Video games are one of the most popular ways that people engage with the past today. How can immersive game technologies be used not only as a research tool for visualising the past, but also as a way to make historical research more accessible to audiences outside the academy? My reflections on the first phase of work on Digital Munya 2.0 is available on the Creative Informatics Research Blog here.
Research sabbatical, history games, Vikings and the medieval Islamic Mediterranean, and a new Digital Lab for Islamic Visual Culture & Collections
It’s been a very busy year! This is a quick update, to say that I’m officially on research sabbatical this term, working very hard to finish my book on ‘Abbas Ibn Firnas, his medieval ‘first in flight’, and science and visual culture in early Islamic Córdoba. Inshallah it will be published next year, so stay tuned!
In other news, on diversifying games: last year I spoke to friends and colleagues at AKPIA@MIT about Assassin’s Creed, the AC Discovery Tours, and why those of us with expertise in medieval Islamic architecture and visual culture should be collaborating with games developers (abstract here).
This year I had the chance, lending my expertise on the 11th century Islamic Mediterranean to History and Games Lab Edinburgh for their new tabletop game Lion Rampant: A Viking in the Sun – The Mediterranean Adventures of Harald Hardrada (thank you to H&GL’s Gianluca Raccagni for inviting me to collaborate). You can get a copy of the game here – do let me know if you play it! I’d welcome your thoughts on the Islamic content.
The other thing I spoke with the MIT folks about was my desire to found a GLAM (galleries, libraries, archives, and museums) lab, to diversify digital cultural heritage by creating content focused on Islamic art and history. So I’m happy to announce that earlier this year I founded the Digital Lab for Islamic Visual Culture & Collections! The Lab is exploring mixed reality technologies to create new experiences of Islamic spaces, objects, and histories. Contributing to the digital global cultural heritage landscape, its mission is making immersive experiences about Islamic art and history accessible to all. Stay tuned for more on that front – there are exciting collaborations up and running already, and I’ll post more about those as they develop in coming months.
A Virtual Visit with AKPIA to Talk Islamic Architecture & Diversifying Gaming & Heritage
A silver lining of lockdown and all the online meetings has been renewing ties with distant friends and colleagues, like fellow alums of the Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture at MIT. It’s always inspiring to hear what those in this community are up to because it’s a varied group – architects, designers, urban planners, as well as historians of Islamic art/architecture. I volunteered to share some of the issues that have been on my mind with the group this month, on the topic of Islamic architecture, videogames, and the need to diversify the online digital heritage landscape. I’ll be writing about these issues in future posts, in the context of my planned digital lab for Islamic visual culture, so more in due course…