Virtual and Augmented Reality for the Digital Humanities Institute (VARDHI)

FAIN: HT-256969-17

Duke University (Durham, NC 27705-4677)
Victoria Szabo (Project Director: March 2017 to March 2022)
Philip J. Stern (Co Project Director: May 2017 to March 2022)

A two-week institute and follow-up activities for twelve participants on the theory and application of virtual and augmented reality technologies to humanities research. Duke University would serve as the host for the institute.

The Virtual and Augmented Reality for the Digital Humanities Institute (VARDHI) explores the importance of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) theories, methods, and technologies to humanities research and communications, with an emphasis on historical and cultural representation and analysis, media arts applications, and experience design for virtual and augmented realities. This field of inquiry brings together narrative, archival, data-driven, and spatial approaches to humanistic research in combination with studies of virtual reality, human cognition, experiential learning, and digital storytelling. The key focus of VARDHI is to understand what is at stake with VR and AR, both of which are enjoying a cultural renaissance thanks to advances in mobile technologies and head mounted displays, and both of which make VR and AR more accessible to a wider range of producers and a potential mass of consumers.