Swords Sandals and Selfies

An abstract from a draft chapter. I have written the chapter but hope to revise it further. It is for a book entitled Screen Tourism and Affective Landscapes, out, I hope, early 2023.

The prospect and potential of videogame-induced tourism has only recently been discussed in academic publications. I will examine three possible reasons why, I will 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). My 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, photographical 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 visualisation tool and as a hybrid fictional and yet also factual learning environment.

Virtual Heritage: How Could It Be Ethical?

Latest book chapter in the works:

Virtual Heritage: How Could It Be Ethical? Invited chapter for The Routledge Handbook of Heritage Ethics, Andreas Pantazatos, Tracy Ireland, John Schofield and Rouran Zhang (eds.), Routledge, 2023.

Ranging from modified adaption of commercial games (game mods) to multi-million dollar 3D visualizations and web-based projects, virtual heritage projects have showcased cutting-edge technology and provided insight into understanding past cultures. While the research field of virtual heritage (virtual reality and related immersive and interactive digital technology applied to cultural heritage) is several decades old, its specific ethical issues have not been extensively addressed.

Six issues will be discussed in this chapter: cultural ownership; the depiction of humans no longer with us; obsessions with photorealism rather than the complex topic of authenticity; environmental costs; accidental social alienation; and the gamification of serious, traumatic, or personal content.

Book Chapters on the way (provisionally)

1. Champion, E. (2021: pending). Biodiversity and Cultural Diversity: Virtual opportunities. In E. Wandl-Vogt (Ed.), Biodiversity in connection with Linguistic and Cultural Diversity. Vienna, Austria. Written.
2. Champion, E. (2021: under review). Not Quite Virtual: Techné between Text and World” In Texts & Technology: Inventing the Future of the Humanities, edited by Anastasia Salter and Barry Mauer, University of Central Florida, Orlando Florida USA. Written.
3. Champion, E. (2021: under review). Workshopping Game Prototypes for History and Heritage. In Digital Humanities book, Politecnico di Torino, Italy. Aracne Publishing Company. Written.
4. Champion, E., & Hiriart, J. (2021: pending). Workshopping Board Games for Space Place and Culture. In C. Randl & M. Lasansky (Eds.), Playing Place: Board Games, Architecture, Space, and Heritage. Written. Publisher being negotiated.
5. Champion, E. (2021). Reflective Experiences with Immersive Heritage: A Theoretical Design-Based Framework. In A. Benardou & A. M. Droumpouki (Eds.), Difficult Pasts and Immersive Experiences. London, UK: Routledge. Abstract accepted.
6. Champion, E., Nurmikko-Fuller, T., & Grant, K. (2021: pending, invited). Blue Sky Skyrim VR: Immersive Techniques to Engage with Medieval History. In R. Houghton (Ed.), Games for Teaching, Impact, and Research UK: De Gruyter. Abstract accepted, full chapter due March 2021.
7. Champion, E. (2022: pending). Swords, Sandals and Selfies: A Tour You’d Kill For. In C. Lee & E. Champion (Eds.), Screen Tourism and Affective Landscapes Publisher to be confirmed.

Virtual Heritage Book Proposal Reviewers

If you’d like to be suggested as a reviewer for an edited book proposal we will send to a publisher on virtual heritage (a concise guide) please let me know and I will tell the editor (I won’t know who the final chosen reviewers will be and I’d rather not re-bother the usual suspects) … with the authors, we are deciding whether to write a very concise 30,000 words or a normal 80,000-word book proposal (but the latter would be more expensive for university students, the primary audience).

Free access: Phenomenology of Real and Virtual Places

Routledge is running a monograph sale through June 11^th. Readers can now access The Phenomenology of Real and Virtual Places free-of-charge for seven days. At the end of the trial period, they’ll have the opportunity to purchase the eBook for £10/$15.

Here are the links to the offer.

• https://tfstore.kortext.com/the-phenomenology-of-real-and-virtual-places-384647 (EPUB version)
• https://tfstore.kortext.com/the-phenomenology-of-real-and-virtual-places-390649 (PDF version)

New chapter: “Art History, Heritage Games, and Virtual Reality”

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, ¹ 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.

