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VRchaeology: Pt 2 Archaeology and Heritage Experiences - Ep 18
40 Plays3 years ago
In this week's episode, we go into part two of our discussion about archaeology and VR! This episode we go into two specific educational and fun VR experiences from the University of Illinois and the EMOTIVE project.
Links
- Virtual Reality Game Redefines Archaeology Education
- VRchaeology | University of Illinois at Urbana-Campaign
- The EMOTIVE Project
- EMOTIVE VR Experience
- Grant Cox, IG: https://www.instagram.com/artasmedia/
- EMOTIVE Project, IG: https://www.instagram.com/emotiveproject/
Contact
- Show
- Twitter: @idigitpodcast
- Email: [email protected]
- Alyssa
- Instagram: aal.archaeology
- Twitter: Lyssakemi
- Michaela
- Instagram: mm_digitalized
- Twitter: m_mauriello
Affiliates
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to Student Perspectives in Archaeology
00:00:00
Speaker
You're listening to the archaeology podcast network. You're listening to the I ticket podcast, a podcast where we talk about the student perspective of navigating the world of archaeology and anthropology. I'm your host, Michaela, and I'm your host, Alyssa. Hi there. Hey, how's it going?
00:00:24
Speaker
I'm all right. How's it going?
Challenges and Strategies in Academic Writing
00:00:28
Speaker
Oh, you know. I actually feel like I haven't talked to you in like a whole week though. Yeah. How does it feel to be done with your first term? Um, it feels good to not be in classes, but I still have a 15 page paper to write before the fifth. So technically I'm dragging it out longer than I have to. I mean, if you have until the fifth,
00:00:53
Speaker
You got a while. Other than that, it feels good. Starting to get stressed out again. Because of the paper. I'm sure I'll do it soon. After this week of a holiday, you'll have a whole other week. I believe in you. Thank you. It'll get done. I don't know how, but it'll get done. It always does. It always ends up happening.
00:01:21
Speaker
Whether I remember it or not. Yep. And Matt, so my last paper I wrote was the master's dissertation, which was two years ago or whatever. And we didn't really start, or I didn't start writing that until like, uh, May. And then it was like 80 pages by
00:01:46
Speaker
June? No. No. September? When was the due date? September. September. September 5th. No, 6th. Like doing all the research and everything. I guess that's a decent amount of time. People have to write more and less time sometimes. Yeah. But yeah, that was my last paper, so.
00:02:09
Speaker
Dang. That's been a minute. It's been a minute. I need to remember how to research things. How does one write? H-E-L-P.
00:02:25
Speaker
Yes. It's just like the Spongebob's the... Oh my god. I totally felt that while doing my dissertation. I would be like staring at a page and then I had this like brain blast and I'm writing it down. And it's like a sentence after like two hours. Yeah. It's one of those things where you sit in the library for eight hours and you get like three sentences. You're like, well, that was productive. Predictive day. Time to go.
00:02:54
Speaker
Cause you're trying to work through a writer's block while you're trying to work on a dissertation. So it's like, yeah, I'm going to take myself to the library. I'm going to take myself anywhere. Even if I don't do anything, it'll help in some way. Also trying to like focus on one topic for that long is so hard for me. I got a 10 track brain. One track is too much for me.
00:03:24
Speaker
I think that's why I started working on different parts of the project at the same time, and then being in a virtual world itself. That was really helpful. You're lucky you got to play video games for your dissertation.
00:03:36
Speaker
That's why I did it. No, I'm kidding. I mean, I can barely go on VR anymore right now because I just like get the work flashback. So I get like excited when I can win. And then just the whole like setup thing because it's like I have the older Oculus Rift, which has like the stands and not the stands, but the sensors that you have to set up and like have a whole space. But the newer Oculus is Oculi.
00:04:02
Speaker
Oculus. You don't have to have the sensors and I'm just like, wow. That's crazy.
