1. Extending Museum Realities: Play,
Presence, and Problems
Emeritus Professor Erik Champion, Curtin, UWA, ANU, Australia
Visiting Fellow, University of Jyväskylä, @nzerik erikchampion@gmail.com
2021 04.10.2021 MrICHE ISMAR2021 Bari Italy
2. abstract
1. What is the relationship of Virtual Heritage and Mixed Reality?
2. Is experiencing presence (telepresence) a central concept?
3. Which interaction design issues and opportunities have arisen or
are likely to arise? For example, in gamification?
4. Given recent worldwide developments, how are and will museums
and the wider GLAM sector (Galleries Libraries Archives and
Museums) develop, employ and evaluate mixed reality for online
and virtual visitors?
5. Are there related industries that may also benefit?
8. XR: Extended Reality (whole spectrum)
Given VR, AR, MR and XR are
typically screen-based, how can
cultural heritage best use XR?
• Move towards a consumer-
component based system.
• OS frameworks improve access.
• Smartphone is potentially
stereoscopic viewer, a sensor, a PC.
• The device won’t matter.
• Software is in the browser.
WebXR or OpenXR works in browser
9. 1. Virtual Heritage (& MR)
VH: the attempt to convey not just the appearance but also the meaning and significance
of cultural artifacts and the associated social agency that designed and used them through
the use of interactive and immersive digital media
MR: Paul Milgram and Fumio Kishino (1994) define it as “a particular subclass of VR related
technologies that involve the merging of real and virtual worlds.”
https://venturebeat.com/2021/09/30/nreal-
unveils-lightweight-nreal-air-ar-glasses-for-
entertainment/
10. VIRTUAL HERITAGE IS..
• The combination of virtual reality and
cultural heritage.
• Promises best of both, fails often.
• Why?
• Few significant interaction design studies
• Lack of preservation
• Forgets end-users, doesn’t provide reuse
13. Bekele, M. K. (2019). Walkable Mixed Reality Map as interaction interface for Virtual Heritage.
Digital Applications in Archaeology and Cultural Heritage, e00127.
Bekele, M. K., & Champion, E. (2019). A Comparison of Immersive Realities and Interaction
Methods: Cultural Learning in Virtual Heritage. Frontiers in Robotics and AI, 6, 91.
Walkable Maps & Movable 3D
SS Xantho Steam Engine
14. 2. Presence
cultural presence: a visitor’s overall subjective impression when visiting a virtual
environment that people with a different cultural perspective occupy or have occupied as a
place. Such a definition suggests that cultural presence is not just a feeling of being there
but also a sense of being in a foreign time or not-so-well understood place.
15. Even better than the real thing..U2
https://youtu.be/Vo4hCg91Xhk
16. CONCEPTUAL BLINDNESS?
Why virtual reality cannot match the real thing (?)
“… the emotions you feel when you have a virtual experience are not as
valuable. When you actually see Niagara Falls, especially if you get up
close, you feel awe and even fear in the face of an overpowering force
of nature… Computer simulations, however good, contain only what
photography, laser technology and pre-existing expertise put into
them… Real experiences connect us to the deeds of past people and
place us in contexts where history was made… VR will never be a
substitute for encounters with the real thing.”
- Janna Thompson Professor of Philosophy, La Trobe University.
https://theconversation.com/why-virtual-reality-cannot-match-the-real-thing-92035
17. Virtual Places Highly Static..MR?
• Single viewer, not to dwell or move between, few meaningful
between spaces
• Game achievements may change a place, but don’t redefine it.
• VR presence in VR is the sense of being there? Then in a virtual
museum what is being and what is there?
• More user-designed infill, creative tools, a way of recording, sharing,
and commemorating both their designs and their user experiences .
• Place revealed through people etc in terms of what they do, how they
are organized, how they affect others, not just external appearance.
• Should afford, include, and preserve collective learning.
17
18. Evaluation Content (intro, 3 Archaeol., 3
gamic)
Objective: Compare to
Task Performance 6 objects to find Understanding
Cultural
Understanding
6 questions x 3 virtual
environments (learn by
observing, conversing with
bots, activity)
Which VE most challenging to
explore, find or change?
Preference,
demographics, task
performance
Presence Survey
(rank 1 to 7)
Most: interesting; interactive;
related to ‘Mayan’; inhabited;
in the presence of Mayan
culture
Demographics, to task
performance; find
personal preference in
answers, rank 7 VEs
Environmental
recall
Shadows; real people; height
of locals vs tourists; number
of people
Demographics and to
task performance and
to understanding
Subjective
Experience (of time
passing)
In which VE did time pass
quickest? How fast did they
update the screen?
Subjective preference
and to demographics
PhD: U. of Melbourne, Lonely Planet 2001-4
19. Aspects of Cultural Significance Culturally Significant Place Examples in Games
Dynamic & often contested:
cultural significance is variable;
places have range of values over
time for different individuals or
groups - places reflect diversity.
