A framework study on the use of immersive XR technologies in the cultural heritage domain

Most cultural promotion and dissemination are nowadays performed through the digitization of heritage sites and museums, a necessary requirement to meet the new needs of the public. Augmented Reality (AR), Mixed Reality (MR), and Virtual Reality (VR) have the potential to improve the experience quality and educational effect of these sites by stimulating users’ senses in a more natural and vivid way. In this respect, head-mounted display (HMD) devices allow visitors to enhance the experience of cultural sites by digitizing information and integrating additional virtual cues about cultural artifacts, resulting in a more immersive experience that engages the visitor both physically and emotionally. This study contributes to the development and incorporation of AR, MR, and VR applications in the cultural heritage domain by providing an overview of relevant studies utilizing fully immersive systems, such as headsets and CAVE systems, emphasizing the advantages that they bring when compared to handheld devices. We propose a framework study to identify the key features of headset-based Extended Reality (XR) technologies used in the cultural heritage domain that boost immersion, sense of presence, and agency. Furthermore, we highlight core characteristics that favor the adoption of these systems over more traditional solutions (e.g., handheld devices), as well as unsolved issues that must be addressed to improve the guests’ experience and the appreciation of the cultural heritage. An extensive search of Google Scholar, Scopus, IEEE Xplore, ACM Digital Library, and Wiley Online Library databases was conducted, including papers published from January 2018 to September 2022. To improve review reporting, the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines were used. Sixty-five papers met the inclusion criteria and were classified depending on the study’s purpose: education, entertainment, edutainment, touristic guidance systems, accessibility, visitor profiling, and management. Immersive cultural heritage systems allow visitors to feel completely immersed and present in the virtual environment, providing a stimulating and educational cultural experience that can improve the quality and learning purposes of cultural visits. Nonetheless, the analyzed studies revealed some limitations that must be faced to give a further impulse to the adoption of these technologies in the cultural heritage domain

New media technologies to enhance learning and audience engagement in cultural institutions

New media technologies have drastically changed most aspects of our daily lives in a short time span. They have become ubiquitous in the workspace, they have made their way to our homes and remarkably changed the ways by which knowledge is disseminated. The growing pervasiveness of those technologies has led to fundamental transformations in cultural institutions’ organisational factors on a global scale (Bearman and Geber 2008, 387). New media technologies have also contributed to changing educational institutions on a managerial level and on a pedagogical level; they have paved the way for the digitalisation of the classroom and for more interactive ways of learning, some of whose concepts have been implemented in cultural institutions for the dissemination of knowledge. In this internship report, we will particularly drive our attention towards the use of new media technologies in cultural institutions and to the correlation between those technologies, audience engagement and learning experience enhancement within cultural institutions. It is our belief that such technologies have the potential to enhance cultural institutions’ educational programs, strengthen audience engagement, and create stronger and more genuine links between traditional institutions and the audience. In this report, we will qualitatively and critically shed light on how new media technologies have fundamentally contributed to changing audience engagement and ways of learning within the cultural institution. We will put the highlight on the institutional shifts and extensions that new media technologies gave rise to. Then, we will drive our attention towards the educational possibilities that those technologies have led to, we will see how new media technologies can contribute to improving engagement and learning for audiences with disabilities, and we will, finally, shed light on the experiential metamorphoses that new media technologies have induced within cultural institutions. We will use our case study, which is a Viennese augmented reality application named Artivive, in order strengthen our analyses and respond to our research question

2.0 Society Convergences: Coexistence, Otherness, Communication and Edutainment

The research finds justification given the incidence and magnitude they currently have in the human social sphere in the framework of the so-called Society 2.0. Derived from this framework, this approach must specially consider education as a vital social process. The same happens with information and communication technologies since they are frequently and increasingly used as mediation in educational contexts and because of their undeniable mediation in human interactions. Consequently, one of the most relevant questions tackled in this research refers to the disciplines required to provide a sufficiently broad theoretical and conceptual background for the scientific basis of the convergence between communication, edutainment, coexistence and otherness to effectively transform the last two concepts into measurable variables. The paper results from the content and a systemic analysis using ATLAS.ti software of published scientific documents for the last two decades about the phenomena of coexistence and otherness. As a main result, the researchers present a taxonomy that includes dimensions and indicators that enable the conversion of both constructs into measurable variables. Thus, a convergence to address the scientific study of coexistence and otherness from communication and edutainment emerged. The review also provides a theoretical basis for designing intervention models aimed at promoting coexistence. Edutainment is also incorporated as a novel tool to promote pro-social attitude

Meet Amadeo: a proposal

A aposta nas indústrias criativas e culturais é cada vez mais importante para um desenvolvimento económico sustentável, combinando aspetos económicos, culturais, socias e tecnológicos. É também importante perceber como instituições seculares como os museus se tem adaptado aos novos tempos e aproveitado as novas tecnologias e novas formas de exposição em seu benefício, como o Edutainment. Através da revisão de literatura e entrevistas a entidades que trabalham na área, foi proposto fazer uma análise ao Edutainment e como é que este é usado em contexto museológico. Decorrente desta análise os seus resultados foram aplicados à proposta de transferir o modelo da exposição Edutainment e imersiva Meet Vincent, idealizada pelo Museu Van Gogh de Amesterdão, para a realidade portuguesa. Com realidade portuguesa, quer-se dizer pegar no essencial da exposição imersiva criada na Holanda e aplicá-la à vida e obra de Amadeo de Souza Cardoso, o pintor escolhido para o projeto. Diferente de outras exposições imersivas, tanto a exposição Meet Vincent como a proposta feita doravante prezam por partilhar o homem por detrás do pintor e a forma como a sua vivência terá influenciado a sua arte. Exposições imersivas não são novidades, mas acredita-se que o diferencial de transportar a audiência até aos anos 10 do século XX, ao dia a dia de Amadeo possa tornar a proposta de conhecer Amadeo de Souza Cardoso bem-sucedida.The focus on creative and cultural industries is increasingly important for a sustainable economic development, combining economic, cultural, social and technological aspects. It is also important to understand how secular institutions like museums have adapted to the new times and taken advantage of new technologies and new exhibition formats in their benefit, like Edutainment. Through literature review and interviews with entities that work in the area, we analysed Edutainment and how it is used in the museological context. The results of this analysis were applied to the proposal we present: transferring the Edutainment model and immersive exhibition Meet Vincent, created by the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, to the Portuguese reality. By Portuguese reality, we mean taking the essentials of the immersive exhibition created in the Netherlands and applying them to the life and work of Amadeo de Souza Cardoso, the painter chosen for the project. Unlike other immersive exhibitions, both the Meet Vincent exhibition and the proposal made hereafter aim to share the man behind the painter and the way in which his life experience influenced his art. Immersive exhibitions are not new, but it is believed that the differential of transporting the audience to the 10's of the 20th century, to Amadeo's daily life can make the proposal of meeting Amadeo de Souza Cardoso successful