Exploring Literature and Media Adaptations
00:04:13
Speaker
Future. So quick to change. Speaking of VR, Ready Player 2 is out and I just bought it. I'm excited to read it. I know.
00:04:27
Speaker
I mean, yeah, I really liked the book and then I like watched the movie. I didn't like the movie. I didn't like the movie. Not at all. I think they put too much emphasis on the romance, which they would. Also just every single task was different. They tried to make it too modern and I think that was
00:04:50
Speaker
Not the way to do it. Cause like the nostalgia of Ready Player One was that it was very like 80s based, like all nostalgic 80s games. Like, oh, this is so retro. They just completely cut out everything 80s. Yeah. I'm excited to read the second book though. Yeah, me too. Let's see how, let's see how Klein writes his female protagonist now. Oh, is that how it is?
00:05:14
Speaker
Oh, I don't know. It's female protagonist. But I mean, like in the other book, Ready Player One, just the way that he would write women was not the best. So. I guess the movie did that better. The female protagonist in the movie was pretty active. I don't remember that much. Yeah. We'll have to reread. Maybe I'll speed read before we get into the second book.
00:05:40
Speaker
Yeah, I got to get that. And then speaking of...
Innovation in Archaeology Education: VR Integration
00:05:44
Speaker
Today we're doing part two of Michaela's VR series. So she'll take the lead now.
00:05:55
Speaker
Yeah, what's up? My name's Mikayla and I like video games. My name's Mikayla. Is it though? Yeah, okay. I don't know. So for this episode for the archaeology part two, I'll be talking about some other stuff that I started to touch on in the first part and kind of elaborate more into in this part.
00:06:21
Speaker
And the first part of VR archaeology, I was going more into the virtual reality and the integration into archaeology. And kind of like when I first came about and kind of showing or giving different examples and definitions of what virtual reality is. And some of the first VR experiences and headsets and machinery. And then I went into VR archaeology with
00:06:49
Speaker
games and museum experiences and how we think it flows as an experience with archaeology. So for this episode, I'm going to go more into different universities and programs that go into the archaeology and just seeing the potential in it and how it can be used more frequently in the coming future. So there are different universities kind of around the world that that delve into VR
00:07:18
Speaker
with archaeology.
00:07:20
Speaker
And just, there's Duke University, University of Illinois, University of York, University of Edinburgh. There was a virtual reality experience from the University of Illinois that was published on the Ancient Origins website. I don't know why I said origins weird. Origins. Origins. Ory Johns. No, that's nice. You silly. Thanks. So anyway, Ancient Origins, reconstructing the story of humanity's past.
00:07:50
Speaker
And I came across this because I was looking up the website, the university's website for their VR experience. In February, 2020, they published this article, virtual reality game redefines archeology education. And it kind of goes into the ability of being able to explore an archeological site without going to the site in person, which is something I was starting to talk about in the first part of the archeology.
00:08:19
Speaker
Because with VR archaeology, you really only need your headset. You can stay in your chair. There's different ways to be able to maneuver yourself around the site. Or I should just say experience in VR. Move around VR without
00:08:35
Speaker
using a lot of mobility and I think that's really cool and important. There's different vernacular that's pretty ableist within archaeology. I remember during our master's program there was this little bit of controversy on Twitter about just a vernacular and it was about field walking and how it was a past-time tradition
00:09:00
Speaker
for archaeologists, all archaeologists to do this, or all archaeologists to be an archaeologist, you have to participate in this field walk. And that's not necessarily what was said in the Twitter post, but it was going along those lines where it being like, oh, to be an archaeologist, you got to do these field walks. And so people were commenting saying that was pretty ableist.
00:09:22
Speaker
And just because you're an archaeologist doesn't mean you have to do a field walk. But it was more of just like, hey, this is just something that I do with my first year students, and we just go on this walk. That's the tradition of it. I just do this every year with my first year students. Doesn't mean you have to be an archaeologist or not. This is the tradition that I just do. And I was so excited for this. And so I can see both sides of that coin because on one hand, he wasn't
00:09:51
Speaker
intentionally trying to single people out and be ableist. But in the meantime, the words that was chosen for that tweet was a bit demeaning. I remember this. This was like a big thing.
