Outline structure for Screen Tourism talk

Some notes on Screen Tourism VR and Cultural Heritage for 11 June event at the HIVE, Curtin University.

1. We now carry a technical ecosystem of biofeedback GPS and camera tracking devices (phones and fit-bits and smartwatches) but so seldom use them creatively, synergistically and contextually (in terms of our locale).
2. Archaeologists and others are so interested in games but there are so few examples of good group narrative. (Cut to photos of our game session at CAA2017, Georgia USA).
3. Some recently supervised PhD projects (Rusaila Bazlamit, Palestine in Multi-wall Unity) or 360 panoramas of museum classic car collections (Beata Dawson) made me realize that contested spaces with digital heritage are often accidental but isn’t the audience dialogue created one of the most important aims in public heritage?
4. Also, why is Mixed Reality so rare in Virtual Heritage, because AR and VR have so much market presence? Why are there so few mixd reality projects? Show Mafi’s figures! Explain pros and cons of VR MR and AR..
5. Explain how collaborative learning and geolocation can help tell more contextual group-assisted stories..
6. Brief overview of cultural tourism and personal narrative making tools (Twine; Cradle (Unity and Twine); Inkle)…
7. How can film, film trailers, and location and personal adventures be mashed, mixed and augmented?

(More to be added)..

 

 

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What is in an Acronym?

 

I once worked in a department at a huge IT firm, where no one knew what the letters stood for, OMC I think it was. We found out in a few days, but I have forgotten it again, it was surprisingly not memorable.

A more relevant insight might be the gap between digital humanists and people in the field of VR. When I was associated with DARIAH EU, Matt Munson, one of the researchers at the Göttingen Centre For Digital Humanities, was researching VREs.

To me a VRE was a virtual reality environment (granted it is not commonly used now but it is still used: https://www.vrs.org.uk/virtual-reality-environments/) but to Matt and the Digital Humanists it was a Virtual Research Environment, portal (well, web platform) for all the digital tools a scholar from a specific discipline might wish to use.

Good idea in theory, but my point is the gap between so many in DH and VR, both use the same acronym for not quite the same thing and are totally oblivious to what it means in the other field. And it also reveals how elastic the term Virtual is.

Digital Archaeology and Straw Men

Huggett, J. , Reilly, P. and Lock, G. (2018) Whither digital archaeological knowledge? The challenge of unstable futures. Journal of Computer Applications in Archaeology, 1(1), pp. 42-54. (doi:10.5334/jcaa.7)

In the article at https://journal.caa-international.org/articles/10.5334/jcaa.7 the authors wrote:

A popular approach is to integrate expensive infrastructure, such as national monuments databases, national museums, galleries, libraries, and other national archives and collections to create synergy by combining previously separated data (for example, Bernardou et al. 2017). From their inception such projects have prescribed deliverables, milestones, and standards of documentation and publication. They usually also have large international, multidisciplinary project teams who on the whole share a common knowledge culture and adhere to its norms. These collaborating institutions like to see themselves as helping to democratize data; however, non-members of these elite clubs may regard it as a form of knowledge colonialism and may not fully endorse these programmes, underlining that providing access to a robust, properly supported, open infrastructure does not guarantee engagement. Even with an elegant ontology, the knowledge base can be undermined by semantic drift and inadequate digital literacy in the general (potential) user community, and, of course, this presupposes that potential (re)user communities know what resources are available and how to discover and evaluate them in the first place.

In the original conference (CHTA2013, Copenhagen), the major finding, I thought, was the opposite: how important users and iterative design was, rather than elaborate infrastructures. And in the original introduction Costis Dallas was considering reviewing a paper he wrote 20 years ago about the then challenges in Digital Humanities and how now 20 years later those old challenges were still an issue.

I recall in the final talk, mine, which was about 7 minutes, I argued that infrastructure without people using it, is just infrastructure (and I gave a talk at Sheffield in 2013 entitled Research as Infrastructure on this very point).

Interesting how so many chapters could be seen to take on one overall argument, as the person who wrote the grant, organized and hosted the conference, wrote the book proposal, organized the authors, the above quoted viewpoint is one I never contemplated, and still don’t!

Conclusion: Review all publications before publication to check if they may lend themselves to strawman (straw people?) arguments, then rinse and repeat.

