The Virtual Reality Oracle (VRO): An Immersive Experience of the Ancient Greek Oracle at Dodona

这个项目的目的是使用VR来重现历史经验的近似（心理和身体）的个人咨询古代神谕宙斯在多多纳，然后，通过用户分析，调查如何这样的娱乐可以帮助促进理解（i）一个古老的历史背景和个人的历史经验的背景下;以及（ii）为研究和教育目的设计和部署多感官VR体验。这将通过在Dodona（VRO）建造古希腊宙斯和狄俄涅神谕的VR重建来实现。VRO一方面将通过创造令人信服的现实来解决主观历史经验的问题，从而能够详细探索古代神谕咨询的过程，经验和效果;另一方面，促进进一步研究VR技术的设计，以交流历史经验，包括博物馆和教室环境。VRO将重现古典时期在希腊西北部的多多纳咨询古希腊宙斯和狄俄涅神谕的经历。古代社会的一个广泛的选民访问了这个神谕：证据表明，多多纳不仅被社区领导人咨询，而且被普通男人，女人，甚至奴隶。这将使该项目能够涵盖各种各样的古代经验。此外，该遗址还出土了数千块铅板，上面刻着游客向神谕提出的问题--这是古代世界的非凡文献。他们展示了日常生活中的焦虑，这些焦虑促使人们向神灵咨询，例如关于旅行，商业和关系。除了问题板，古代的来源提供了无数的可能性，如何神谕工作，一些集中在多多纳的神圣橡树，其他人对祭司和女祭司在网站上。该项目将探索-并旨在重新创建-咨询Dodona的各种体验，通过委托并与VR公司合作开发虚拟现实甲骨文（VRO）。使用在现场发现的问题板，并由古希腊宗教和占卜专家提供信息，并得到约阿尼纳（靠近古代多多纳）的Ephorate的进一步支持，VRO体验将围绕一系列关于古代个人的故事建立。它将唤起不确定性的不同背景和主观体验，并探索咨询神谕的各种可能方法，帮助历史学家更好地理解和区分这些机制。教师、学生和博物馆/文化遗产策展人也将参与VRO的设计阶段，他们将帮助确保VRO在向不同用户群体传达信息方面表现出色。在项目的后半部分，项目将从定性和实验两方面调查用户对VRO的反应。这将加强该项目对古代神谕咨询体验的古代历史研究：心理学家和神经科学家对用户反应的分析将使项目团队能够衡量神谕咨询的感官和认知影响，并区分不同的可能占卜模式。用户分析还将用于研究如何有效地设计和部署VR，以用于教室和博物馆的教育用途。一旦VRO构建完成，心理学家和人机交互专家对VRO用户的分析将用于更好地了解所有感官在成功的沉浸式体验中的作用，并为沉浸式VR环境建立有效的设计参数。

The aim of this project is to use VR to recreate an approximation of the historical experiences (mental and somatic) of individuals consulting the ancient oracle of Zeus at Dodona and then, through user analysis, to investigate how such a recreation can help to advance understanding of (i) an ancient historical context and individual historical experiences of that context; and (ii) the design and deployment of multi-sensory VR experiences for research and educational purposes. This will be achieved by building a VR recreation of the ancient Greek oracle of Zeus and Dione at Dodona (the VRO). The VRO will, on the one hand, address questions of subjective historical experience by creating a convincing reality that will then enable the detailed exploration of the process, experience and effects of ancient oracular consultation; and, on the other hand, facilitate further research into the design of VR technologies for communication of historical experience, including both museums and classroom settings. The VRO will recreate the experience of consulting the ancient Greek oracle of Zeus and Dione at Dodona in NW Greece during the Classical period. A broad constituency of ancient society visited this oracle: evidence shows that Dodona was consulted not only by community leaders, but also by ordinary men, women, and even slaves. This will enable the project to encompass a diverse range of ancient experiences. Moreover, the site has yielded thousands of lead tablets inscribed with questions that visitors posed to the oracle-remarkable documents for the ancient world. They show the everyday anxieties that prompted people to consult the gods, about, for example, travel, business and relationships. Alongside the question tablets, the ancient sources offer myriad possibilities for how the oracle worked, some focusing on Dodona's sacred oak tree, others on the priests and priestesses at the site. This project will explore--and aim to recreate--the diverse experiences of consulting Dodona, by commissioning and working with a VR company to develop a virtual reality oracle (VRO). Using the question tablets found at the site, and informed by specialists in ancient Greek religion and divination, with further support from the Ephorate of Ioannina (near ancient Dodona), the VRO experience will be built around a set of stories about ancient individuals. It will evoke different contexts and subjective experiences of uncertainty and explore the various possible methods of consulting the oracle, helping historians to better understand and differentiate among these mechanisms. The design phase of the VRO will also be informed by the participation of teachers, students and museum/cultural heritage curators, who will help to ensure that the VRO excels in communicating information to different user groups.In the second half of the project, the project will investigate user responses to the VRO both qualitatively and experimentally. This will enhance the project's ancient historical research into the experience of ancient oracular consultation: analysis of user responses by psychologists and neuroscientists will allow the project team to gauge the sensory and cognitive affects of oracular consultation, and to differentiate between different possible modes of divination. User analysis will also be used to examine how VR may be designed and deployed effectively for educational uses in classrooms and museums. Once the VRO is constructed, analysis of users of the VRO by psychologists and experts in human-computer interaction will be used to better understand the role of all the senses in a successful immersive experience, and to establish effective design parameters for immersive VR environments.