00:10:05
Speaker
Yeah, it was a bit demeaning for people who aren't able to go on these walks. And so people started tweeting, retweeting, commenting, subtweeting about this interaction. And that kind of got me thinking more about
00:10:27
Speaker
what it means to be an archaeologist, because in order to be an archaeologist, you have to go on these fieldwork. You have to participate in a field school, do fieldwork, be in the field. I mean, I understand because you want to be able to have the experience, and the experience is so important. But spending $500 to $5,000 that you may or may not have, and may not have the means to obtain a scholarship,
00:10:54
Speaker
because there's thousands of other students trying to apply to these scholarships, there's a privilege to being able to go into field school. Overall, if you're wanting to work in a different country, how are you going to get to the country?
00:11:07
Speaker
It's easier and less expensive to do something near you, but for somebody who's dreaming of working in China and having to spend $5,000 that they may or may not have, and may or may not be able to get, or not have the means physically to get there. It's quite difficult.
Can VR Replace Traditional Field Schools?
00:11:23
Speaker
Yes. So with the virtual reality experience for the University of Illinois, designed by the professors and computer science graduates, they're allowing that the course
00:11:36
Speaker
which is their anthropology 399, a course designated to bring the archaeological field school experience to the undergraduate students who never leave campus. It gives students a chance to be able to get this field experience without needing to take off time from work from school. The anthropology professor at the University of Illinois, Laura Shackelford,
00:12:00
Speaker
said field school is a requirement for most archaeological programs across the country, but traveling to a field school site can cost anywhere from $500 to $5,000. Dr. Shackelford led the development of a class at the University of Illinois' Education Policy Organization. There was leadership from other professors and graduate students to help
00:12:21
Speaker
create this experience back starting in 2018. They have a website called vArchaeology and on the main homepage it says what is vArchaeology? It is on the left and then it is not on the right. I'm just going to share what it is. It is a semester long course to introduce field and lab methods. It's a controlled teaching environment, a way to introduce archaeology to a new audience and an active immersion environment.
00:12:45
Speaker
immersive environment sorry it is not a replacement for a field school a complete lesson and methods for majors or graduate students a stand alone game.
00:12:55
Speaker
and a passive experience. What I thought was interesting is how on the website says it is not a replacement for field school, whereas in the article it says that it is a replacement for field school, but it's only at the university. So when you are looking at a job, per se, and it wants a field school experience, you can't list the class that you took.
00:13:18
Speaker
Which is fine, but that's just, I don't know. I think that can change. I think having this sort of work digitally will be able to coincide with doing it in reality, just virtually.
00:13:37
Speaker
virtual reality, right? Anyway, with their work, they created a game-based virtual reality experience for a cave modeled in part on a real cave that was excavated in the 1930s. It contains both ancient and more recent human artifacts, all of which are accessible to students who dig in the right place. The students learn the archaeological techniques required in any excavation.
00:14:00
Speaker
They set up a research grid on the cave floor and systematically locate and record any artifacts they find on the surface. They draw a map with all the surface details and then decide where to excavate. They take photos of special features or finds. They dig. They collect artifacts. They conduct laboratory analysis. They keep track of their progress in a field notebook.
00:14:21
Speaker
And that's their experience. What I'm wondering is how this experience works in the classroom setting, though. How beneficial is it? Are students learning anything out of it? Would they rather have the real experience in real life or the virtual experience?
00:14:40
Speaker
I mean, I'm thinking about it like, I guess in some high schools, they have to dissect a frog or something. They have to dissect something in their biology course. And I remember seeing something that if you didn't want to actually dissect the frog, you can do it virtually, which takes place of doing it with your physical hands. You just do it on a digital tablet. I hated dissecting things. Me too. Oh, I bet you were the worst at dissecting things. You get so sad.