• Champion, E. & Foka, A. (2020). “Chapter 17: Art History, Heritage Games, and Virtual Reality”, in Brown, K. J. (Ed.). The Routledge Companion to Digital Humanities and Art History. Routledge, UK. Chapter. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429505188

update: we are allowed to upload author preproofs of our chapter and given the book is 524 pages, 34 authors and $319.20 Australian dollars in hardback format, that should make it more accessible. I will provide a link here when accepted at Curtin research espace.

 

The Phenomenology of Real and Virtual Places

New edited book out 8 November:

Champion, E. (Ed.). (2018). The Phenomenology of Real and Virtual Places. The Routledge Studies in Contemporary Philosophy series. Routledge. 08 November 2018 (ebook 26 October 2018 9781315106267). ISBN 9781138094079

Feel free to ask Routledge for a review form and book copy..

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.

Foreword byJeff Malpas

Introduction by Erik Champion

1. The Inconspicuous Familiarity of Landscape by Ted Relph2. Landscape Archaeology in Skyrim VR by Andrew Reinhard

3. The Efficacy of Phenomenology for Investigating Place with Locative Media by Leighton Evans

4. Postphenomenology and “Places” by Don Ihde

5. Virtual Place and Virtualized Place by Bruce Janz

6. Transactions in virtual places: Sharing and excess in blockchain worlds by Richard Coyne

7. The Kyoto School Philosophy on Place: Nishida and Ueda by John W.M. Krummel

8. Phenomenology of Place and Space in our Epoch: Thinking along Heideggerian Pathways by Nader El-Bizri

9. Norberg-Schulz: Culture, Presence and a Sense of Virtual Place by Erik Champion

10. Heidegger’s Building Dwelling Thinking in terms of Minecraft by Tobias Holischka

11. Cézanne, Merleau-Ponty, and Questions for Augmented Reality by Patricia Locke

12. The Place of Others: Merleau-Ponty and the Interpersonal Origins of Adult Experience by Susan Bredlau

13. “The Place was not a Place”: A Critical Phenomenology of Forced Displacement Neil Vallelly

14. Virtual Dark Tourism in The Town of Light by Florence Smith Nicholls

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The Phenomenology of Virtual Places (observations)

Just submitted a draft of the above edited book of 14 proposed chapters to Routledge, to their Research in Phenomenology series.

The Phenomenology of Virtual Places is an edited book on the history, implications and usefulness of phenomenology for real places and virtual places, with chapters by philosophers, cultural geographers, architects and archaeologists.

I won’t summarize the chapters right now as the series editors have the right to ask for major subtractions, additions and revisions but I am very happy about the range of disciplines, perspectives and topics.

I do have some observations

1. One thing very much under-represented is the unconventional, the alternative and the non-Western or not so obviously Western (and I don’t like the term “Western” but what are better options here)?
2. Also, the connections and distinctions between phenomenology and ethnography are perhaps still to be explored, especially for game and VR evaluation.
3. Phenomenology deserves even more criticism. It is either obvious, or difficult and subtle, available to all or best practiced by trained phenomenologists (or is that, people trained to detect or extract or train phenomenological accounts).
4. Writing introductions to edited books can be very difficult.
5. How HMDs will challenge our notions of embodiment and social presence in VR will be a very big thing.
6. Locative media raise very interesting research avenues for embodiment and the concept of place.
7. And on a workflow-related note, if the publisher doesn’t give you a complete, formal template at the start, stick to your own and demand it be used by all authors even if the final template changes. Saves a world of pain.
8. Also, game and VR companies would save us all trouble by clearly saying which screenshots can be used in academic books or provide a pathway for a quicker permissions/rejections process. If your images are in a book, it is free PR!

Book in preparation “Organic Design in Twentieth-Century Nordic Architecture”

Yes I know I don’t normally write in architectural history (any more) but this research gave me a great deal of insight into place design and virtual space non-place design. Even though the first draft is not due to August next year, I’d just like to thank Routledge for allowing me the chance to publish in this area.

