This paper aims to investigate the conditioning that the use of playful games requires the role of graphic element for disseminating and promoting the Cultural Heritage. Within the CHROME project, which has, among the various objectives, the definition of an innovative strategy to promote the three Charterhouses of Campania, it comes up with the idea to plan a playful game placed in one of the three monasteries. Its purpose is to provide a first knowledge, both in relation to the spatiality of a Carthusian monastery and to the life of a monk of the Order, exploiting the playful dimension of the games. Since that the proposed location for the game is a monastic complex whose modeling is gained by range-based and image-based survey processes, the project shows the definition of a methodology to generate digital three-dimensional models, whose geometric genesis is at the same time both topologically coherent and enjoyable on the selected technology platform. Once obtained the scene in which the narration develops, it must qualify as a visual device able to activate the sensory involvement, the share and the exploration. For this reason, some expedients (illumination techniques, framing, distortions, sonorous scenes) have been studied to stimulate the player and to communicate cognitive messages related to the game space using the principle “show, don’t tell”.
Re-contextualizing the standing Sekhmet statues in the Temple of Ptah at Karnak through digital reconstruction and VR experience
Recent trends in the Digital Humanities – conceived as new modalities of collaborative, transdisciplinary and computational research and presentation – also strongly influence research approaches and presentation practices in museums. Indeed, ongoing projects in museums have considerably expanded digital access to data and information, documentation and visualization of ancient ruins and objects. In addition, 3D modelling and eXtended Reality opened up new avenues of interacting with a wider public through digital reconstructions that allow both objects and sites to be presented through visual narratives based on multidisciplinary scholarly research. The article illustrates the use of 3D digital reconstruction and virtual reality to re-contextualise standing statues of Sekhmet in the Temple of Ptah at Karnak, where they were found in 1818. Today, they are on display at Museo Egizio, Turin. The theoretical framework of the research and the operational workflow – based on the study of the available archaeological, textual, and pictorial data – is presented here.
Reconstructive 3D Modelling and Interactive Visualization for Accessibility of Piffetti’s Library in the Villa della Regina Museum (Turin)
This research is realised in the framework of a project recently funded as part of the PNRR (National Recovery and Resilience Plan) in the Accessibility sector. The working team has been established in the framework of the scientific agreement between the Museum of Villa della Regina in Turin, the Department of Architecture and Design at Politecnico di Torino, and the Department of History, Drawing and Restoration of Architecture at Sapienza Università di Roma, and includes knowledge from art history, digital surveying, 3D modelling, and digital solutions for cultural heritage. The research involves the reconstructive 3D modelling of Piffetti’s Library, once placed in the cabinet toward midnight and west inside the Villa della Regina and today in the Palazzo del Quirinale, and its interactive visualisation through augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) aimed at accessibility.
Versioning Virtual Reconstruction Hypotheses: Revealing Counterfactual Trajectories of the Fallen Voussoirs of Notre-Dame de Paris using Reasoning and 2D/3D Visualization
Virtual reconstruction should move beyond merely presenting 3D models by documenting the scientific context and reasoning underlying the reconstruction process. For instance, the collapsed arch in the nave of Notre-Dame de Paris serves as a case study to make explicit the reconstruction argumentation encapsulated in relation to the spatial configuration of the arch and the voussoirs. The experiment is twofold: (1) setting up of the 3D dataset where the hypotheses are modeled as versions using logic programming, and (2) evaluating the scientific narrative of reconstruction through both a custom 2D-3D visualization and competency questions on the enriched 3D data. Formalization, reasoning, and visualization are combined to explore the nonlinear scientific hypotheses and narrative of the reconstruction. The results explicitly show both the factual information on the physical and digital objects, as well as the counterfactual propositions allowing the reasoning at play in the reconstruction. The hypotheses are visualized as counterfactual trajectories creating an open dynamic visualization that makes possible the spatialized querying of conflicting interpretations and embedded memory in place.