The essay focuses on the valorisation of pictorial works to be brought back into their original exhibition contexts, reflecting on the contribution of today’s digital technologies in enhancing their understanding and enjoyment. Starting from this assumption, the focus is on the principles of digital storytelling to be implemented in installations capable of maintaining a continuous dialogue between physical and digital space, through video projections interacting with reconstructions of 3D-printed architecture, obtained through careful perspective restitutions. In particular, there are three canvases depicting some of the most important events in the life of Saint Mark, painted by Gentile and Giovanni Bellini and by Giovanni Mansueti, respectively for Guardian Grande Marco Pellegrini and Jacopo Dardani. They were once kept in the Sala dell’Albergo of the Scuola Grande di San Marco in Venice, where their return is now hoped for. The multimedia installation planned for the Sala Capitolare is thus configured as an edutainment route that anticipates the rediscovery of the original works, to be contemplated only after understanding their specific meanings.
From Digital Representation to Virtual Reality: An Interactive Experience of Industrial Heritage
In recent years, digital technologies have transformed the field of Cultural Heritage (CH), extending beyond cataloguing and documentation to enhancing experiences and dissemination. Extended Reality (XR) solutions have introduced innovative ways to engage with CH. This study presents the design of an Interactive Thematic Virtual Environment (ITVE) for experiencing industrial archaeological heritage via the Meta Quest 3 VR headset. The focus is a historic industrial site in San Severino Marche, Italy, dating back to 1927. This site was pivotal in using electricity for industrial purposes and generating hydroelectric power. The development of the VR experience followed a three-phase workflow. The first phase involved digitally surveying the site with a Terrestrial Laser Scanner (TLS) and panoramic camera to create high-resolution 360° images. This data formed the foundation for the virtual environment. The second phase focused on designing a thematic narrative structure, borrowing methodologies from the entertainment industry. Five scenes were created: an introduction, three central scenes highlighting historical machinery and materials, and a concluding scene reviewing the plant’s operation. All multimedia content text, audio, panoramas, and 3D models were integrated into the game engine Unity 3D to build an interactive VR experience. Users navigate the content through a 3D console, unlocking scenes sequentially. Showcased at the Wunder Kammer Marche exhibition (June 1 to July 31, 2024), the VR experience is tailored for both children and adults. Finally, in the third phase, usability tests were conducted during the exhibition to evaluate the actual effectiveness of the developed tool.
Digital Reconstruction Models for the Enjoyment of Archaeological Heritage: The Case of the Santa Mustiola Site in Peccioli
The archaeological site, Santa Mustiola, holds significant interest in reconstructing the early and medieval phases of the Valdera region in Tuscany. The discoveries made during the excavations of a cemetery associated with a church in the area provide new insights into the relationships between Tuscan centers and those in the trans-Apennine region. The significance of these findings underscores the necessity of making the archaeological site accessible to the public, despite ongoing excavation. However, the remains of the church’s early medieval phase have been heavily compromised and altered by numerous historical stratifications, making them difficult for non-specialists to understand. This article aims to illustrate the methodological framework applied to the digital reconstruction of the Santa Mustiola archaeological site in Peccioli. The primary goal is to create a hypothetical model of the church’s earliest phase for dissemination purposes. Given the limited hypotheses derived solely from the available archaeological data, it was necessary to examine the region’s historical context, review excavation reports, and analyze a sample of coeval churches selected as a case study. These examples provided references for the metrical and formal choices made during the digital reconstruction. Additionally, the analysis employed a statistical approach which, albeit in its preliminary stages.
Cultural Heritage Re-exchange Using Extended Reality (XR): Communicating the Italian Influence on Egyptian Architecture
The late nineteenth century marked a significant period in Cairo’s architectural landscape, driven by the influx of Italian migrants who established a diverse community. This paper emphasizes the importance of digitizing and communicating Italian-influenced buildings in Egypt through advanced technologies such as Extended Reality (XR), besides the Egyptian obelisk in Rome as those two elements are proof of the cultural heritage exchange happened between Italy and Egypt. These technologies aim to foster cultural heritage re-exchange, enhancing awareness of the architectural significance within both Egyptian and Italian contexts. By utilizing XR, this research highlights how the cultural and humanistic values of these structures can be preserved and communicated, promoting a deeper understanding and appreciation of cultural heritage. The study proposes the creation of virtual trails and a virtual bridge connecting Cairo and Rome, facilitating enhanced engagement and mutual understanding among users from diverse backgrounds, targeting cultural re-exchange. Through rich contextual information communication in these virtual experiences and creating a virtual bridge, the research advocates for cultural interpretation of the historical exchanges between Italy and Egypt. The methodology encompasses three phases: online inquiry and 1D, 2D, and 3D documentation for gathering the data needed to enrich the data elaboration phase through XR experiences. This structured approach aims to raise awareness regarding the importance of these architectural influences, ultimately contributing to a broader understanding of the intertwined cultural heritages of both nations.
The Use of the Imagematching Software and Other AI Tools for the Automatic Recognition of Similar Images: Some Theoretical Considerations
The article discusses the new digital research methodologies to investigate the concept of image similarity, taking as a case study the Lyon16ci database project. Developed in collaboration with the Visual Geometry Group at the University of Oxford, this project investigates how AI-driven image recognition can enhance scholarly analysis of visual material in the humanities. The focus is on the use of VISE software, designed to automatically retrieve visually similar images based on geometric and compositional features. The article provides a critical evaluation of the strengths and limitations of this tool in the context of art historical and visual culture research. It discusses how VISE facilitates new interpretative approaches by uncovering visual relationships and how it can effectively enhance traditional comparative methods. The author provides an overview of the advantages and constraints of using the VISE AI software to automatically retrieve similar images, presenting some of the theoretical considerations and the research possibilities provided by image recognition tools. The Lyon16ci case offers insights into the broader potential of machine vision in redefining the scope and scale of such image-based humanities research.
