The Past Has Ears (PHE): XR Explorations of Acoustic Spaces as Cultural Heritage

TY - GEN

T1 - The Past Has Ears (PHE)

T2 - 7th International Conference on Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, and Computer Graphics, AVR 2020

AU - Katz, Brian F.G.

AU - Murphy, Damian

AU - Farina, Angelo

N1 - Funding Information: Supported by EU JPI on Cultural Heritage (JPI-CH).. Funding has been provided by the JPI-CH project PHE. Publisher Copyright: © 2020, Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

PY - 2020/10/6

Y1 - 2020/10/6

N2 - Hearing is one of our most pervasive senses. There is no equivalent to closing our eyes, or averting our gaze, for the ears. When we think about great architectural achievements in European history, such as ancient amphitheatres or Gothic cathedrals, their importance is strongly tied to their acoustic environment. The acoustics of a heritage site is an intangible consequence of the space’s tangible construction and furnishings. Inspired by the project’s namesake (Phé, for the constellation Phoenix), and the relatively recent fires at Cathédrale de Notre Dame de Paris and Teatro La Fenice opera hall, the PHE project focuses on virtual reconstruction of heritage sites, bringing them back from the ashes. In addressing the intangible acoustic heritage of architectural sites, three main objectives have been identified for this research project: Documentation, Modelling, and Presentation. In parallel, three heritage sites are participating as case studies: Tindari Theatre (IT), Notre-Dame de Paris Cathedral (FR), and The Houses of Parliament (UK). The acoustics of a space is immersive, spatial, and due to the nature of auditory perception egocentric, in contrast to visual perception of an object, which can be observed from “outside”. Consequently, presentation methods for communicating acoustic heritage must represent the spatially immersive and listener-centric nature of acoustics. PHE will lead development of a museum grade hardware/software prototype for the presentation of immersive audio experiences adaptable to multiple platforms, from off-site immersive speaker installations, to mobile XR via smartphone applications.

AB - Hearing is one of our most pervasive senses. There is no equivalent to closing our eyes, or averting our gaze, for the ears. When we think about great architectural achievements in European history, such as ancient amphitheatres or Gothic cathedrals, their importance is strongly tied to their acoustic environment. The acoustics of a heritage site is an intangible consequence of the space’s tangible construction and furnishings. Inspired by the project’s namesake (Phé, for the constellation Phoenix), and the relatively recent fires at Cathédrale de Notre Dame de Paris and Teatro La Fenice opera hall, the PHE project focuses on virtual reconstruction of heritage sites, bringing them back from the ashes. In addressing the intangible acoustic heritage of architectural sites, three main objectives have been identified for this research project: Documentation, Modelling, and Presentation. In parallel, three heritage sites are participating as case studies: Tindari Theatre (IT), Notre-Dame de Paris Cathedral (FR), and The Houses of Parliament (UK). The acoustics of a space is immersive, spatial, and due to the nature of auditory perception egocentric, in contrast to visual perception of an object, which can be observed from “outside”. Consequently, presentation methods for communicating acoustic heritage must represent the spatially immersive and listener-centric nature of acoustics. PHE will lead development of a museum grade hardware/software prototype for the presentation of immersive audio experiences adaptable to multiple platforms, from off-site immersive speaker installations, to mobile XR via smartphone applications.

KW - Acoustic heritage

KW - Archaeoacoustics

KW - Audible virtual and augmented reality

KW - Digital heritage reconstructions

KW - Methodology guidelines

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85091308418&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1007/978-3-030-58468-9_7

DO - 10.1007/978-3-030-58468-9_7

M3 - Conference contribution

AN - SCOPUS:85091308418

SN - 9783030584672

T3 - Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)

SP - 91

EP - 98

BT - Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, and Computer Graphics - 7th International Conference, AVR 2020, Proceedings

A2 - De Paolis, Lucio Tommaso

A2 - Bourdot, Patrick

PB - Springer

Y2 - 7 September 2020 through 10 September 2020

ER -