VR storytelling seminar, film screening and panel discussion
Venue: Bedford Square, London. Room 0-03
The Department of Marketing at Birmingham Business School’s Culture Group in association with StoryFutures and CHRONOS at Royal Holloway, University of London would like to invite you to a seminar and panel discussion on the use of virtual reality, augmented reality, as well as film and audio in connecting people to hidden heritage and culture through stories.
Virtual reality and augmented technology has become much more accessible and affordable to consumers through developments in both the technology and hardware. The future of place branding and marketing narratives will be defined by these new possibilities, enabling new expression and interpretation of history, culture and places, engaging audiences in new ways, including those who do not have the opportunity for real time experience. The need for further content development necessitates collaboration between scholars and practitioners in a broad range of disciplines ranging from marketing, tourism, film and media, art history, archaeology, engineering, culture and heritage. All of these disciplines have highlighted the significance of storytelling in connecting with audiences. The success of place branding therefore, depends on the story and how it is manifested, perceived and experienced. This event will focus on how these stories can best be told.
The seminar will showcase VR storytelling and demonstrate uses of VR in connecting people to places and objects. This will be led by Dr Hamdi Kan who will take a cultural and archeological approach to exploring VR history, its ups and downs, recent popularity, advantages and disadvantages and challenges in transitioning to this new technology. The research reported on is part of the British Academy Newton Fund project; A Tale of Two Cities, a collaboration between the Culture Group and colleagues from Akdeniz University in Turkey
Following this, we will show the experimental short movie “Belkıs“ (6’) directed by Zehra Yigit as part of this project and discuss the affordances of different modes of storytelling from audio, augmented reality, virtual reality to face to face storytelling. The panel for this discussion will consist of Dr Hamdi Kan, Dr Evinc Dogan (both Adkdeniz University, Turkey); Dr Finola Kerrigan, University of Birmingham; Dr Chloe Preece, Mr Jack Lowe both Royal Holloway, University of London; and Dr Dirk vom Lehn, King’s College London. The panel discussion will be followed by a drinks reception, to facilitate further discussions.
Our speakers are:
Dr Muhammet Hamdi Kan is a Scholar in Architectural Restoration in the Department of Architecture and City Planning at Akdeniz University, Turkey and director of the Architectural Restoration Programme. He is the co-founder of Lithodomos VR, in Melbourne, Australia. Dr. M.Hamdi KAN is specialised in two main subjects of Hellenistic Architecture (domestic architecture, masonry, ancient engineering and urbanism) and Late Bronze Age Western Anatolia (Pottery and Historical Geography); and also focused on Conceptional and Social Archaeology. Besides, during his academic tutoring process since 2006, he gained great experience on Protection and Management of Cultural Heritage. As an archaeologist, Dr. Kan believes that archaeology should rely on emerging technological applications for both data production and documentation, as traditional methods are no longer satisfying nor productive. He has implemented 3D modeling, animation and photogrammetry methods in archaeological fieldwork since 2002.
Dr Evinc Dogan is an Assistant Professor at Akdeniz University. She has a PhD in Management and Development of Cultural Heritage and her research focuses on place marketing, city branding, visual culture, cultural heritage and tourism.
Dr Finola Kerrigan is a Reader in Marketing at Birmingham Business School. Her research interests include arts and heritage marketing, particularly film marketing, social media and branding. She is the author of Film Marketing, Elsevier (2010).
Dr Chloe Preece is a Senior Lecturer in Marketing at Royal Holloway. Her research focuses on production and consumption issues in the visual arts and how this translates into social, cultural and economic value. She is currently chair of the Arts and Heritage Special Interest Group of the Academy of Marketing and is a member of the StoryFutures team examining audience responses to immersive technologies.
Dr Dirk Vom Lehn is a Reader in Organisational Sociology at King’s Business School. His research focuses on audience experiences of exhibits and exhibitions in museums and particularly the interweaving of technology with market-led social interaction.
Mr Jack Lowe is a cultural geographer currently doing a practice-based PhD in the geography and media arts departments of Royal Holloway. His research engages with various forms of digital media art to investigate the processes through which places become meaningful. He is currently making a location-based game in Canterbury to understand the medium’s potential to enable people to tell and learn about the stories that make places meaningful.
Registration is free through Eventbrite