GPTfor Treatise Image Creation: ACritical Overview
Text-to-image systems based on generative pre-trained transformers have become pervasive in recent years. This result is mainly due to the generation tools’ ease of use, application availability, and increasingly refined graphical and algorithmic capabilities. On the other hand, the non-controllability given by a random process and the dependency on existing information databases highlight some limitations of these automatic image-generation methods. The rapid construction of increasingly realistic digital images draws new boundaries between real and unreal, highlighting a strict relation between text and image regarding semantics and logic descriptions. Therefore, a critical look into the use of these applications as tools for a reliable representation of architecture becomes cogent. We started from representations established by the treatises, as in the case of architectural orders. Most of these drawings, proportions, and rules are derived from descriptive parts in Vitruvius’ text. However, the graphic interpretations result from the architect’s experience and culture, which has become the basic grammar of architecture. This research stems precisely from the connection between Vitruvius’ text, the new text-to-image contents, and the established representations of the treatise writers. The comparison considers both image reliability and geometric rules, testing the current potential of GPT systems for image creation and reliability.
IgrejAR: An Immersion in the Lost 16th-Century Church of Madre de Deus
This paper presents the development of IgrejAR, an augmented reality platform designed to allow museum visitors to the National Azulejo Museum to experience the memory of the lost sixteenth-century church of Madre de Deus in Lisbon, Portugal. Through the integration of historical research, laser scanning, photogrammetry, and digital modelling, we have virtually reconstructed the original church believed to have once been housed within the space of the present D. Manuel Room. Building on five years of previous virtual reconstruction research, this paper examines the latest methodologies, challenges, and outcomes involved in reconstructing the church, with particular focus on the final integration of this knowledge into an AR environment. The research aims to provide a firsthand experience of the past by synthesizing diverse historical evidence—including chronicles, paintings, contracts, and archaeological findings. It presents the first complete visualization of the church’s interior, with all its known remaining artifacts reassembled and repositioned in their original location, despite their current dispersion in other collections. By leveraging markerless AR technology and the point cloud data used to create the digital model, the IgrejAR application offers minimal disruption to the current museum experience, allowing visitors to awaken the past on top of the present.
Learning About Pastoral Settlements Through Interactive Videos
Interaction, a fundamental concept in communication and technological processes, has undergone profound transformations with digitalization. This study explores the use of interactive videos in the representation of the pastoral cultural heritage of Aspromonte, analysing their educational and dissemination potential. The approach adopted integrates historical research and digital visualization techniques, to offer an immersive and customizable experience. The construction of the contents takes place on the basis of a data collection composed of digital surveys, 3D models, textual information, etc., acquired during the conduct of a broader research on the theme of the mountain and the material traces left by human pastoral activities. Interactive videos allow users to digitally explore abandoned pastoral settlements, accessing multimedia content and participating in non-linear narrative paths. The use of QR codes and online platforms expands accessibility, favouring the dissemination of cultural heritage even outside the academic field. The proposed experience is configured as a combination of edutainment and digital storytelling, laying the foundations for new forms of cultural fruition. The results highlight the effectiveness of these tools in engaging the public and enhancing difficult-to-access sites, outlining future development prospects for more complex and interactive digital narratives.
The VeNiss Infrastructure: A Virtual Environment to Navigate the Venetian Lagoon Through Space and Time
Venice’s Nissology (VeNiss) is a multi-institution research project funded by the European Research Council (ERC), involving the universities of Padua, Florence, and Harvard. Its goal is to represent the architectural heritage of Venice’s lagoon through an interactive 3D web map, allowing users to explore the historic archipelago via a digital platform. Nowadays, this environment faces severe neglect, and many ancient settlements have largely disappeared. The VeNiss project retraces the history of these places over the past five hundred years, shedding light on the events that have shaped around thirty of the more than sixty islands that, over the centuries, have gradually lost their connection to the city centre. The creation of this semantic infrastructure on urban history is based on a complex, integrated process involving a diverse group of scholars, including architectural and art historians, as well as experts in digital surveying, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), and Building Information Modeling (BIM). This contribution describes the main steps used to produce three-dimensional models of the lagoon settlements and highlights the progressive integration of VR visualisation to ensure optimal collaboration among team members during the design and validation processes of BIM models.
Augmented Reality Experiences for a Phygital Exhibition in the World of Catalan Polyhedra: Polyhedra. The Realm of Geometric Beauty by Adriano Graziotti
The study presented is part of a broader line of research in which the use of Extended Reality is investigated in the field of geometry education and the exploitation of the cultural heritage related to this subject area. In this study, a Phygital Exhibition is proposed that brings together knowledge related to Catalan polyhedra: their history, geometric characteristics, methods for their construction, and cultural heritage related to them. In particular, two types of Augmented Reality marker-based applications are proposed through which to access the heritage of knowledge related to Catalan polyhedra: the Phygital Edition of Polyhedra. The Realm of Geometric Beauty by Adriano Graziotti—which constitutes a particular piece within the history of this class of polyhedra—in which the pages of the booklet are used as a collection of image targets; and a collection of “augmented physical models” of Catalan polyhedra, that is, a set of physical reproductions of Catalan polyhedra or the polyhedra from which they are generated, used as model targets of the application. The experiments conducted demonstrate how it is possible to use Augmented Reality to create multimedia devices that facilitate the understanding of three-dimensional problems and into which it is possible to convey the heritage of knowledge—always in progress—related to a given scientific topic.