CNR-ITABC ISTITUTO PER LE TECNOLOGIE APPLICATE AI BENI CULTURALI Towards Virtual Heritage Centers...

CNR-ITABC ISTITUTO PER LE TECNOLOGIE APPLICATE AI BENI CULTURALI

Towards Virtual Heritage Centers

Maurizio ForteSenior Scientist CNR-ITABC

Vice-President Virtual Heritage Network

Key words: Virtual Heritage, Cultural Heritage, Network, e-culturenet, Visual Area Network

CNR ITABC [email protected]

Virtual Heritage

The world of the cultural heritage starts to be disseminated of “virtual” mainly in the nineties, whether in terms of applications, or in term of theoretical discussions. The result of all these chaotic phases of work was the production of a relevant amount of digital data: a very small part is concerning virtual reality applications, a big amount is concerning computer graphic reconstruction and movies.

In the nineties the concept of virtual heritage was born: virtual heritage represents the way in which we acquire digital information concerning the cultural heritage, so that to have a significant increasing of content/context of data through cognition, perception, education, reticular learning.


Virtual Heritage

We define “virtual heritage” digital information derived by perception, interpretation, learning, knowledge, communication of a cultural item (object, site, monument, territory, landscape); therefore the virtual heritage is an ontology of the cultural heritage.

It is the whole, the context, the more than each single part; we could say that virtual heritage represents more than a physical item, because it is constituted of a world of information and it multiplies the possibilities of knowledge through any kind of interaction (simulation, communication, immersion, queries, exchange).


ARCHAVE: A Virtual Reality Interface for Archaeological 3D GIS

VR Environment

INCLUSIVE INTERACTION


Tangible installation Sensitive Painting. Digital Art festival, 6th IV Conf., London, Brunei Gallery, July 2002. Plancton Art Studio

TANGIBLE INTERACTION


Tangible (MIT Tangible Media Lab)


Mindscape

The Aksum Project (Ethiopia):VR landscape reconstruction


VR

Three key words describe VR: inclusive interactive interactive in real time


Reticular spatial learning.

This interaction and learning in VR is of reticular type (information spatially connected within a 3D cyber-net) because the use is immersed within reticules of information and visual data.


Virtual behaviors in VR

8-12 3D interactions (1993-99)

15-30 (1999-2001)

> 50 (2001, DVR Pompei, CNR-ITABC)

> 100 (2002, Scrovegni’s Chapel, CNR-ITABC)


Difference.

According to the cybernetics of G.Bateson, the learning is “through difference”, the perception acts only on the difference.


Circularity, redundancy of information

The learning, thanks to the alternation of real and virtual phases, develops through redundancy and spatial contextualization of the information; the user-visitor moves through informative itineraries, adding progressively new learning levels.


Connectivity

—In VR all the information must be interconnected in a 3D space; an ontology of connectivity entails mutual causality: actor and environment modify each other creating new information.


Narrative

The new challenge in virtual environments is to develop advanced narrative mechanisms. The experience is the very new way of storytelling. As we see the high speed of development in the game industry, the need for new forms of storytelling is apparent.


Ename museum


VI FP

An accelerated transition to a competitive and dynamic knowledge economy capable of sustainable growth, with more and better jobs and greater social cohesion;

IST are the key underlying technologies for easier and efficient knowledge creation, sharing and exploitation.

Strengthening social cohesion by providing efficient, intelligent and easy to use systems for health, transport, inclusion, risk management, environment, learning and cultural heritage.


Infrastructure

“Infrastructure” is one of the key words in preliminary presentation of the VI European FP because the proposal is finalised to construct permanent operative and competitive structures in Europe. Virtual Heritage Centers should correspond to the following needs:

Multidisciplinary research (matrix). Sharing of digital data on and off line. Accessibility of the data in very fast ways, in 2D and in

3D (DEER). Content, context and verifiability of the digital/virtual

data. Testing of technologies. Strong cooperation with educational programs (EU

masters and Doctorates). Economical impact.


Cultural heritage institutions

“An estimated 95% of all cultural heritage institutions in Europe are not in the position to participate in any kind of digital cultural heritage venture. They not only lack the financial resources to participate, but also have a shortage of staff, essential skills, and the necessary technologies. Facing the situation, a comprehensive cultural heritage policy that claims to provide cultural heritage institutions and regions who plays an important role on the local level as they are the holders of materials that is valuable to the community” (www.virtualheritage.net).

This means that throughout Europe there are a lot of cultural heritage institutions, monuments, churches, natural sites that are important evidence of the European Cultural Environment with few opportunity – and instruments – to be well known, easy accessible and preserved.