I wrote this book because I realised there was very little of critical import on what organic really means (it is often used as a compliment or a criticism without an explanation). I did not know why Nordic architects seldom featured in global architectural history books and yet those who visited their buildings were in such admiration. Indeed I also wanted to explore how Nordic architects could incorporate modernism without turning their backs on earlier styles and traditions, for they were seldom either modernist or postmodernist.

The Broad Theme/ back cover:

Can a communicable and thus useful definition of ‘Organic Architecture’ be made? In this book I say yes, there is both a practical and therefore useful definition of ‘Organic Architecture’ if we view it as an attempt to thematically unify the built environment through the allegorical expression of on-going interaction between the designer and the forces of flux and change in the real world.

I have focused on the works and writings of major twentieth-century architects of Nordic countries structured around three major premises:

• The most prominent architects of the four major Nordic countries were influenced by similar principles.
• The works of these prominent architects can be seen as evolving from several major ideas traceable thought their buildings.
• From the ideology of their writings these architects made explicit claims as to the existence of such ideas in their work.

call for chapters for edited book “Phenomenology, Place and Virtual Place”

Phenomenology, Place and Virtual Place: can phenomenology help us convey and understand the ‘virtual place’ experience?

I am seeking 3-5 chapters for an edited book on the history, implications and usefulness of phenomenology for real places and virtual places, with chapters by philosophers, cultural geographers, architects and archaeologists.

Main themes:

1 Phenomenology, definitions, main concepts, historical interpretations.

2 Critical reviews of phenomenology, successes failures and lessons learnt.

3 Strengths and weaknesses of phenomenology compared to other methods.

4 Context-specific and discipline-specific applications of phenomenology applied to place.

5 Particular place-centric phenomenological investigations, issues and applications.

6 Phenomenology applied to virtual places.

There are currently seven proposed authors (see below) but I am aiming to include three to five more authors though an open call for abstracts. Topic 3 is still to be addressed (as well as, to some extent, Topic 2) so I would be particularly happy to receive abstract/chapter submissions on these two topics. You may also notice we currently only have male authors, I asked four leading female writers/philosophers and they were all busy so I would be very happy for a wider and more inclusive spread of perspectives.

Current Proposed Chapters

Introduction by Distinguished Professor Jeffrey Malpas, University of Tasmania.

1 Phenomenology’s Preoccupations and Place, Professor Bruce Janz, University of Central Florida, United States of America.

2 An Encumbering, Confining Reality: Comparing and Contrasting Real Reality and Real Places with Virtual Reality and Virtual Places, Professor David Seamon, Kansas State University.

3 The Inconspicuous Familiarity of Landscapes, Professor Ted Relph, Emeritus Professor University of Toronto.

4 Heidegger’s Bauen, Wohnen, Denken in terms of Minecraft, Dr. Tobias Holischka, Katholische Universität Eichstätt-Ingolstadt

5 Attention in virtual reality, Professor Richard Coyne, University of Edinburgh

6 Hermeneutics, Horizon and ‘Sense of Place’ Affordances in Virtual Environments, Professor Erik Champion, Curtin University

7 Using Mixed Reality to undertake archaeological phenomenology, Dr Stuart Eve, University of York

Typical book chapter length: 5,000–8,000 words
Philosophical emphasis: Yes as it is intended to be part of a series in Phenomenology (Philosophy) this will be a factor. However I would also be happy to receive submissions from writers with overlapping interests.

Current Status of Proposal: Have discussed with the editor of Routledge Research in Phenomenology and the book proposal will be sent to him for review when I have approximately 10-12 authors. We currently have seven authors.

Submission: by email or attached word or RTF document, approximately 300-500 words.

Deadline for chapter abstracts: Sunday 7 February 2016.

Deadline for draft chapters: Good question but I don’t know! I would probably aim for September 2016.

Email your abstract to: erik DOT champion AT Curtin edu au