Reflecting on the Creation of an Authentic Aural Experience in the Digital Songlines Game Engine: Part of a Contextualised Cultural Heritage Knowledge Toolkit

Abstract

Digital Songlines is an Australasian Cooperative Research Centre for Interaction Design (ACID) project that is developing protocols, methodologies and toolkits to facilitate the collection, education and sharing of indigenous cultural heritage knowledge. The project explores the areas of effective recording, content management and virtual reality delivery capabilities that are culturally sensitive and involve the indigenous custodians, leaders and communities in remote areas of the Australian outback . It investigates how players in a serious gaming sense can experience Indigenous virtual heritage in a high fidelity fashion with culturally appropriate interface tools. This paper describes the circumstances that gave rise to the concept of a 3D ambient audio quilt, designed and implemented specifically for the Digital Songlines game-engine software. It discusses the importance of a site visit to a remote location in the north-east of the Australian outback, and how this prompted the discovery of a new method for creating an authentic aural experience in a 3DVE. This paper reports on completed and ongoing research in this area.