This paper presents an interactive, collaborative virtual heritage system that employs tangible interfaces to make learning experience more interesting and effective. The system is designed for a group of users collaboratively play games to learn a Korean cultural heritage site, the ‘Moyang’ castle. While most virtual heritage applications focus on the reconstruction of objects or places, it ai...

Alonzo C. Addison serves as Director of the Center for Design Visualization, University of California, Berkeley. A co-founder of the Virtual Heritage Network, his work ranges from historical visualization to design simulation, information architecture, and collaborative networks. Currently completing a doctorate in design theory from Berkeley, he also holds an MA in architecture from the univer...

The area of virtual heritage has long been concentrated on generating digital reconstructions of historical or archaeological artefacts and sites with enough fidelity to be truly accurate representations of their real-world counterparts. In some cases, the advancement of tools and techniques for achieving greater visual realism has distracted from the development of other directions that enhanc...

This article examines the nature of the destruction of built environments. Such destruction should be seen as a distinct form of violence: urbicide. This violence comprises the destruction of shared spatiality which is the condition of possibility of heterogeneous communities. Urbicide, insofar as it is a destruction of heterogeneity in general, is thus a manifestation of a ‘politics of exclusi...

This article examines the nature of the destruction of built environments. Such destruction should be seen as a distinct form of violence: urbicide. This violence comprises the destruction of shared spatiality which is the condition of possibility of heterogeneous communities. Urbicide, insofar as it is a destruction of heterogeneity in general, is thus a manifestation of a ‘politics of exclusi...

This paper surveys current notions of social and cultural presence as they may help the evaluation of cultural heritage projects. We argue that cultural heritage requires specialized evaluation, as key issues both connect and separate the aims of presence researchers and cultural heritage experts. To support this argument, three case studies of virtual heritage evaluations are summarized, and r...

Virtual heritage reconstructions usually focus on displaying architecture or artefacts, with virtual humans playing only minor roles. In the real world, however, such places are, or have been, populated. We introduce a virtual crowd into the real-time 3D reconstruction of a complex heritage edifice to increase the realism of the reconstructed scene. We create a virtual population of worshippers...

This article addresses a lacuna in research into the religio-spatial practices of Chinese Buddhist communities Britain. Although numbers migrants to Britain is increasing and diversifying, scholarly attention religious (especially relation Buddhism) has been lacking. In this article, I focus on Fo Guang Shan London - transnational Taiwanese organization, occupying Grade II* listed former Victor...

This article discusses the historical role of Islam in the political evolution of Guinea in the broader context of Muslims’ experience of nation/state building and globalization in Africa. This role is examined on the premise that Islam is one of the major globalizing forces (more in the body of the paper on this idea of Islam as a globalizing force) responsible for the formation of what expert...