“3D·CoD”: A New Methodology for the Design of Virtual Reality-Mediated Experiences in Digital Archeology

Despite the capacity of virtual reality (VR) to recreate and enhance real and virtual worlds, many applications in Archeology aim at the photorealistic depiction of architectural spaces. On the other hand, little is known about their real communicational effectiveness. In this context, the EU-funded...

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Main Author: Laia Pujol-Tost
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Frontiers Media S.A. 2017-08-01
Series:Frontiers in Digital Humanities
Subjects:
Online Access:http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fdigh.2017.00016/full
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spelling doaj-b04314ab975e409893db4b8abf5b8e512020-11-25T01:09:31ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Digital Humanities2297-26682017-08-01410.3389/fdigh.2017.00016271625“3D·CoD”: A New Methodology for the Design of Virtual Reality-Mediated Experiences in Digital ArcheologyLaia Pujol-Tost0Department of Humanities, Pompeu Fabra University, Barcelona, SpainDespite the capacity of virtual reality (VR) to recreate and enhance real and virtual worlds, many applications in Archeology aim at the photorealistic depiction of architectural spaces. On the other hand, little is known about their real communicational effectiveness. In this context, the EU-funded project {LEAP] proposed the concept of Cultural Presence as the theoretical and methodological foundation for a new kind of VR-mediated experience, and the UNESCO World Heritage Neolithic site of Çatalhöyük (Turkey) was chosen as case of application. During this process, a survey of design pipelines in Digital Archeology indicated that, to build such experiences, a new design and evaluation method may need to be adopted. This paper presents the process of building and testing “3D⋅CoD,” a new methodology for the design of VR-mediated experiences. Initially, different archeologists working at Çatalhöyük were engaged in a first workshop, aimed at establishing a specific instantiation of Cultural Presence and how to depict it by means of VR. To that end, observation, questionnaires, multimodal, and statistical analyses were used. The results of this field work were translated into a codesign hands-on methodology (“3D⋅CoD”), which was tested in a second workshop, with a different group of archeologists. In this case, observation and debriefing were used. The results of this evaluation suggest that codesign strategies are suitable for the creation of VR-mediated experiences, but that equally important is (1) to consider the codesigners’ concept of Archeology and (2) to think in terms, not of 3D models, but of Cultural Heritage goals and human experiences.http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fdigh.2017.00016/fullvirtual archeologyvirtual reality-mediated experiencescultural presenceparticipatory design strategiesmultimodal analysis
collection DOAJ
language English
format Article
sources DOAJ
author Laia Pujol-Tost
spellingShingle Laia Pujol-Tost
“3D·CoD”: A New Methodology for the Design of Virtual Reality-Mediated Experiences in Digital Archeology
Frontiers in Digital Humanities
virtual archeology
virtual reality-mediated experiences
cultural presence
participatory design strategies
multimodal analysis
author_facet Laia Pujol-Tost
author_sort Laia Pujol-Tost
title “3D·CoD”: A New Methodology for the Design of Virtual Reality-Mediated Experiences in Digital Archeology
title_short “3D·CoD”: A New Methodology for the Design of Virtual Reality-Mediated Experiences in Digital Archeology
title_full “3D·CoD”: A New Methodology for the Design of Virtual Reality-Mediated Experiences in Digital Archeology
title_fullStr “3D·CoD”: A New Methodology for the Design of Virtual Reality-Mediated Experiences in Digital Archeology
title_full_unstemmed “3D·CoD”: A New Methodology for the Design of Virtual Reality-Mediated Experiences in Digital Archeology
title_sort “3d·cod”: a new methodology for the design of virtual reality-mediated experiences in digital archeology
publisher Frontiers Media S.A.
series Frontiers in Digital Humanities
issn 2297-2668
publishDate 2017-08-01
description Despite the capacity of virtual reality (VR) to recreate and enhance real and virtual worlds, many applications in Archeology aim at the photorealistic depiction of architectural spaces. On the other hand, little is known about their real communicational effectiveness. In this context, the EU-funded project {LEAP] proposed the concept of Cultural Presence as the theoretical and methodological foundation for a new kind of VR-mediated experience, and the UNESCO World Heritage Neolithic site of Çatalhöyük (Turkey) was chosen as case of application. During this process, a survey of design pipelines in Digital Archeology indicated that, to build such experiences, a new design and evaluation method may need to be adopted. This paper presents the process of building and testing “3D⋅CoD,” a new methodology for the design of VR-mediated experiences. Initially, different archeologists working at Çatalhöyük were engaged in a first workshop, aimed at establishing a specific instantiation of Cultural Presence and how to depict it by means of VR. To that end, observation, questionnaires, multimodal, and statistical analyses were used. The results of this field work were translated into a codesign hands-on methodology (“3D⋅CoD”), which was tested in a second workshop, with a different group of archeologists. In this case, observation and debriefing were used. The results of this evaluation suggest that codesign strategies are suitable for the creation of VR-mediated experiences, but that equally important is (1) to consider the codesigners’ concept of Archeology and (2) to think in terms, not of 3D models, but of Cultural Heritage goals and human experiences.
topic virtual archeology
virtual reality-mediated experiences
cultural presence
participatory design strategies
multimodal analysis
url http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fdigh.2017.00016/full
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