Cinema memories in 3D modelling and virtual reality storytelling

Abstract

This paper focuses on the project VR and AR in the valorisation of cultural and artistic heritage within the New Cinema History framework, aims to combine microhistory related to local cinema theatres and Cinema Heritage, and to investigate the possibilities that digital media – in this case Augmented and Virtual Reality – have in the valorisation and preservation of cultural heritage. The final output of the project is the Virtual Reality reconstruction of the Odeon cinema’s architecture and habits of cinemagoing that, thanks to an immersive experience via the Oculus Rift headset, could evoke and simulate historical spectatorship that dealt both with the moment of watching a movie and its peripheral practice. the development of the project, at least four different perspectives on the Odeon cinema converged to form the basis of the VR reconstruction: the literature on the topic, the consultation of public and private archives, the oral sources, and photographs taken on site. This paper focuses mostly on the documents and sources used in the VR project and it aims to investigate how various and heterogeneous documents can be woven together into a philologically reliable historical reconstruction, and how they can be used in 3D modelling and VR storytelling related to Cinema Heritage.