Comprender lo virtual: conclusiones de un estudio evaluativo sobre reconstrucciones virtuales en los museos arqueológicos

[ES] El objetivo de esta ponencia es presentar las conclusiones de un proyecto de investigación a medio plazo llevado a cabo en distintos museos europeos, con el objetivo de obtener datos empíricos sobre la contribución específica de la Realidad Virtual para la difusión de la Arqueología, su integración desde un punto de vista museográfico y su percepción y uso real por parte del público. La intención última de este proyecto es proporcionar un marco teórico-práctico general para el uso de la Realidad Virtual en el ámbito del patrimonio cultural, en el que se puedan encontrar las bases de su utilidad específica, instrumentos para su evaluación y, sobre todo, guías de diseño para futuras aplicaciones.[EN] This paper aims at presenting the conclusions of a middle-term research project undertaken in several European museums in order to obtain empirical data about the specific contribution of Virtual Reality for the dissemination of Archaeology, its integration in exhibitions and its perception and real use by audiences. The ultimate aim of this research project is to provide a theoretical and practical framework for the use of Virtual Reality in the Cultural Heritage field, in which professionals can find the basis of its specific usefulness, tools for its evaluation and, above all, guidelines for the design of future applications.Los estudios presentados en este artículo han sido financiados por la Generalitat de Catalunya (FI, III Pla de Recerca de Catalunya 2001/2004; Beatriu de Pinós, 2007 BP-A 00059), la Unión Europea (CHIRON: Cultural Heritage Informatics Investigación Oriented Network, 2005-2008, MEST-CT-2004-514539), la Secretaría General de Investigación y Tecnología de Grecia y la British Academy (Visiting Fellowship, VF2008/49113).Pujol Tost, L. (2010). Comprender lo virtual: conclusiones de un estudio evaluativo sobre reconstrucciones virtuales en los museos arqueológicos. Virtual Archaeology Review. 1(1):157-161. https://doi.org/10.4995/var.2010.5139OJS15716111ECONOMOU, M. y PUJOL, L. (2006): "Educational tool or expensive toy? Evaluating VR evaluation and its relevance for Virtual Heritage", en New Heritage. New media and cultural heritage, Oxon, Routledge.FORTE, M., PESCARIN, S. y PUJOL, L. (2006): "VR applications, new devices and museums: visitors' feedback and learning. A preliminary report", en The e-volution of Information Technology in Cultural Heritage. Where Hi-Tech Touches the Past: Risks and Challenges for the 21st century. Proceedings of the 7th International Symposium on Virtual reality, Archaeology and Cultural Heritage, VAST2006. Full papers volume, Nicosia, Cyprus, Eurographics.GAITATZES, A., CHRISTOPOULOS, D. y ROUSSOU, M. (2001): "Reviving the past: Cultural Heritage meets Virtual Reality", en Virtual Reality, Archaeology and Cultural Heritage. Proceedings of the VAST2001 Conference, pp. 103-110. http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/584993.585011PUJOL, L. (2008): "Does virtual archaeology exist?" en Layers of perception. Advanced technological means to illuminate our past. Proceedings of the 35th International Conference on Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology, CAA2007, Berlin 2-6, 2007, Bonn, Rudolf Habelt GmbH, pp. 101-107.PUJOL, L. y ECONOMOU, M. (2006): "Evaluating the Social Context of ICT Applications in Museum Exhibitions", en The e-volution of Information Technology in Cultural Heritage. Where Hi-Tech Touches the Past: Risks and Challenges for the 21st century. Proceedings of the 7th International Symposium on Virtual reality, Archaeology and Cultural Heritage, VAST2006. Full papers volume, Eurographics, pp. 219-228.PUJOL, L. y ECONOMOU, M. (2007): "Exploring the suitability of Virtual Reality interactivity for exhibitions through an integrated evaluation: the case of the Ename Museum", en Museology, International Scientific Electronic Journal nº 4.PUJOL, L. y ECONOMOU, M. (2008): "Worth a thousand words? The usefulness of immersive virtual reality for learning in cultural heritage settings", en Proceedings of the 14th Conference on Virtual Systems and Multimedia (VSMM08), Limassol, VSMM, Full papers volume, pp. 287-295.PUJOL, L. y SUREDA, M. (2008): "Vers une réalité virtuelle véritablement intéractive", en Actes du Colloque Virtual Retrospect 2007, Bordeaux, Ausonius Editions, 3, pp. 77-81.VOM LEHN, D., HEATH, C. y HINDMARSH, J. (2005): "Rethinking interactivity: design for participation in museums and galleries", en Re-thinking Technolgy in Museums: Towards a New Understanding of People's Experience in Museums, Limerick, Ireland