Embodies & represents a range of
encounters and differences,
cultural values, and priorities.
Reflects the richness and diversity
of the community or communities
simulated.
Games host trigger points NOT
symbolically defined places with
amorphous boundaries. Culturally
rich bounded worlds in detailed
games with convincing AI?
Evocative: connects a community
to landscape & past experiences
(as historical records).
Connects modes of inhabitation,
identity, & place via situated past
experiences.
Few ways to store, preserve, &
access memory for players or Non-
Playing Characters (NPCs).
Shared fragility: places are fragile
& must be conserved for present &
future generations in line with the
principle of inter-generational
equity.
Conveys fragility but also care & the
means to care for the cultural
prestige and shared meaning of the
digitally simulated environment.
Few examples of cultural fragility in
games as focus typically on avatar
health.
21. The Vanishing Virtual
Addison, Thwaites, Stone
Beyond Time and Space … GONE!
http://www.geek.com/news/expore-the-virtual-forbidden-city-
courtesy-of-ibm-593731/
https://twitter.com/plevy/status/433058523836985344/photo/1
“Museums of Tomorrow”
http://www.beyondspaceandtime.org/
27. Biofeedback controls characters, music, graphics, gameplay (A. Dekker, UQ,
2007)
• Phillips, P., Hartup, M., and Champion, E. (2009). “A survey of 10 free massive multiplayer online games that may help augment social
interaction and positive mental health.” The ANZ Association of Psychiatry, Psychology And Law (Inc.) Conference, Fremantle,
BIOFEEDBACK CINEMATICS AND XRAY VISION
30. 4. GLAM versus AR VR MR
Galleries libraries archives museums
Expensive and need to train staff
Software/hardware obsolescence, visitors don’t download phone apps, internet
Human Guides are superior
40. Creating a Simple Game
1. What is the goal? Why try to achieve it?
2. Why is it an engaging challenge?
3. Does it involve competition/mastery,
chance, imitation, controlling vertigo/rush
of movement/flight?
4. What is the feedback system, affordances +
constraints, rewards and punishments?
5. How level up/advance via mechanics?
6. How does it offer different strategies,
options?
7. What is learnt during or after the
experience?
41. With Dr Juan Hiriart + Rapa Nui children
https://padlet.com
https://milanote.com/
45. Conclusion (mrICHE)
• Discuss, ideate, and prototyping immersive AR-MR
• Better pathways for open-source software
• New and reusable Cultural Heritage
• Cultural tourism and DH education
• Closer ties with the game industry
• Academic incentives for scholarly and shared paradata
• A new cultural heritage based on digital technology
• Reusable, scalable, reconfigurable, providence-rich, linkable (L.o.D),
• Greater emphasis on sharable, contestable, multimodal experiences
• Understanding of culturally significant presence
46. References
• Bekele, Mafkereseb Kassahun 2019 Walkable Mixed Reality Map as Interaction Interface for Virtual Heritage. Digital Applications in
Archaeology and Cultural Heritage 15. DOI:10.1016/j.daach.2019.e00127.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
• Bekele, Mafkereseb Kassahun, Pierdicca, Roberto, Frontoni, Emanuele, Malinverni, Eva Savina, and Gain, James 2018 A Survey of
Augmented, Virtual, and Mixed Reality for Cultural Heritage. Journal on Computing and Cultural Heritage 11(2):1–
36.CrossRefGoogle Schol
• Champion, E. (Ed.) (2021). Virtual Heritage: A Guide. London, UK: Ubiquity Press. https://doi.org/10.5334/bck
• Champion, E. (2020). Culturally Significant Presence in Single-player Computer Games. Journal on Computing and Cultural
Heritage, 13(4). DOI: 10.1145/3414831. https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3414831
• Rahaman, H., & Champion, E. (2020). Survey of 3D Digital Heritage Repositories and Platforms. The Virtual Archaeology Review
(VAR), 11(23). https://doi.org/10.4995/var.2020.13226
• Rahaman, Hafizur, Champion, Erik, and Bekele, Mafkereseb 2019 From Photo to 3D to Mixed Reality: A Complete Workflow for
Cultural Heritage Visualisation and Experience. Digital Applications in Archaeology and Cultural Heritage 13.
DOI:10.1016/j.daach.2019.e00102.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
• Champion, E., & Rahaman, H. (2019). 3D Digital Heritage Models as Sustainable Scholarly Resources, Sustainability: Natural
Sciences in Archaeology & Cultural Heritage, 11(8). MDPI. Editor, Ioannis Liritzis. Open Access. Invited article.
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/8/2425
examples
• Mixing Worlds Current Trends in Integrating the Past and Present through Augmented and Mixed Reality
• https://www.vi-mm.eu/2017/09/14/microsoft-hololens-a-holographic-technology-which-revives-our-cultural-heritage/
• https://tc.computer.org/tclt/10-1109-2021-101006/
• https://www.diericbouts.be/en/hololens