Story guided virtual environments in educational applications

Over the last few years we have witnessed a rapid development and popularisation of serious gaming. This field is becoming approved in not only education, science, medicine, religion or engineering, but also in the area of cultural heritage through serious heritage games. This can be utilised for virtual reconstructions and virtual museums and possibly used for education in the form of edutainment, comprising various techniques, such as storytelling, visual expression of information, interactivity and entertainment [19]. This paper demonstrates a new concept of using story guided virtual environments for cultural heritage virtual reconstruction, with live virtual guides in an interactive Flash format. First we compare the implementations of the same environments in x3D and Flash and then we extend the project with digital storytelling, where a user is guided through the whole application using both narrative, non-interactive, movie-like elements and interactive exploration of the virtual environment. The introduced results can be easily adopted for serious games development

The Use of Live Virtual Guides in Educational Applications

—Serious games are becoming increasingly popular in education, science, medicine, religion, engineering, and some other fields. Additionally, serious heritage games, including virtual reconstructions and museums, provide a good environment for a synthesis of serious games and cultural heritage. This may be used for education in the form of edutainment, comprising various techniques, such as storytelling, visual expression of information, interactivity and entertainment [1]. This paper demonstrates a new concept of using live virtual guides in a Flash environment for cultural heritage virtual reconstruction. A pilot user study compares another approach using the X3D environment, highlighting the advantages and disadvantages of our concept. The introduced results can be easily adopted for serious games development

Virtues/Pāramitās: St. Ignatius Of Loyola and Sāntideva as Companions on the Way of Life

This dissertation conducts a comparative study of the cultivation of the virtues in Catholic spiritual tradition and the perfections (pāramitās) in the Mahāyāna Buddhist traditions in view of the spiritual needs of contemporary Croatian young adults. The comparison is carried out through the exploration of two key texts: The Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola, a sixteenth-century Basque Catholic, and the founder of the Society of Jesus, and The Way of the Bodhisattva (Bodhicaryāvatāra) of Śāntideva, an eight-century Indian Mahāyāna monk. The study links the central teachings of the Catholic faith to the daily life and identity of young Catholics through the cultivation of the virtues/ pāramitās, re-imagined for the modem sensibilities of today\u27s Croatia. Such practice understands the cultivation of the virtues/pāramitās as intentional, deliberate, and cognitive behavioral activity through which one shapes one\u27s life according to a particular vision of ultimate reality. The primary objective of this study is to fill a vital need within the Catholic community in the small but culturally and religiously complex nation of Croatia. The general problem facing Croat Catholics today is the clash of Catholic pre-modernity with modem and post-modern ideas and institutions. In this encounter, pre-modern Catholic religious forms no longer satisfy the needs and expectations of modem young adults in a society increasingly marked by cultural and religious pluralism. The immediate context of my study is the 3D Formation Program, a three-yearlong systematic program for young adults organized by the University Students Catholic Academic Center (SK.AC), which belongs to the Jesuit university chaplaincy at Zagreb University. The name 3D is an abbreviation of the Croatian words, Duh, Dusa, and Drustvo, meaning Spirit, Soul and Society. My study argues that a fruitful synthesis between Ignatius and Śāntideva with regard to the cultivation of virtues/pārarmitās may contribute to a form of Catholic spirituality that is intellectually and behaviorally challenging, relevant, and compelling for today\u27s Croatian young adults. Buddhism is attractive for Catholics because of its practicality, immediately pragmatic effects, monastic institutions, and ritual richness. It therefore serves as a good dialogue partner for lgnatian spirituality in the cultivation of a contextualized spiritual practice. Though the two traditions differ radically on the level of doctrinal assumptions and consequently, ultimate goals, they share a great deal on the level of the practice of virtues/pāramitās, which assumes a common, human, biological-intellectual substratum. The theoretical framework of this study is the comparative theological method developed by Francis Clooney, complemented with Judith Berling\u27s interreligious learning. The reason for merging Clooney\u27s and Berling\u27s methods lies in the nature of my work, which involves studying each text in its own context (Clooney) as well as considering contemporary interpretations within living communities (Berling). The work is interdisciplinary in nature. In addition to comparative theology and interreligious learning, the study applies an historical and sociological framework to an analysis of the political, economic, ideological, religious, and cultural dimensions of the Croatian context. This analysis forms the foundation of a contextualized spiritual practice for young adults who are seeking genuine encounter with God in the complex historical reality of Croatia