Vers une Réalité Virtuelle véritablement interactive

International audienceGiven the recent changes in the archaeological applications of Virtual Reality, this theoretical paper poses the question of whether VR can represent and analyze the economic, political and symbolical factors that determine the archaeological record or whether, since it represents spatial elements, it is necessarily bound to the lowest inference ranges. To answer this question, we first review its uses in the research process and justify its epistemological suitability. We then present the concepts of Archaeology and VR that determine the present discussion. Finally, we propose the concepts of simulation, artificial intelligence and GIS as tools to build a scientific VR, and explore the inference range in which they place VRCompte tenu des changements récents dans les applications de Réalité Virtuelle en Archéologie, cet article théorique se demande si la RV peut représenter et analyser les facteurs économiques, politiques et symboliques qui déterminent le registre archéologique ou bien, du fait qu’elle représente des éléments spatiaux, si elle est nécessairement attachée aux rangs d’inférence les plus bas. Pour répondre à cette question, nous commencerons par revoir ses usages actuels dans le processus de recherche et par justifier l’adéquation épistémologique de la RV pour l’Archéologie. Nous présenterons les conceptions sur l’Archéologie et la RV qui déterminent la discussion présente. Ensuite, nous proposerons les concepts de simulation, d’intelligence artificielle et de GIS comme instruments pour construire une RV scientifique et nous explorerons le rang d’inférence auquel ils situent la RV

Capturing the Visitor Profile for a Personalized Mobile Museum Experience: an Indirect Approach

An increasing number of museums and cultural institutions around the world use personalized, mostly mobile, museum guides to enhance visitor experiences. However since a typical museum visit may last a few minutes and visitors might only visit once, the personalization processes need to be quick and efficient, ensuring the engagement of the visitor. In this paper we investigate the use of indirect profiling methods through a visitor quiz, in order to provide the visitor with specific museum content. Building on our experience of a first study aimed at the design, implementation and user testing of a short quiz version at the Acropolis Museum, a second parallel study was devised. This paper introduces this research, which collected and analyzed data from two environments: the Acropolis Museum and social media (i.e. Facebook). Key profiling issues are identified, results are presented, and guidelines towards a generalized approach for the profiling needs of cultural institutions are discussed

Moving Beyond the Virtual Museum : Engaging Visitors Emotionally

In this paper, we firstly critique the state of the art on Virtual Museums (VM) in an effort to expose the many opportunities available to enroll these spaces into transformative and engaging cultural experiences. We then outline our attempts to stretch beyond the usual VM in order to connect it to visitors in a measurably emotional, participatory, interactive and social fashion. We discuss the foundations for a conceptual framework for the creation of VMs, grounded in a user-centered design methodology and related design and evaluation guidelines. We then introduce two main cultural heritage sites, which are used as case studies at the core of our efforts, and conclude by describing the many challenges they bring for pushing the boundaries on the human-felt impact of the virtual museum

“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 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

Integrating ICT in exhibitions

The goal of this paper is to examine the issues involved in the idea of integrating information and communication technology applications into exhibitions, in order to develop their use as a communication tool for museums. It considers the conclusions obtained from an evaluative study conducted in the United Kingdom (UK), which is part of a medium-term research project about the usefulness of high-tech exhibits. The text presents the contextual, theoretical, empirical and methodological issues that justify the study. It then describes its development and findings, which confirm or correct previous conclusions and lead to a debate about the concept of integration. This enables guidelines for the design of more effective solutions to be proposed, which are especially aimed at those museums which are traditionally closer to the formal learning environment

Mixed Exhibits: The best of both worlds?