00:15:11
Speaker
Yeah, I remember I had to dissect something, eighth grade and junior high, and it was a sheep's heart. And I was at the point where I was trying to be super cool and stuff like that, just to myself and being like, oh, I'm so tough. But inside, I was so sad. I used to try so hard to be so tough on the outside. I was on the inside. I was so weak. And I just wanted to be cool like my brothers, because my brother that's three years old with me, he's very much like,
00:15:39
Speaker
He could dissect anything. He could, you could dissect himself. And he would be still fine. Yeah, he was, he's like tougher than nails and I wanted to be like that too. So I was just like, yeah, yeah, Mikayla, why would you do that to yourself? But look at me now, I cry over roadkill. It's so sad. Oh, I'm going to start tearing up again.
00:16:09
Speaker
But that's what the virtual reality experience for this university, for this course, is kind of reminding me of, just the ability to do something virtually. And you're still learning. I'm just wondering how much the students are actually learning. In the article, a student said, you can't just import lectures into VR and expect to have good results. We're not creating a 3D model viewer for looking at artifacts or to tour an existing site. We're trying to build an immersive educational experience.
00:16:40
Speaker
And students need to feel that they're actually engaged in excavating a cave. It's also important for them to look, it's also important for them to use realistic tools to accomplish the tasks at hand. But designing virtual tools for an archaeological dig is tricky. A lot of the challenge has to do with the trade-off between making something as realistic as possible versus making something more accessible to people.
00:17:03
Speaker
For example, the designers created a virtual tape measure that requires two hands to operate. But reading tiny measurements in the virtual world is problematic, so a pop-up screen shows the users the readout on the tape.
00:17:15
Speaker
which is cool. So it seems like with this experience, they've kind of thought of all like the nicks and crannies and needing to use real realistic tools. And yeah, I can only imagine trying to read measuring tape in VR because you're like so far up the ground, or however tall you are. And if it's on the ground or wherever it is, like those numbers are gonna be so small.
00:17:37
Speaker
and also everyone's eyes are different and everyone's eyes in VR are even more different because I'm like everything's going to be the same projection and the same size for everyone else in the experience or in virtual reality and everyone has different eyes I wonder how
00:17:54
Speaker
It affects other people. I mean, I don't wear glasses, so I can't talk about glass use. Glasses use in VR. It's hard. Yeah. It doesn't work too well. Something else that they were doing was simulating dirt that students can modify in real time. I feel like that would just be so difficult. And the student that was being interviewed Merrill said that it was very computationally complex because
00:18:25
Speaker
The team, because I can only just like imagine the physics needed in order to do that in the virtual reality experience, that'd be a lot. But I guess the team came up with a solution that allows students to extract their dirt in chunks that reflect the light in a realistic manner. The design also incorporates haptic feedback so that students can feel the solidity and texture of the dirt when making contact.
00:18:54
Speaker
I want to do this experience. I'm going to go join the University of Illinois and I just want to take this course because I want to observe.
Inclusivity and Accessibility of VR in Education
00:19:03
Speaker
In the article, the professors were saying that there's less instructions in providing multiple scenarios. So it's possible different teams of students will experience different things. I wish I could just be a fly on the wall in the class and learn about what
00:19:17
Speaker
and how they're teaching the students what to do. What is your opinion about this course replacing this university's field school? So is it completely replacing or it's an alternative to also a field school? I think it could take place as the field school requirement for this university. Like they have a field school requirement. So then you can go off to do a field school or you can take this course. First of all, I think it's awesome that
00:19:45
Speaker
they have something within the university, because my school didn't have that. We had to find an external thing to fill that requirement. Well, it wasn't a requirement for the major or anything, but just a requirement for being an archaeologist in general.
00:20:01
Speaker
But I think that's cool. I, I really like that they have alternatives to be all inclusive. Cause I don't think a lot of places do necessarily think of that yet. I think we're getting better at it, but yeah, I think it's hard to find alternatives that like actually count towards what you need to do. Like naturally without you trying to like apply for it and fight for it counting, you know?