The Future of the Bamiyan Buddha Statues

This Open Access book explores heritage conservation ethics of post conflict and provides an important historical record of the possible reconstruction of the Bamiyan Buddha statues, which was inscribed in the UNESCO World Heritage List in Danger in 2003 as “Cultural Landscape and Archaeological Remains of the Bamiyan Valley”. With the condition that most surface of the original fragments of the Buddha statues were lost due to acts of deliberate destruction, this publication explores a reference point for conservation practitioners and policy makers around the world as they consider how to respond to on-going acts of destruction of cultural heritage. Whilst there has been an emerging debate to the ethics and nature of heritage reconstruction, this volume provides a plethora of ideas and approaches concerning the future treatment of the Bamiyan Buddha statues. It also addresses a number of fundamental questions on potential heritage reconstruction: how it will be done; who will decide; and what it should be done for. Moreover when it comes to the inscribed World Heritage properties, how can reconstructed heritage using non-original materials be considered to retain authenticity? With a view to serving as a precedent for potential decisions taken elsewhere in the world for cultural properties impacted by acts of violence and destruction, this volume introduces academic researches, experiences and observations of heritage conservation theory and practice of heritage reconstruction. It also addresses the issue not merely from the point of a material conservation philosophy but within the context of holistic strategies for the protection of human rights and promotion of peace building

The European Pilgrimage Routes for promoting sustainable and quality tourism in rural areas

The International Conference the European Pilgrimage Routes for promoting sustainable and quality tourism in rural areas took place December 4 to 6, 2014 in Firenze (Italy) and was organized by the Department of Agricultural, Food and Forestry Systems – University of Florence in collaboration with the Tuscany Region, the Department for Life Quality Studies and Department of Agricultural Sciences – University of Bologna, the Italian Association of Agricultural Engineering and the European Association of the Francigena Way. The Conference involving 150 experts from 18 countries and was divided into five areas of discussion: conservation and evolution of the landscape along the routes; life quality and social impact; tourism and local development; sustainability in the rural areas; tools and methods for building a tourist attraction

Genocide Perspectives IV

Genocide isn't past tense and the Nazi and Bosnian eras are not yet closed. The demonising of people as 'unworthy' and expendable is ever-present and the consequences are all too evident in the daily news. These fourteen essays by Australian scholars confront the issues: the need for a measuring scale that encompasses differences and similarities between seemingly divergent cases of the crime; the complicity of bureaucracies, the healing professions and the churches in this 'crime of crimes'; the quest for historical justice for genocide victims generally following the Nuremberg Trials; the fate of children in the Nazi and postwar eras; the 'worthiness' of Armenians, Jews and Romani people in twentieth century Europe; and the imperative to tackle early warning signs of an incipient genocide. Colin Tatz is a founding director of the Australian Institute for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, visiting fellow in Politics and International Relations at the Australian National University, and honorary visiting fellow at the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies. He teaches and publishes in comparative race politics, youth suicide, migration studies, and sports history

Russian Old Believers' heritage and traditions in Romania - bridging the past and future

This thesis focuses on the heritage and traditions of the Russian Old Believers community in Romania. The study begins with an examination of the limited recognition of the 19 officially recognised ethnic groups in the country. Analysed in connection with the history of Old Belief, the study then considers (a) the narratives developed around heritage, (b) the manner in which different forms of heritage are included in Old Believers’ lives and traditions and (c) the representation of that heritage. The theoretical framework is underpinned by a multi-disciplinary structure that draws on heritage studies, anthropology, ethnology and folklore. Methodologically, the study was designed as an interpretive multisited ethnography that combines extensive fieldtrips, interviews, observations and archival material. While acknowledging the challenges of UNESCO’s conceptualisation of heritage, the thesis relies in part on the organisation’s interpretation as a framework for analysis. The examination considers the representation of Old Believers in the media and in museums as well as the use of heritage and traditions in tourism activities. The data tracks the accelerated pace of change in the post-socialist period and the effects this brought on existing heritage processes. The relative success of revitalisation efforts is evaluated in parallel with the disruptions in lifestyle patterns by processes such as globalisation and migration. In conclusion, the study outlines the importance of both religious and secular heritage for identity-work and community-building

Naming/Taming the Enemy: Balkan Oral Tradition and the Formation of ‘the Turk’ as the Political Enemy

The article approaches the question of political views promoted by oral tradition through Carl Schmitt’s notion of politics as the distinction between friend and enemy. It focuses on four versions of “Perović Batrić”, a comparatively short Montenegrin song with a typical subject of blood revenge, documented during the first half of the nineteenth century in Serbia, Montenegro and Herzegovina. It is demonstated that the only version documented without any impact of the ruling Montenegrin Petrović family from Cetinje displays explicit antagonism between the Montenegrin and Herzegovinian Orthodox Christian tribes and has no explicit antiturkish sentiment. In addition, two other versions written down from Montenegrin singers influenced by Cetinje as the political centre show the consolidation of political perspective and emphasize the hostilities between the Montenegrins and the local Turks. True political character of the enemy in the Schmittian sense, it is argued, is finally recognized only in the version of “Perović Batrić” edited by the Montenegrin bishop-prince Petar Petrović Njegoš II. In this song, the hostility towards Batrić’s adversary Osman follows not from his tribal conformity or his distinctive personality, but from his “Turkishness” as such. It is therefore argued that this recognition of the specifically political character of the enemy occurred under the increasing influence of Cetinje (as the political centre) on the representation of the oral tradition and that nationalistic elements in oral tradition mainly became associated with it, and inserted into it, during the process of publication and canonization of the oral tradition in the first half of the nineteenth centur