VHCs

Virtual Heritage centers could constitute the infrastructure of the E-culturnet project with a multidisciplinary mission of bridge between art, science, technology, education and learning. In a first phase with few pilot centers, in a following phase with many centers located in Europe and out of Europe. For example we could have a VHCs in Central Asia, one in Australia, one in North America, in Africa, and so on.

If the model works, many institutions, countries and public bodies (in cooperation also with private companies and foundations) could support the centers with common activities. It will be important to invite all the worldwide cultural foundations to subscribe the VHCs. In particular we think that VHCs could work as cultural observatory for the main worldwide networks and for macro-regions (e.g.in Africa, Asia, South America).


Multidisciplinary approach

A multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary approach is needed, whether in technological terms (hard sciences), or in humanistic-epistemological terms (social sciences). For this reason we want to suggest the creation of specific European and international pilot Centers of Virtual Heritage, aimed to the advanced research in the digital and virtual reality systems for the interpretation, the communication and the dissemination of the cultural heritage using hypermedia real time tools and environments.

The term Virtual Heritage defines a virtual ontology of the cultural heritage: a cultural “item” exists because of the information it represents and communicates.

Therefore, the real revolution of the “Virtual” and of the digital era is in this concept of “Virtual Heritage” as a term of information, accessibility, re-contextualization, re-learning, re-alphabetization, redundancy, mindscape of cultural contents. How the dimension of the virtual is ? What information we must represent and how ?


VH and matrix of research

In practical terms, the model of Virtual Heritage centers should open new important perspectives for a network of excellence and for a matrix of research in this field. Each center will develop technologies and content on the basis of a new koiné of humanistic background and technological background: archaeologists, psycologists, hystorians of art, historicians, programmers, computer scientists, architects, but also (computer) archaeologists, (computer) hystoricians, cyber-antropologists… will constitute a great different school of thought.

The meta-territory of all these skills and knowledge will be the bridge between cyberspace and cultural territories (information). E-culturnet members will can negotiate and discuss different missions and features for any possible center.


VHCs

Virtual Heritage Centers could be hosted within Universities, Supercomputing centers, and multidisciplinary Institutes of research with these main aims:

Upgrading “old” technologies and not standardized cultural data in new digital systems and technologies (digital migration and portability from basic platforms to supercomputers).

Sharing of digital data within inclusive systems on line (broad band) and off line (Caves, Virtual Theaters, Desktop Systems) using centralized servers.

Sharing of digital spatial archives. Verifying scientific and communicative content of

information. E-learning, e-perception, e-communication. Data mining.


Technological infrastructure

Definition of the technological infrastructure is a very complex task and probably on the basis of this structure the definitive costs of a network of excellence will be calculated. In the e-culturenet project it is important to stress:

Creation of a central digital archive where all the data and applications must be recovered.

Collaborative environments On line accessibility of contents through local intra-nets

and Internet. Off line accessibility of e-contents through PCs, personal

workstations, desktop systems, supercomputers and immersive/inclusive systems.

Dissemination of the data on line will be organized according to communicative aims and to technological tools.


Visual Area Networking

Visual Area Networking enables distributed collaborative teams and remote individuals to use existing applications and powerful visualization systems to solve problems that are up to 100 times more complex than possible with stand-alone workstations. Individuals and groups that make decisions involving large amounts of centralized data use OpenGL VizserverTM 3.0 to deliver the ultimate in interactive capabilities directly to existing, heterogeneous desktop workstations over industry-standard local and wide area networks.

OpenGL Vizserver 3.0 allows existing stand-alone applications to be used in networked collaborative environments or by single remote users without any changes to the applications so you can immediately take advantage of breakthrough computing, visualization, and data management capabilities throughout your organization.


What we stress

In the field of the information technology we have to stress the importance of content and representation of the information, namely the “geometry of information”. The construction of a network of excellence has to be based on an integrated relation between content owners and applied technologies: without content, without context (Bateson, 1979) there is no communication.

This fact remarks the problems of the scientific and communicative verifiability and accessibility of the data, of the models, of the archives.


15 members 13 candidatesPaesi candidati (2004)* Bulgaria (2007)* Cipro* Estonia* Lettonia* Lituania* Malta* Polonia* Repubblica Ceca* Romania (2007)* Slovacchia* Slovenia* Turchia * Ungheria

Paesi membri* Austria* Belgio* Danimarca* Finlandia* Francia* Germania* Gran Bretagna* Grecia* Lussemburgo* Irlanda* Italia* Paesi Bassi* Portogallo* Spagna * Svezia

* 9.10.2002


Virtual-Real-Virtual (augmented ontology)Escher’s Print Gallery

St. Laurentius Church: Timescope 2

CNR-ITABC ISTITUTO PER LE TECNOLOGIE APPLICATE AI BENI CULTURALI Towards Virtual Heritage Centers...

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