00:20:30
Speaker
Yeah, it's like already set up to have it count. One thing that's cool about this is that it's available during the school year. And so you can just have it be applied, be what part of your units. And you don't have to take any extra time. You don't have to go away somewhere for six, four to six weeks. You don't have to spend like all this money, just pay with it for tuition. And it fills your requirement for the university. And then I guess.
00:20:59
Speaker
you have to go and actually do a real experience in most cases for archaeology work. But I mean, it's pretty cool that they know students don't have all the time in the world like people think they do. And some students are like working two different jobs doing an internship and trying to be at school full time. And just can't just drop everything to go travel for three months. Yeah.
00:21:26
Speaker
Gonna go dig a hole. I'm gonna go quit my job because I can do that even though I have my own place and I pay my own rent and pay my bills because it's all my own. It's like I don't know what people think students have all this time for. It's like maybe like 20 years ago. It's so interesting or I guess it kind of sucks but it's interesting how like archaeology is a field where you don't get a whole lot of money to begin with and yet it's so expensive to do.
00:21:53
Speaker
And yeah, that just kind of thought that came into my head. It's annoying. Yeah. Having this sort of experience seems like it's one of the first to have an actual course doing this. I think it's making good strides. And this article about it was pasted. It was posted in February.
00:22:15
Speaker
And I could, oh my gosh. That was right before everything closed down with the pandemic. So I'm only assuming that this is more beneficial, even more so. Yeah. It's like, okay, class, we'll meet in VR. Bye. Cause we were going to do that anyway.
00:22:31
Speaker
But then again, how do they give the students the VR headsets at their own house on this? Oh, true. Unless they put like plexiglass around the room or something. But also, you can go into VR without a headset, right? You can just do desktop stuff? No. No? Not with VR.
00:22:50
Speaker
I thought with like VR chat and stuff you can do. Okay. So it depends on the thing. Yeah. The VR chat is both, both web-based and VR-based and it was mainly VR-based, but they know their clientele. And so this free game is also available on desktop.
00:23:09
Speaker
makes sense. But not most most VR games are not available like that. That was this experience for this university that I am liking what I'm seeing. And so when we come back, we're going to talk about a different experience from motive after this break.
00:23:28
Speaker
This last part, I just kind of went off about the University of Illinois because I thought that was really cool. Since the article was published so recently, I guess it wasn't so recent anymore because it was February. I mean, it's only March 320th day of March, yes. Precisely. Precisely. The exact day.
00:23:52
Speaker
So this time I'm going to be going more into the emotive VR experience. And before I start doing that, I will explain what emotive is. Emotive is the EU funded research project that works from the premise that cultural sites are highly emotional places, that regardless of age, location, or state of preservation,
00:24:11
Speaker
They are seedbeds not just of knowledge, but of emotional resonance and human connection.
Emotive VR Project and Emotional Storytelling
00:24:16
Speaker
From 2016 to 2019, the emotive Concernum has researched, designed, developed, and evaluated methods and tools that can support the cultural and creative industries in creating narratives and experiences which draw on the power of
00:24:30
Speaker
emotional storytelling. The output of this process is a number of prototype tools and applications for heritage professionals and visitors that produce interactive, personalized, emotionally resonant digital experiences for museums and cultural sites. So basically with Emotive, it's emotional storytelling for cultural heritage.
00:24:50
Speaker
And so with the motive, the name, it's supposed to be emotion, you know, like their little logo is a little heart. It's adorable. Love it. Love what they do. Love to see it. So for this particular experience, it's with a VR experience in Shadowhoiuk. And I'm just gonna read what they have on their website, because that's better than me just trying to remember off the top of my head. I should have talked to Ian about
00:25:16
Speaker
emotive. I wonder if he knows anything about it. Probably. I wonder. Probably. Maybe. He's got it, right? I would assume so. Especially with Shadow Hoya and having an EU funded project. Hmm. All right.
