From Readership to Usership and Education, Entertainment, Consumption to Valuation: Embodiment and Aesthetic Experience in Literature-based MR Pre

📝 Abstract

This chapter will extend its preliminary scope by examining how literary transportation further amplifies presence and affects user response vis-'a-vis virtual heritage by focusing on embodiment and aesthetic experience. To do so, it will draw on recent findings emerging from the fields of applied psychology, neuroaesthetics and cognitive literary studies; and consider a case study advancing the use of literary travel narratives in the design of DCH applications for Antiquities - in this case the well-known ancient Greek monument of Acropolis. Subsequently, the chapter will discuss how Literary-based MR Presence shifts public reception from an education-entertainment-touristic consumption paradigm to a response predicated on valuation. It will show that this type of public engagement is more closely aligned both with MR applications’ default mode of usership, and with newly emerging conceptions of a user-centered museum (e.g., the Museum 3.0), thus providing a Virtual Museum model expressly suited to cultural heritage.

💡 Analysis

This chapter will extend its preliminary scope by examining how literary transportation further amplifies presence and affects user response vis-'a-vis virtual heritage by focusing on embodiment and aesthetic experience. To do so, it will draw on recent findings emerging from the fields of applied psychology, neuroaesthetics and cognitive literary studies; and consider a case study advancing the use of literary travel narratives in the design of DCH applications for Antiquities - in this case the well-known ancient Greek monument of Acropolis. Subsequently, the chapter will discuss how Literary-based MR Presence shifts public reception from an education-entertainment-touristic consumption paradigm to a response predicated on valuation. It will show that this type of public engagement is more closely aligned both with MR applications’ default mode of usership, and with newly emerging conceptions of a user-centered museum (e.g., the Museum 3.0), thus providing a Virtual Museum model expressly suited to cultural heritage.

📄 Content

From Readership to Usership and Education, Entertainment, Consumption to Valuation: Embodiment and Aesthetic Experience in Literature-based MR Presence Stéphanie Bertrand1, Martha Vassiliadi2, Paul Zikas3,5 , Efstratios Geronikolakis3,5, George Papagiannakis3,4,5 1 School of Architecture, Faculty of Engineering Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece bertrandstephanie@gmail.com 2 Department of Philology, School of Philosophy, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece marthatv@lit.auth.gr 3 Foundation for Research and Technology Hellas, 100 N. Plastira Street, 70013 Heraklion, Greece 4 Computer Science Department, University of Crete, Voutes Campus, 70013 Heraklion, Greece 5 ORamaVR, 100 N. Plastira Street, 70013 Heraklion, Greece {paul, stratos, george.papagiannakis}@oramavr.com

Abstract This chapter will extend its preliminary scope by examining how literary transpor- tation further amplifies presence and affects user response vis-à-vis virtual herit- age by focusing on embodiment and aesthetic experience. To do so, it will draw on recent findings emerging from the fields of applied psychology, neuroaesthet- ics and cognitive literary studies; and consider a case study advancing the use of literary travel narratives in the design of DCH applications for Antiquities – in this case the well-known ancient Greek monument of Acropolis. Subsequently, the chapter will discuss how Literary-based MR Presence shifts public reception from an education-entertainment-touristic consumption paradigm to a response predi- cated on valuation. It will show that this type of public engagement is more close- ly aligned both with MR applications’ default mode of usership, and with newly emerging conceptions of a user-centered museum (e.g., the Museum 3.0), thus providing a Virtual Museum model expressly suited to cultural heritage.
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Keywords: Education, Embodiment, Storytelling, Mixed Reality Introduction Since 2014, with the exponential adoption of consumer Virtual Reality (VR) tech- nology, cultural institutions have increasingly turned towards Mixed Reality (MR) applications to expand and democratize public access to heritage. However, recent findings have shown that existing MR intangible and tangible digital cultural her- itage applications by and large fail to adequately engage audiences beyond an ini- tial fascination with the immersive 3D visualization on account of either misguid- ed storytelling, or non-compelling, non-engaging narratives (Vassiliadi et al. 2018). In response, the concept of Literature-based MR Presence was recently in- troduced to address the ‘content-based’ shortcomings of modern MR intangible and tangible digital heritage storytelling applications (Vassiliadi et al. 2018). This notion was first established on the basis of literary myth’s potential to enhance presence in Digital Cultural Heritage immersive applications owing to its multi- temporal and multi-cultural features. As argued, these features are coextensive with Mixed Reality applications’ multimodal functions, and moreover have a ben- eficial impact on the viewer. In effect, they amplify presence not only by provid- ing a more engaging narrative than the straightforward delivery of informational content; but also through the phenomenon of literary transportation.

1. Presence and Literary Transportation As outlined above, the initial case for Literary-based MR Presence was first estab- lished by focusing on: a) the potency of storytelling vis-a-vis didactic content (i.e., the attention-grabbing capability of captivating narratives); b) the multi-temporal and multi-cultural aspects of literary myths (i.e., fiction’s suitability to XR’s mul- timodal affordances); and c) the impact of literary transportation (Vassiliadi et al. 2018). Of the three characteristics originally ascribed to the concept, literary transportation is of particular importance to the idea of presence in virtual envi- ronments [VE], which is generally described as a subjective sensation of ‘being there’. Indeed, as Schuemie et al. observe in their survey of presence in virtual en- vironments: ‘presence as discussed in literature related to immersive VR can most often be characterized by the concept of presence as transportation: people are usually considered “present” in an immersive VR when they report a sensation of being in the virtual world (“you are there”)’ (2001). The same immersive princi- ples are applied in Augmented Reality (AR) environments through the introduc- tion of True AR elements that blend the real with the virtual world (Geronikolakis 3 et al. 2019). For this reason and on account of its correlation to the arguments put forward below, the term ‘literary transportation’ warrants a brief prefatory recap.

By definition, literary transportation is ‘a convergent process, where all mental systems and capacities become focused on events occurring in the narr

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