Research | extended humanities

top of page

Screenshot 2024-05-22 at 3.26.20 PM.png

RESEARCH

1

halftone-retro-television-device-vintage-tv-vector-47851930.png

VR Film Theory
PI: Tim Gruenewald

The release of several high-quality VR headsets since 2015 has pushed VR past the tipping point towards mass adoption, which has triggered an explosion of VR film production. This research project responds by producing a comprehensive VR film theory. We adapt the existing terminology of conventional film theory to VR where possible and develop new terms and concepts where necessary.

2

halftone-bitmap-vector-art-shape_435219-476 copy.tiff

Memory and Narrative VR
PI: Tim Gruenewald

Memory and remembrance have played a central role in early narrative VR content. For example, several narrative VR experiences represented real and imagined events of individual or collective trauma. This project explores the potential impact of the new medium on the collective memory of painful past.

3

halftone-plant-in-a-pot-collage-design-element-in-trendy-magazine-style-vector-illustratio

VR/ AR and Archaelogy
PI: Peter J Cobb

The Ararat Plain Southeast Archaeological Project (APSAP) is a collaborative fieldwork project between the University of Hong Kong and the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography of the Republic of Armenia’s National Academy of Sciences. APSAP is a laboratory for experimentation with advances in digital technologies applied to archaeology. Current experiments involve using augmented reality (AR) and mixed reality (MR) for data collection and use on site, as well as using virtual reality (VR) to remotely teach everyone about archaeology and ancient Armenia.

4

Human Imaginaries: Game Engines and
Virtual World Building
PI: Kal Ng

This project applies Giouliana Bruno’s Atlas of Emotion to virtual world building. We investigate the production of virtual world creations through game engines and AI to provide a map of human emotions related to imaginaries in virtual realities.

5

Publications

VR Film

Dooley, Kath. Virtual Reality Narratives: Embodied Encounters in Space. Palgrave Macmillan, 2024.

Dooley, Kath. Cinematic Virtual Reality: A Critical Study of 21st Century Approaches and Practices. Palgrave Macmillan, 2021.

Dooley, Kath, and Alex Munt, editors. Screenwriting for Virtual Reality: Story, Space and Experience. Palgrave Macmillan, 2024.

Dooley, Kath. "Conceptualizing and Developing Narrative-Based Virtual Reality Experiences: A Review of Disciplinary Frameworks and Approaches to Research." Journal of Screenwriting, vol. 14, no. 3, 2023, pp. 229–249.

Dooley, Kath. “A Question of Proximity: Exploring a New Screen Grammar for 360-Degree Cinematic Virtual Reality.” Media Practice and Education, vol. 21, no. 2, 2020, pp. 81–96.

Gruenewald, Tim and Saskia Witteborn. "Feeling Good: Humanitarian Virtual Reality Film, Emotional Style and Global Citizenship." Cultural Studies 36.1, 2022: 141-161.

XR and Memory

Boswell, Matthew, and Antony Rowland. Virtual Holocaust Memory. Oxford University Press, 2023.

Gruenewald, Tim and Cecilia Chan. "Virtual Reality as a Memory Machine." Forthcoming (under review).

XR and Archaeology

Cobb, P. J. (2023). “Large Language Models and Generative AI, Oh My! Archaeology in the Time of ChatGPT, Midjourney, and Beyond,” Advances in Archaeological Practice, Volume 11, Issue 3, Pages 363-369.

Cobb, P. J., and J. H. Nieminen. (2023). “Immersing in Mesopotamia: Virtual Reality Site Tours in the Remote Classroom,” Near Eastern Archaeology, Volume 86, Issue 3, Pages 240-249.

XR and Humanities Education

Cobb, P. J., E. Cobb, J. Liang, R. Kiyama, and J. Ng. (2024). “Theoretical Foundations for Archaeological Pedagogy with Digital 3D, Virtual, Augmented, and Mixed Reality Technologies,” Journal of Archaeology and Education, Volume 8, Issue 1, Article 1, Pages 1-29.

Dooley, Kath, et al. "Immersive Media Practices in the Classroom: Models of the Teaching Research Nexus in an Australian Context." Media Practice and Education, vol. 21, no. 4, 2020, pp. 241–260.

Gruenewald, Tim. "Designing and Teaching a Virtual Field Trip in American Studies." In: Brian Beams and Lissa Crofton-Sleigh, Past and Future Presence: Approaches to Implementing XR Technology in Humanities and Art Education, New York City: Fordham University Press, 2024.

XR and Anthropology

Messeri, Lisa. “Putting Big Tech in Its Place: A View of the Virtual from Los Angeles.” American Anthropologist, forthcoming.

Messeri, Lisa. In the Land of the Unreal: Virtual and Other Realities in Los Angeles. Duke University Press, 2024.

Messeri, Lisa. “Ethnography of/and Virtual Reality.” The Routledge Companion to Media Anthropology, edited by Elisabetta Costa, Patricia G. Lange, Nell Haynes, and Jolynna Sinanan, Routledge, 2022, pp. 570–580.

Messeri, Lisa. “Realities of Illusion: Illusion as a Way of Knowing from Torres Strait to Virtual Reality.” Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, vol. 27, no. 2, 2021, pp. 340–359.

Messeri, Lisa. “Attending to the Otherwise: Reading Illusions through Virtual Reality.” Postphenomenology and Imaging: How to Read Technology, edited by Samantha J. Fried and Robert Rosenberger, Lexington Books, 2021, pp. 273-275.

Brandt, Marisa, and Lisa Messeri. “Imagining Feminist Futures on the Small Screen: Inclusion and Care in VR Fictions.” NatureCulture, vol. 5, 2019, pp. 1–25.

bottom of page