00:25:31
Speaker
Through multi-user virtual reality experience, participants are taken on a collaborative adventure through the UNESCO Neolithic site of Shatahoyuk. This experience fosters interaction and emotional learning between pairs of individuals who are tasked with enacting forms of care. Together, participants engage with some of the social practices once common at Shatahoyuk.
00:25:51
Speaker
from artistic expression of group identity to home repair and burial customs. The experience invites participants to reflect on human relatedness across time and space, and to think more deeply about our impact on the world. So with the Emoto VR experience,
00:26:07
Speaker
This was partially coming out of the University of New York where we did our masters. Several of our colleagues were working with the emotive project doing different forms of storytelling with cultural heritage. Some were making little molds with clays and getting the emotional response of that.
00:26:29
Speaker
One of our colleagues was someone who we interviewed near the beginning of the podcast, Kristen O'Connor. I don't know why I almost said Chenowick. Why did that name come? Kristen O'Connor. And she helped with the emotive VR experience. Within that episode, she just explained a little bit of what she was doing in a paper that she was getting ready to be published.
00:26:52
Speaker
with a part of the project. With this experience, they have gone and made 3D models of the site of one of the households and put that into VR. Now the VR experience itself with the design was not created by people at the University of York. It was created by Grant Cox from the Instagram handle is art as media. And if you just look at his social media, there's so many 3D models and
00:27:22
Speaker
They're beautiful, oh my gosh. So this particular world that was built was created by him with the emotive project, with the emotive team. I was able to finally do the experience at the University of Glasgow because they had this whole experience happening at the Hunnitarian Museum as a part of the university, and so the University of Glasgow and your
00:27:46
Speaker
joined together to show their different emotive projects. And so I was finally able to do it because they were doing little test runs at the University of York but I never got the chance to do it. So I was finally able to do the project at the University of Glasgow and I put my name on the thing. I was able to see people doing the experience. Remember the times when we were actually able to be next to other people?
00:28:08
Speaker
Love it. I miss those times. I miss people. And so you're looking at this.
00:28:17
Speaker
part of the room. I'm not too sure what their distance was between the people and the actual space that they had out. Probably like a good 12 feet diameter just in case people start going around. So the front has this table with two computers on it just to operate the VR experience and watch what's going on for the people.
00:28:38
Speaker
in the experience, the users. Two people that go into the experience, you can either know the other person or you don't know the other person. In my case, I did not know the other person. We met right before we were put into this virtual experience. And so we did all like little like greetings like, oh, hi.
00:28:55
Speaker
And we're getting explained of what to do and how to use VR and all that stuff. And we got put into this VR experience and we see our outlines of our bodies and we use these masks to portray who we are. Once we choose our mask and we put it on our face, that's how we distinguish ourselves from one another. And there's only two of us.
00:29:17
Speaker
And we're talking in the game to each other. And in order to progress, you have to give each other high fives. So you give the other player a high five, and then you can go on to the next room or the next task. And you use little stamps, and you stamp up the wall. You put your handprints on the wall, and you do all these communal activities with the other person. And you're just interacting with them. You're having fun. You're laughing.
00:29:41
Speaker
At least I was laughing. She was laughing. We're having a jolly old time. And then at the end of the experience, you give your other user a high five.
00:29:50
Speaker
And then you get taken out of the experience. After the experience happened, we gave each other a real high five because that's just how it should go. You're giving this person, you may or may not know, all these virtual high fives. Of course, when you're done, you just want to give them a high five in real life. And I guess that was the first time some of the people watching saw that.
00:30:12
Speaker
happened in real life. It was fun. And so I really enjoyed this virtual reality experience because not only did it put you back into this room that's already been excavated,
00:30:32
Speaker
And they're not trying to fully recreate how it once was, but they're trying to show you and give you an emotional connection to the culture and how people were living and giving you educational debriefs of what was done and how you're supposed to use some things in order to progress. Of course, you can use these stamps for other things. You can probably stamp your own body in real life. But in the game, you have to stamp the wall and do things on the wall, pick up artifacts, and do all this stuff.
