ArcheoVirtual 2021

ArcheoVirtual is the exhibition of digital applications related to the field of Virtual Archaeology and Cultural Heritage, organized since 2006 in the framework of the Mediterranean Exchange of Archaeological Tourism.

For 2021, ArcheoVirtual was presented by the CNR ISPC, Digital Heritage Innovation Laboratory, based in Rome, with the theme “New Interactions”, intended both from a technical and a social and narrative point of view. Almost all the applications of this edition do not require physical contact with surfaces, demonstrating the variety of touchless interaction tools, potentially available today for Museums, thanks to new technologies and strategies for collective use.
At the same time, we wanted to enhance new interactive methods in terms of forms of use of heritage and the relationship with the communities, presenting some of the most significant ongoing projects on the theme of Heritage Science.
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In 2019, ArcheoVirtual was presented by CNR ISPC (www.ispc.cnr.it), the newly-born Institute on Cultural Heritage Sciences of the Italian National Research Council (Virtual Heritage Lab), besides the Mediterranean Exchange of Archaeological Tourism. As every year, the thematic workshop was presented together with the Virtual Archaeology exhibition.

ArcheoVirtual’s focus on the evolution of digital applications for Cultural Heritage is aimed at the renewed interest in the forms of narration (traditional and multimedia) of the Past. Alongside the growing examples of narrative and non-interactive videos (historical fiction), even the most innovative applications such as immersive virtual reality, are looking for new narrative metaphors.

But why the use of narrative techniques as a tool for transforming information into comprehensible content is so important? They contribute greatly to improve visitors’ experience under different aspects: emotion, involvement, and active participation.

In the case of Cultural Heritage, interaction with places, objects and people generates stories – those stories whose museum objects are witnesses. But in the absence of someone or something that collects and extends objects’ existence, both real and virtual, these stories most often do not emerge, are not made evident. And yet it is precisely such stories that intrigue visitors, which involve them emotionally, and which allow them to remember facts once they return home. Technology makes this process of understanding and memorization easier, as it makes concepts and meanings related to artifacts and cultural sites visible. Technology therefore facilitates the mental process of abstraction in every visitor, in a certain sense supports it, making readable what is not usually recognizable.

In this field, the new Institute of Cultural Heritage Sciences of the CNR (ISPC) is moving in synergy with the experiences of scientific analysis and multimedia communication strategies. The discussion, involving as usual subjects from the research domain, public administration and entrepreneurship, will focus on the state of the art and on the perspectives of an approach that will see the comparison and harmonization of analytical science and emotional narrative.

ArcheoVirtual was presented in 2019 through audiovisuals, with a video review area which has seen the alternation of audio-visual products of great emotional impact and a high graphic performance. Some titles are “Ercolano Virtuale” of the MAV of Naples, “The story of Bene Vagienna” published by NoReal, “Simply Appia” and “Naxos” published by the CNR ISPC, just to name a few. Examples of an effective communication and dissemination strategy of our Cultural Heritage through an intimate but, at the same time, scenographic imprint.