will try to answer the questions via two case studies of student projects: a game-simulation of the Chinese literature classic Journey to the West; and four touch-screen games that attempted to convey a conceptual rather than literary-based expression of the four great arts of China and of Taoist thought. Issues in developing digital heritage applications for different cultural audiences will also be discussed.
Leading international scholars have provided chapters to explain current issues in accuracy and precision; challenges in adopting advanced animation techniques; shows how archaeological learning can be developed in Minecraft; they propose mixed reality is conceptual rather than just technical; they explore how useful Linked Open Data can be for art history; explain how accessible photogrammetry can be but also ethical and practical issues for applying at scale; provide insight
into how to provide interaction in museums involving the wider public; and describe issues in evaluating virtual heritage projects not often addressed even in scholarly papers.
The book will be of particular interest to students and scholars in museum studies, digital archaeology, heritage studies, architectural history and modelling, virtual environments.
"This is an Accepted Manuscript of book chapters published by Routledge in Phenomenology of Real and Virtual Places, in 2018, available online: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315106267 OR https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9781315106267
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.
Erik Champion argues organic architecture can be viewed as a concerted attempt to thematically unify the built environment through the allegorical expression of ongoing interaction between designer, architectural brief and building-as process. With over 140 black and white images, this book is an intriguing read for architecture students and professionals alike.
By looking at re-occurring issues in the design, playtesting and interface of serious games and game-based learning for cultural heritage and interactive history, this book highlights the importance of visualisation and self-learning in game studies and how this can intersect with digital humanities. It also asks whether such theoretical concepts can be applied to practical learning situations. It will be of particular interest to those who wish to investigate how games and virtual environments can be used in teaching and research to critique issues and topics in the humanities, particularly in virtual heritage and interactive history.
Contents: Introduction; Digital humanities and the limits of text; Game-based learning and the digital humanities; Virtual reality; Game-based history and historical simulations; Virtual heritage and digital culture; Worlds, roles and rituals; Joysticks of death, violence and morality; Intelligent agents, drama and cinematic narrative; Biofeedback, space and place; Applying critical thinking and critical play; Index.
proposes that instead of developing stand-alone models that we design
in terms of components, components of scholarly ecosystems and audience-oriented learning systems. The focus here is not on individual projects or technological limitations but on the lack of clear and replicable explicit terminology, methodology, assessable, replicable evaluation, and scholarly infrastructure. The success of virtual heritage projects as both a communication and preservation medium depend on community involvement, including scholars, students, the wider public, but also the original shareholders. There is also great potential for more focussed usability studies to verify the effectiveness of interaction and contextual learning. How interaction is intended, what actually takes place and how to archive it separately from the model are difficult issues, but they need to be solved. I will also briefly discuss four major themes potentially of great import to a virtual heritage repository: consumer VR; research groups attempting to avoid the problems of silo projects; publication of 3D models in journals; and real-time streaming of distributed components in a game engine. This chapter also suggests ten criteria to determine whether and to what extent virtual heritage models can solves these issues.
The second half of the chapter will discuss how virtual places (particularly those that wish to display and communicate aspects of culture such as history and heritage) need to consider issues of people, not just as social avatars but also in terms of their “thrown” embodiment and how they influence and are influenced by material culture as a messy, accumulative force; social worlds as place-distinguished realms of power and influence, not simply as topographical or climatic regions; and the enrichment and forgetting of virtual places through care and neglect. I will argue that these elements (as components of dwelling) impact on virtually mediated dwelling and inhabitation as well as on virtual presence.
I have chosen the major writings of Norberg-Schulz (Norberg-Schulz 1971, 1980, 1985, 1988) partly because he was a formative influence on architects (Wilken 2013) but I should note here that his writings also attracted strong criticism. Alberto Pérez-Gómez (Pérez-Gómez 2009) criticized Norberg-Schulz’s theory of “genius loci”, while Malpas (Malpas 2013, 2015) and others (Jiven and Larkham 2003) voiced concerns regards Norberg-Schulz’s emphasis on architectural dwelling and reading of Heidegger. Cacciari denounced Norberg-Schulz’s writings for “nostalgia” (Cacciari 1993) and Wilken (Wilken 2013) added that genius loci was “strongly traditional and nostalgic”.
Despite these criticisms, various writers and architects have drawn on Norberg-Schulz and have sometimes re-incorporated a Norberg-Schulz reading of Heidegger into a more formalist architectural theory (Thiis-Evensen 1987), or applied both thinkers to ancient and modern architecture (Ramzy 2015, Haddad 2010, El-Bizri 2011).
Yet in virtual place design, Norberg-Schulz’s theory of phenomenology has received scant attention (Saunders et al. 2011), even if concepts like dwelling and a sense of place (Genius Loci) as well as embodiment (Coyne 1999, Crick 2010) are desirable if elusive goals in computer games, virtual places and virtual worlds. Are the criticisms of Norberg-Schulz’ theory of genius loci, sense of place, and dwelling valid? And, despite these criticisms, is this theory of any interest to real-world architecture or to virtual place design?
Palabra clave: juegos educativos, patrimonio cultural virtual, interacción temática.
Abstract: How can we transmit the values and interpretations of cultural heritage (using virtual reality) in ways that are relatively inexpensive, contextually appropriate, educationally effective, and collaborative? While much excellent research has been undertaken on social presence in virtual environments (Swinth y Blasco vich, 2002), research on the design and evaluation of cultural presence (i.e. the perception another culture is portrayed and experienced in a virtual environment) lags behind. Where cultural presence has been explored, it has not been directed towards the experiencing of culturally significant heritage (riva et al., 2002), and organizations such as unesco have not prescribed how to determine if the user experience achieved the goals of the designers and shareholders (Champion, 2015, 2011). one possible solution for digital archaeology is to deploy commercial games that allow themselves to be modded (as in modified). This paper will provide a simple classification of the ways in which gamebased examples may help communicate digital archaeology and related content, and argue that there are at least four major areas of research that need to be investi gated further.
Where there are suitable models in standard formats that are available from repositories, such as in Europeana library portal, they are likely to be in unwieldy 3D Formats. For example, 3D models encased in the proprietary PDF format 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 due to 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.
The cultural geographer Yi-Fu Tuan (1998) even went so far as to declare the basis of culture to be that which is not seen:“Seeing what is not there lies at the foundation of all human culture”. This definition raises two interesting dilemmas for the visualisation of past cultures. How do we see what is not there? And how can we convey a sense of a past or distant culture if we are in fact attempting to simulate their symbolic expressions of escape?
This chapter will try to answer the questions via two case studies of student projects: a game-simulation of the Chinese literature classic Journey to the West; and four touch-screen games that attempted to convey a conceptual rather than literary-based expression of the four great arts of China and of Taoist thought. Issues in developing digital heritage applications for different cultural audiences will also be discussed.
Ancient Ceremony in Augmented Reality
The focus of this book—on archaeology and the classics reinvigorated by puppetry and performance, using digital environments—is an interesting and unusual contribution to the area of virtual heritage. In this chapter I wish to quickly cover some of the changes in the development and thinking behind virtual heritage, and to consider potential advantages of using performance and theatrical devices in the staging of virtual heritage.
This chapter will outline the major technological, pedagogical, and evaluation issues pertinent to game-based historical learning, provide working definitions of virtual learning that may lend themselves to evaluations, and endeavor to explain how specific issues of game-based historical learning may be addressed. It will also forecast trends and suggest approaches to help focus this diverse field.