Reference

Benardou, (not Bernadou) A, Champion, E, Dallas, C and Hughes, L. 2017. Introduction: a critique of digital practices and research infrastructures. In: Benardou, A, Champion, E, Dallas, C and Hughes, L (eds.), Cultural Heritage Infrastructures in the Digital Humanities, 1–14. Abingdon: Routledge. 

 

Landscape Data Art & Models as Linked Open Data

A free event on Linked Open Data and related Digital Humanities Projects will be taking place on 27 July.

The HIVE, (inside John Curtin Gallery) | Building 200A, Curtin University | Kent Street, Bentley | Perth, WA 6102 | Australia

Friday, 27 July 2018 from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm (Australian Western Standard Time)

Venue: The HIVE (inside John Curtin Gallery), Curtin University

Speakers (alphabetical order, program later), with provisional title and topic

• Andrew Woods, The HIVE, Curtin, Historic panoramas and geolocation
• Bill Pascoe, University of Newcastle, The Colonial Massacres Project
• Conal Tuohy, GLAM consultant, National Museum of Australia Collections
• David McMeekin, Curtin, Semantic Web/LOD
• Erik Champion, Curtin (chair/MC), Linking Cultural Heritage in Australia
• Ikrom Nishanbaev, Curtin PhD student, LOD-3D schema for Australian virtual heritage
• Katrina Grant, ANU, Art Data and Geodata
• Mafkereseb Bekele, Curtin PhD student, HoloRecogito: Integrating Recogito and Mixed Reality
• Rainer Simon, AIT Austrian Institute of Technology, Recogito and Pelagios (Skype, TBC)
• Susan Fayad, Ballarat City, Historic Urban Landscape
• Sven Ouzman, Discipline Chair, Archaeology, UWA, The art of using maps to get lost: God’s eye views and pedestrian speech acts from Indigenous and archaeological contexts in Australia and southern Africa
• Terhi Nurmikko-Fuller, ANU, Linked Open Data
• Tim Sherratt, University of Canberra, LODbooks
• Vanessa Russ, Associate, Associate Director, Berndt Museum, UWA (tbc), TBC

Please note, if you do not know what RDF (Resource Description Framework), Semantic Web, or Linked Open Data is, we will have an intro workshop on this (and current Digital Humanities projects including Virtual Reality) in the Curtin Library Makerspace, Level 5, 3-4:30PM 26 July 2018. The working title is Linked Reality, Mixed Reality but a link to the free workshop will be provided from this page.

DRAFT SCHEDULE (HIVE opens at 12:30pm)

The Screen Tourism VR and Cultural Heritage event will take place Monday at the HIVE, Curtin University.

It is fully booked but the programme is now:

PROGRAM SESSION 1 (Chair: Dr Tod Jones (Curtin University))

1.00–1.05pm: Welcome by Dr Tod Jones

1.05–1.40pm: Mr Ian Brodie (http://www.ianbrodie.net/)

1.40–2.00pm: Dr Christina Lee (Curtin University)

2.00–2.20pm: Professor Erik Champion (Curtin University)

2.20 – 2.45pm: Q&A

2.45–3.15pm: Coffee/tea break at Aroma Café

SESSION 2 (Chair: Erik Champion)

3.15–3.20pm: Introductions

3.20–3.40pm: Mr Mike Dunn (Phimedia)

3.40–3.50pm: Mr Mat Lewis (South West Development Commission)

3.50–4.00pm: Mr Nathan Gibbs (Screen West)

4.00–4.30pm: Q&A then sundowner (see below).

VENUE

HIVE (VR Centre), John Curtin Gallery, Kent Street, Curtin Bentley campus WA 6102

https://humanities.curtin.edu.au/research/centres-institutes-groups/hive/

Phone: (08) 9266 9024 (HIVE).
Map link https://goo.gl/maps/FZu8FaEaULt (in John Curtin Gallery opposite Aroma Café)

PARKING (https://properties.curtin.edu.au/gettingaround/parkingzones.cfm

You can pay in a visitor’s carpark (there are parks near John Curtin Gallery/the HIVE) or you can download a phone app and pay in the yellow signed curtin parks at a much cheaper rate. Closest zone is D3 off Kent St then Beazley Avenue, park as close as you can to John Curtin Library.

