No abstract

The intent of this study is to promote and raise awareness of the Basilica of Saint Catherina of Alexandria in Galatina, a church endowed with such beauty as to be defined as astounding. In this article two technologies were used: Spatial Augmented Reality, better known as videomapping, to valorize the monument and narrate its story through images and sounds; and Augmented Reality, to facilitate the reading and interpretation of the most important frescoes located along all the internal walls of the Basilica. The goal is to create a unique path starting from the Basilica façade and continuing and winding through the interior spaces. One of the most extensive and best conserved cycles of Late Gothic frescoes in all of Europe unfolds on the nave of the church covering every corner, from the keystones down to the floor. An in-depth bibliographic research confirmed the presence of frescoes also on the exterior of the Basilica façade whose traces, however, are no longer visible today. Pietro Cavoti’ s illustrations give an idea of how the façade has changed over the years, before, during, and after the restorations that permanently removed the already faint traces of frescoes. The purpose of this research is to demonstrate how the combined use of these technologies can be considered a valid aid to support the enhancement, fruition, and understanding of a monument that is very important for the cultural heritage sector and a reference point for the local and religious community.

Extended Reality (XR) technology represents an innovative tool to address the challenges of the present, as it allows for experimentation with new solutions in terms of content creation and its fruition by different types of users. The potential to modulate the experience based on the target audience’s needs and the project’s objectives makes XR suitable for creating new accessibility solutions. The “Includiamoci” project was carried out with the aim of creating workshops on social inclusion through the combination of art and technology. Specifically, the experimentation involved ten young people between the ages of 28 and 50, with cognitive disabilities, who participated in Extended Reality workshops and Art Therapy workshops. In the course of these activities, the outputs obtained were two: a virtual museum, populated by the participants’ works, and a digital set design for a theatrical performance. Through two tests, one on user experience (UX) and one on the degree of well-being, the effectiveness of the entire project was evaluated. In conclusion, the project demonstrated how the adopted solutions were appropriate to the objectives, increasing our knowledge of UX for a target audience with specific user needs and using XR in the context of social inclusion.

Video mapping is defined as a particular form of augmented reality capable of transforming any surface, flat or irregular, into a dynamic surface capable of enriching human sensory perception. Video mapping projections can become a medium to link the historical facts and the location by means of the valorisation of the monument and narration of its story through images and sounds. This paper aims to show how video mapping, beyond its purely technological aspect, can be linked to cultural heritage and represents a tool capable of becoming a mediator of culture, tradition, and legends. It is used to pass on and tell the legend of the foundation of the present Cathedral of Maria Santissima della Madia in Monopoli through the animation of the pictorial cycle by Nicolò Maria Signorile preserved in the church.

No abstract