00:31:01
Speaker
And I just thought that the way that it was actually designed was really cool. I really enjoyed it.
00:31:08
Speaker
I would love to see this in STEAM, which is what I think that they're thinking about doing or what they're intending on doing is putting this out to the public for public to use. I know when they were doing these experiences at the University of York, they were putting people from the campus to the other team in France and putting people together over just the internet, totally different rooms, different countries. I mean, you're on an island and then you're on the continent.
00:31:38
Speaker
just showing the distance that you can be and being able to communicate with somebody who may not speak your language and being able to progress and establish this bond with this random person, which is what they're doing. And what they're trying to do, I think, was connect somebody who spoke English and somebody who only spoke French.
00:31:57
Speaker
together so that they would only be able to continue by trying to learn each other's mannerisms in virtual reality. Because you can't see facial features or real movements. You just see these virtual blobs just moving around. And you're like, OK, now what? And then you try to motion in the ways that you can. And it's cool because it's archaeology, but it can also go into anthropological observations. I'm excited to see things that
00:32:24
Speaker
they end up doing. And if they continue, I haven't heard from them for a while, except for the paper that was going to be published or starting to be published like in March or whenever Kristin said, I don't remember. It's been a hot minute. I'm looking forward to
The Educational Value of VR in Archaeology
00:32:41
Speaker
it. And I think with this type of experiences as well as the University of Illinois and how they're having a virtual experience as well, it's getting more, it's getting more, um, more Ready Player One-y.
00:32:53
Speaker
Let's get a more ready player one. Let's go. No, it's getting more use and reputation. That is just not, you're just playing a video game. You're not doing anything. You're actually like learning though. And you're having fun. Cause some people like may just not want to go and get dirty. No, I'm kidding. Me. Yeah.
00:33:22
Speaker
There's still dirt under my nail bits from work and stop getting mad. My nails are all clean. I will be right back after this break. Welcome back. Hi. So these are just two experiences that I thought would be cool to share that we're not specifically gaming related, but more virtual reality.
00:33:42
Speaker
archaeology experience related, or they're trying to create a site to learn and interact with other users, as well as continuing to gain information about the site and have fun while you're doing it. I mean, I don't know how fun the classroom is, but I'm assuming that must be a pretty lit class, though. Especially for people who have never interacted with archaeology before. Right. Very neat.
00:34:11
Speaker
Yeah, that is, I don't know, it's pretty cool. I want to. And with the emotive project, that's just cool to me that there's a project that's based out of like a few different countries. I think it was England, France and Greece is where people that were part of the project kept having to go as well as Turkey for Shadowhojuk. And then I think 2018 was the last summer that they went to Shadowhojuk. I'm not entirely too sure.
00:34:38
Speaker
I know in 2019, they did not go. The ability to be able to record data and use data to create these sites from sites that have already been excavated, like the cave in the 1930s, and just go in and take photos, make a site out of it. Sorry, not a site, but a 3D model out of it to be explored in VR and being able to create
00:35:02
Speaker
this experience with things that are in existence and simulation, like with the dirt and the tools and the mimicking of real objects. I mentioned this before, but when I was in Bulgaria, we are taking photogrammetric models of every single layer on the site.
00:35:23
Speaker
I think if any other archaeological site were to do such a thing, having these sort of VR experiences would be really cool for students, for people just interested in archaeology and being able to do it in their own house, in VR, or on desktop if people just don't have the means to get a VR headset because who has like $400 laying around?
00:35:47
Speaker
it would be cool to be able to create an experience with this data that's already in existence.
00:35:55
Speaker
for people to look at. Not just to be sitting on somebody's hard drive for the rest of eternity because it's like, okay, I published one paper about it, time to move on, and then forget all about all of the data that was collected. I think it would be a good learning experience for people going in, looking at each layer, seeing what there is to see, and start digging. Even if they're digging in the wrong spot or if they're in the right spot, it's helping them visualize where things are because as you're digging down each layer,
00:36:24
Speaker
You can see objects, you can see features of the site in a more prevalent light because once you start seeing something, you start digging a little bit around it, near it to make it pop out more before you just start digging it out fully.