No abstract available

Arqueologia, museus i ordinadors : aproximació semiòtica a l'ús de la realitat virtual per la difusió de l'arqueologia als museus /

Consultable des del TDXTítol obtingut de la portada digitalitzadaDavant l'augment de l'ús de reconstruccions virtuals als museus arqueològics, aparentment sense una veritable reflexió teòrica (museològica i epistemològica) que les recolzi, aquesta tesi pretén esbrinar la utilitat de la Realitat Virtual com a instrument de presentació de l'Arqueologia i per quins motius, i alhora proposar unes bases teòriques per aquest ús, a partir de la construcció d'un marc teòric i metodològic semiòtic. La tesi s'estructura en tres volums. En el primer es presenta un panorama general del projecte (objectius, metodologia, contribució a l'estat de la qüestió, perspectives de futur) i també les concepcions bàsiques sobre l'Arqueologia (situació epistemològica i funció social), els museus (paper dels objectes, funció social dels museus, funció comunicativa i educativa de l'exposició, primeres paraules sobre l'ús de les TIC als museus) i la Realitat Virtual (a partir de sis vectors d'aproximació a la complexitat del concepte) que han guiat el procés d'investigació. En el segon volum es tracta pròpiament la qüestió de partida i s'intenta esbrinar (a través de la cerca bibliogràfica sobre cada element, la seva aplicació a la RV i la verificació a partir d'avaluacions empíriques publicades) si la Realitat Virtual és útil com a eina de comunicació des de totes les perspectives implicades (percepció, cognició, semiòtica de les imatges/del llenguatge, epistemologia arqueològica, museologia, museografia i aprenentatge), reunides en tres nivells analítics: sintaxi, semàntica i pragmàtica. El tercer volum conté un resum de tota la tesi i les conclusions del procés de recerca, que corresponen als fonaments teòrics sobre l'ús de la RV als museus arqueològics des del punt de vista de la recerca i de la museologia. El present treball no és únic, sinó que ja hi ha hagut altres projectes orientats a la comprensió de la utilitat comunicativa de la RV ja des del moment que les recerques van sortir de i l'àmbit militar i per això es pot situar com a continuador d'aquestes. Però ara aporta algunes novetats, entre les quals cal destacar la construcció d'un marc teòric i metodològic, la Semiòtica, que comporta els següents avantatges: permet aplicar i adaptar la metodologia analítica desenvolupada en altres àmbits; integrar en un discurs coherent les recerques sobre els avantatges i inconvenients de la RV des dels diferents àmbits implicats; obtenir una eina avaluativa per contrastar en el futur aquesta fonamentació teòrica; i, finalment, com a conseqüència pràctica del marc teòric, proporcionar una base racional i explícita per a l'ús científic i divulgatiu de la RV en Arqueologia.Given the spread of the use of virtual reconstructions in archaeological museums, apparently without a true theoretical consideration (museological and epistemological) to support them, the aim of this thesis is to find out whether and how Virtual Reality is useful for the presentation of Archaeology in museums and at the same time to propose a theoretical bases for this use, through the establishment of a semiotica theoretical and methodological framework. The thesis is structured in three volumes. The first one presents a general overview of the project (goals, methodology, contribution to the state of the art, future perspectives) and also the basic concepts about Archaeology (epistemological situation and social function), museums (role of objects, museums' social function, communicational and educational role of the exhibition, first words about the use of ICT in museums) and Virtual Reality (using six vectors of approximation to the complexity of the concept) that guided the research process. The second volume is devoted to the starting question and tries to find out (through a bibliographical search about each element, its application to VR and its verification through published empirical evaluations) if VR is useful as a communication tool from all the perspectives involved (perception, cognition, semiotics of images/language, archaeological epistemology, museology, museography and learning), distributed in three analytical levels: syntax, semantics and pragmatics. The third volume contains a summary of the thesis and the conclusions of the research project, which correspond to the theoretical foundations of the use of VR in archaeological museums from the research and the museological perspective. The present research project is not unique and can be considered a continuation of early research into the usefulness of VR for learning performed outside the military field. However, it does introduce new elements, amongst which we should highlight the construction of a theoretical and methodological framework, semiotics, which encompasses the following advantages: to apply and adapt the powerful analytical methodology coming from semiotics as well as other fields; to integrate in a coherent discourse research into the advantages and disadvantages of VR from the different fields involved; to obtain an evaluative tool for future verification of these theoretical foundations; and finally, as the practical consequence of the theoretical framework, it provides a rational and explicit basis for the scientific and disseminative use of VR in Archaeology