• Cellopark mobile parking app https://www.cellopark.com.au/Site/register/
• Map of Curtin Buildings http://properties.curtin.edu.au/maps/
• Phone app of Curtin Buildings: ANDROID https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.studentservices.lostoncampus&hl=en_AU or APPLE https://itunes.apple.com/au/app/lost-on-campus-by-studentvip/id488598630?mt=8

CANCELLATIONS

If you cannot make the event please cancel your ticket at Eventbrite as we have people on the waiting list

TEA/COFFEE

We hope to have tea or coffee provided for attendees at the nearby outside Aroma cafe during the coffee break, please bring your Eventbrite ticket number.

SUNDOWNER AFTER THE EVENT

If you would like to speak to Ian or Mike or the other speakers after the event from 4:30PM or so we hope to offer a small sundowner at the meeting space of Innovation Central, Level 2, Engineering Pavilion Building 216. More details at the event but just a note you can also find it at http://properties.curtin.edu.au/maps/

 

Imagined Spaces in Real Places

If you are in Perth 11 June please sign up on EventBrite to this free event:

Imagined Spaces in Real Places (Screen Tourism, VR & Cultural Heritage)

There is a burgeoning global tourist trade for places – both real and imaginary – inspired by cultural texts and their creators. While Stratford-upon-Avon has long been a mecca for Shakespeare enthusiasts, (popular) cultural tourism has now extended the bucket list of travel destinations to include the likes of Westeros (aka Dubrovnik, Croatia; Game of Thrones) and Middle-earth (aka New Zealand; The Lord of the Rings). This Symposium brings together scholars and presenters from industry to discuss how screen-based tourism (film, television) can be a generative force in local economies, in region/nation branding, and as a way of promoting cultural heritage. The potential and practical application of technology – specifically virtual reality, locative apps and interactive media – in facilitating an immersive touristic experience, visualising place and creating narrative will also be explored.

DETAILS

Monday 11 June 20181-4:30PM (Presentations start at 1pm, finish approx. 4:30pm. HIVE opens at 12:30pm).
Venue: Curtin University HIVE (VR Centre), John Curtin Gallery, Kent Street, Curitn Bentley campus WA 6102
Event organisers: Christina Lee, Erik Champion

Keynote speaker: Ian Brodie (http://www.ianbrodie.net/)

Other presenters include: Dr Christina Lee, Professor Erik Champion, Mat Lewis (Southwest Development Commission), Professor Sue Beeton (teleconference).

Venue: https://humanities.curtin.edu.au/research/centres-institutes-groups/hive/

Phone: (08) 9266 9024 (HIVE).
Map link https://goo.gl/maps/FZu8FaEaULt (in John Curtin Gallery opposite Aroma Café)

Landscape Data, Art/Artefacts & Models as Linked Open Data Perth, Australia

For those interested in the above, please keep Friday 27 July 2018, open for an all-day free event in Perth.

We will be inviting speakers to talk on Australia-specific cultural issues and digital (geo) projects in relation to the above event.

More details to follow shortly and announced via http://commons.pelagios.org/:

So there is an Australian working group for Pelagios – Linked Open Data. We will run an event on 27 July at Curtin. News to follow.

http://commons.pelagios.org/2018/05/its-international-workers-day-announcing-our-2018-working-groups/

Australia LAMLOD Group: led by Erik Champion (UNESCO Chair of Cultural Visualisation and Heritage, Curtin University) and Susan Fayad (City of Ballarat), this WG seeks to address the problem of linking materials between academic research and cultural heritage in an Australian context. This is not so much about extending Pelagios linked data practice to an entirely new continent, though that is important; the problem this WG seeks to address is the multi-layered and contentious representation of cultural heritage, namely: the vast scale of Australian landscapes and historic journeys; the local and highly specific Aboriginal ways of describing, navigating and experiencing the landscapes with hundreds of different languages; and the specific problem of integrating UNESCO designated built and natural heritage with its surrounding ecosystems. The LAMLOD WG will create landscape data and visualisation displays, investigate related cultural artefact knowledge (Indigenous and colonial), and build towards the integration of linked open data and 3D models.