1. Digital
Cultural heritage
DIGHUMLAB Launch,
University of Aarhus, Denmark,
10th September, 2012.
Prof., Dr. Lily Díaz
MEDIA LAB HELSINKI

2. Map of Mexico 1550

3. Map of Mexico 1550

5. Exploring Carta Marina

6. Exploring Modernism

8. Finnish Pavilion at the 1900 World Fair in Paris

9. About digital cultural heritage
- The use of the use of digital technology and media by
cultural heritage institutions.
- A ‘landscape’ comprising services and products (Zorich,
2003; Cameron & Kenderdine, 2007)
- Websites and blogs documenting exhibition contents
- Online and onsite tour guides
- Diverse forms of digital simulations designed to augment the
visitor’s experience
- Games (serious and not) as well as social media platforms.

10. Re-discovering
Vrouw Maria
MEDIA LAB HELSINKI

11. About Re-discovering Vrouw Maria…
- A multi-disciplinary project organized by the National
Board of Antiquities, Vrouw Maria project and the Media
Lab Helsinki, the Systems of Representation research
group, and the Media Factory.
- The objective was to create an interactive, real-time,
virtual reality simulation of the Vrouw Maria shipwreck.
- The simulation has been created as part of the exhibition
Spoil of Riches – Stories of the Vrouw Maria and the St.
Michel held at the Maritime Museum of Finland located in
the grand Maritime Centre Vellamo in Kotka, from 25 April
– 2 December, 2012.

12. Interactive installation
• Virtual reality
- 3m X 2m rear projection display device
- Stereoscopic
• Gesture-based interface
- Kinect
- Unity 3.0
• 5.1 Surround sound system

13. Interactive installation

14. Interactive installation

15. Media Lab Team
• Doctor of Arts: Cvijeta Miljak, Ferhat Sen
• Master of Arts: Mikko Hovi, Jussi Muuttilainen, Minna
Piirainen, Heikki Sillanpää.
• Media Technology dept. graduate: Tommi Horttana
• Faculty: Lily Díaz, Markku Reunanen.

16. Media Lab academic activities
• Independent studies tutored by faculty where students had
the opportunity to try their hand with doing research and
development, as well as implementing design research
methods such as scenario-based design, usability studies,
user testing, experience design and fieldwork.
• A lecture series on Digital Heritage was held at Media Lab
in the spring of 2011 featuring speakers from both
institutions.

17. Design and production timeline
• Initial contact – Feb. 2010
• Negotiations and project design
• Creative workshop
• Design – Modeling
• Design - Prototyping
• Design – System User testing & refining – at the Media Lab
• Production of final application
• Design – User testing & refining – at the National Museum
• Delivery – Maritime Museum Finland, Kotka, 24 April 2012.

18. Creative workshop: role playing and bodystorming
Enthusiasts Tourists School children

19. Design modeling: Concept space

20. Mediaspace

21. System
design space
© Lily Díaz, 2011

22. Narrative space
© Lily Díaz, 2011

23. Results, so far…
• Exhibition at the Maritime Museum of Finland, Vellamo Center in Kotka,
until 2 December 2012. Afterwards in Sweden, The Netherlands?
• Re-discovering Vrouw Maria. Notes on the creation of a virtual
simulation reconstruction, essay in the exhibition catalog.
• A Novel Gesture-based Interface for a VR Simulation: Re-discovering
Vrouw Maria paper in Virtual Systems and Multimedia conference,
VSMM 2012, 2-5 September, Milan.

25. Sources
• Fiona Cameron & Sarah Kenderdine (eds.) (2007). Theorizing Digital
Cultural Heritage. A Critical Discourse, The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.
• Zorich, Dianne (2003). A Survey of Digital Cultural Heritage Initiatives
and Their Sustainability Concerns,
http://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/pub118/contents.html. (Accessed on
August 28, 2011.)

26. Thank you! Kiitos! ¡Gracias!
http://sysrep.uiah.fi
Lily.diaz@aalto.fi