ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
Reality ’ s intangibles
Not all XR applications , however , draw on fiction .
For CCIXR ’ s Dr Tarek Teba , reality itself is already infused with historical and cultural narratives . Reality forms an ephemeral heritage that informs our identity and who we want to become in the future .
As a Reader in Architectural Heritage , his focus is on the wealth of such ephemera associated with historical buildings and archaeological sites .
He refers to this non-material heritage as architecture ’ s “ intangibles ” and he views XR technology as especially suited to its conservation .
“ Conserving the physical building is not enough if we cannot remember what purpose the building served , the kind of society that created it , what the people believed and how those meanings reverberated through time to create strata of changed cultural landscapes ,” Dr Teba says .
“ These intangibles too need to be remembered and preserved .”
CCIXR now has a number of conservation efforts underway , typically undertaken as national and international collaborations that involve museums , universities and local communities .
One striking example is the Middle Eastern Heritage Hub that deals with the particular conservation challenges that arise in conflict zones . As the cradle of civilisation , the Middle East hosts uniquely important heritage sites and an astonishing wealth of associated intangibles that the Hub seeks to conserve .
When you get past the technology ’ s links to gaming , there are a myriad of potential applications , from defence through to medicine and space science .
– Pippa Bostock
Among the uses for XR technology is the ability to generate a virtual twin of a heritage site in the form of a 3D model that can be explored as a virtual reality .
Unlike real sites , the models can bring to life cultural , social and community activities , and even manifest historical events , natural disasters or the passage of time . They are interactive and therefore allow for a novel kind of engagement and new ways to learn and then remember .
In Britain , these applications are being deployed in collaboration with the National Heritage Fund , the National Archives and local museums .
An example includes a £ 2,900,000 project funded by the Arts and Humanities Council to transform England ’ s maritime record of sunken ships and wrecks – including all their intangible glory – from a dry database to an interactive virtual reality embedded in maps of Britain ’ s coastal environment .
For museums , a collaboration with CCIXR opens up many opportunities , one of which is to deepen the experience visitors have with relics and artefacts , including opportunities to tie in with the national curricula of primary and secondary school students .
There are plans for students studying the Fishbourne Roman Palace in West Sussex to be able , for example , to visit using augmented reality playing on their tablets .
“ This museum hosts the remains of the largest Roman residence discovered in Britain and dates to AD75 ,” Dr Teba says . “ But part of the site lies underneath a village . The XR technology would allow the students to travel back in time and see the whole site intact and populated in historically accurate ways .”
As the ghostly Romans go about their simulated business – such as making bread or fuelling the underfloor heating systems – the augmented reality makes the intangibles apparent and , in the process , gives real meaning to relics .
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