00:36:42
Speaker
So those are my hot takes for this part. So this is part two. If you guys have any suggestions on what you would like me to talk about for part three, let me know. Leave some comments in the DMs. We haven't upgraded our Instagram in a while. It's like when I go on Instagram, I just like go on the front page. I kind of scroll down two different posts and then I look through like two or three Instagram stories and I'm like, okay, I'm done. Yeah, exactly. And then that's all for the day. The archaeology.
00:37:09
Speaker
Part three will be coming. Yeah, just let me know if you'd like me to go over anything, go into more experiences, showing what else is there that's available, either gaming related or experience.
00:37:23
Speaker
based related because that's what I'm going to keep doing. So as we are recording this on the 25th of November, Alyssa, you're done with your first term quarter almost. You have your paper, but you're done with like your major classes. You just have the paper. And then we have a holiday coming up. What are some of your major plans for your break?
00:37:48
Speaker
Ooh, I am getting a new tattoo.
Cultural Significance and Personal Anecdotes
00:37:52
Speaker
Ooh, I'm super excited about it. I just had my first consultation over Zoom, um, yesterday with like the first sketch of it. And it's going to be two shisa dogs, which are Okinawan tradition to have sitting outside your house to like ward off bad spirits and keeping good spirits. And we've just, I've grown up with them all around the house. Um,
00:38:18
Speaker
since I can remember and they're just been a big part. I thought of it like two weeks ago and I was like, I need this on my body. And so then I made an appointment. But yeah, I'm getting that we have it scheduled for the 17th of December.
00:38:34
Speaker
That's so exciting. I'm excited to see that. Yeah. Where's the artist based out of? SF. Nice. Yeah. So that'll be cool. So exciting. I'm excited. What about you? I came down to something California about last week.
00:38:56
Speaker
to help my family out with some things that were happening. And then I'm just like, well, I'm just going to stay through the holiday. And I'm supposed to go back up to Sacramento next week if I do have work.
00:39:08
Speaker
Cause I got an email blast about a lot of projects and I was like, yes, please, here's my availability. And so they're just like, okay, we'll keep you in mind. And I'm like, please use me. It's like three hours away from my house in Sacramento. So it's, it's, it's a long time. It's I don't know. So it's in the house. Yes. Nice. But before that, I was thinking of maybe just staying in Southern California.
00:39:37
Speaker
just for the holidays through, through December as well. Just because of like how bad COVID is getting. Like I'm not seeing like anybody, but I will be with family. Yeah. And especially because they keep talking about potential stay at home orders. I know that's county by county, but it's like, okay, I'd rather be stuck, stuck there with family and stuck with family than by myself or I can't leave or do anything. True.
00:40:05
Speaker
So I'm just like, oh, I'd rather be here. Yeah, it's been nice being with family and just hanging out. That's about it. I don't really have anything planned. Yeah, same. I'm trying not to plan anything. I know. It's hard. Yeah. Don't want to be one of those people. We're thinking about maybe doing like a beach thing, just like not with people.
Conclusion and Holiday Wishes
00:40:30
Speaker
Thanks for tuning in. Catch us on the flip side of Thanksgiving. Hopefully there's not, there is going to be a big spike, but hopefully we are not part of that. Um, hopefully you are not part of that and wishing everyone safe existence. Stay safe, stay sane and talk to you guys later. Bye everyone. Later. Bye.
00:41:05
Speaker
This show is produced by the Archaeology Podcast Network, Chris Webster and Tristan Boyle, in Reno, Nevada at the Reno Collective. This has been a presentation of the Archaeology Podcast Network. Visit us on the web for show notes and other podcasts at www.archpodnet.com. Contact us at chrisatarchaeologypodcastnetwork.com.