“History (from Greek ἱστορία, historìa, [visual] inspection) is the discipline that deals with the study of the past through the use of sources, that is, anything that, by configuring itself as a document, can transmit knowledge.” (Europeana)
The story was predominantly experienced as a written narrative.
However, virtual reconstruction technologies now lead us to explore the possibilities of the visual dimension in storytelling and representation. As Mc Luhan teaches, “The medium is the message”: the change of communicative tool, from writing to image, definitely impacts the content as well. With virtual reality we also go beyond the traditional image, which has accustomed us to seeing historical episodes represented by painting or film. We are entering the era of immersive media, which introduce new expressive paradigms, destined to change the way not so much of reading, but of perceiving and “experiencing” history.
We can approach the topic of historical reconstructions from their purposes and related interests:
- Historiographical reconstruction has a primarily scientific purpose, albeit vitiated by cultural goals and assumptions.
- Photography tends to have documentation features, with artistic framing
- Painting on historical subjects has been mainly celebratory
- Film reconstruction aims for entertainment
- The documentary is informative and still aspires to the audience
- The video game is pure playful entertainment.
- What about virtual reality?
Let us analyze the language of cinema: the starting point of a film with a historical subject is the screenplay, that is, the story. However, we speak of “story,” not “history”: the screenwriter’s purpose is to emotionally engage the audience through the film’s story. The treatment of a historical subject is reduced to the dialogues between the protagonists. The very valuable historical reconstructions made within great films are still subservient to the storyboard, which has to construct relational and conversational dynamics different from the historical ones. However, it is undeniable in cinema’s great impact in building a collective imagination of history. Steven Spielberg asserted in April 2016 that Virtual Reality will undermine cinema because it will prevent authors, filmmakers especially, from telling a story according to their own imagination: “In my opinion, it’s not just an extension of cinema. It is its own thing, and we have to find out a lot about the tools it offers. You are the cameraman, so framing is everywhere you look, it’s a whole new language.”
Let us now turn to video games: some digital games have achieved extraordinary reconstructions of historical settings (e.g., Rome Total War, Assassin Creed…). However, video game historical reconstruction is vitiated by a macula originalis: gameplay. In a videogame it is not permissible to reconstruct the original historical process, but the user must be able to interact with multiple historical scenarios, generated by himself. The videogame purpose defocuses the efforts, though extraordinary, of three-dimensional reconstruction.
We then come to virtual reality, which manifests some interesting features for historical reconstruction. The application areas of VR are not only related to entertainment, but also to scientific-technical simulation, educational simulation, and design. Some virtual techniques, such as 3D scanning, are already an integral part of historical research and documentation, for example in archaeology.
To better clarify the issue of descriptive reconstruction of history, let us distinguish between two forms of narration:
- STORYTELLING – linear, temporal and verbal
- SPACETELLING – spatial and visual.
While the novel and cinema adopt storytelling, Virtual Reality is characterized by spacetelling. It therefore starts with the visual reconstruction of places as a priority. The user discovers, observes and explores reconstructed environments. Historical evolution can be experienced as transformation of places. Historical heritage is physically enjoyed in two basic contexts: monumental-archaeological sites and museums. The main unresolved problem in the fruitions of both is the separation of artifacts from their original context, which makes it difficult for users to read. 3D recontextualization is aimed at virtually solving this problem, with the following functions:
- Bringing back museum exhibits within the current excavations
- Making museums reappear in the architectural and urban context from which the works were removed (the excavations)
- Reconstruct the historical archaeological context with restored artifacts, reconstructed excavations, scenes of past life and contexts of use
In the case of character history, immersive language tends to translate the biographical narrative into an autobiography. The point of view becomes subjective. The user of the biography stands in the first person, seeing the world in 360 degrees “through the eyes of the protagonist.” This figure of expression results in a strong empathy between the audience and the reconstructed historical character.
With Artificial Intelligence, virtual reconstruction of the past could take the form of a virtual simulator, applicable to all temporal dimensions. For example, simulators of future climate changes could help us reconstruct similar changes in the past, and their historical consequences. Simulations of economic systems, applied for example in finance, can also be applied to societies of the past, for example by reconstructing the availability and scarcity of natural resources, the impact of humans in the transformation of ecosystems, the effects of natural disasters in the evolution of civilizations. In this area, the technologies employed are not limited to virtual reality, but involve artificial intelligence.
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