CAA 2023: Despoina Sampatakou
1Assessing digital methods of communicating archaeological research to the public: storytelling, interaction and immersion
Archaeologists are keen to try digital media and cutting-edge technology to study the past or to present their research to the wider public. Digital archaeology is an established field of archaeology usually focused on using digital technology to study or communicate the past (Morgan 2022). Interactivity and immersion along with archaeological storytelling are often used to create digital heritage experiences, such as Virtual Reality (VR) installations, to communicate archaeological research to the public and to attract more visitors to the museums and cultural institutions. However, the suitability, limitations, and results of these techniques have not been widely assessed and discussed, neither has the overall relationship between digital archaeology and public engagement (Richardson 2018).
In this paper I will present my current doctoral research, where I am looking into different media and techniques of communicating archaeological research. The aim of my research is to assess the impact and implications of the use of different forms of archaeological storytelling in communicating archaeological research to the wider public. In addition, I am examining whether and to what degree can an archaeologist employ such digital tools to communicate their research without hiring professionals, undergoing long training, or using extra funds. Finally, I want to assess
which digital tools would offer the best options for archaeologists to develop such heritage experience. For this reason, I have looked into two widely used digital media: videogames and VR.
Archaeogaming and games in archaeology in general is an established and growing field (Politopoulos and Mol 2021), while VR has already been used in some museum settings.
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