March 1900 is a project that uses VR to visualize the history of China in the 1900s. The war between the eight Allied foreign powers and China’s Qing dynasty along with the events of the Boxer Rebelion extended from the coastline at Dagu to Beijing during the summer of 1900. Numerous historical images/photos have reflected the history of that period; however, a new non-linear interactive way we have developed allows us to display and categorize those images. We decided to use Virtual Reality since it is a good technology to provide an immersive context while also enriching the storyline. While wearing the VR device, users not only relive the history of 1900, but also interact freely with the images. This project can be regarded as a new virtual gallery that combines historical images with both a timeline and historical maps. It challenges the old way to exhibit in traditional galleries which display images chronologically. Our approach integrates the chronology of the period with the images of key historical locations. In other words, visitors in VR can fellow the “path” of the invaders and see the relavent images pertaining to specific dates of the history of the period.
• KEY FEATURES
Virtual Reality
Historical Visualization
Image Archive
Interactive Design
Image-based Historiographic Approach
• DESIGN OUTCOME
• DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS
💡 How to design a image gallery in VR?
💡 How to design a non-linar interactive way to explore the gallery in VR?
• DESIGN PROCESS
1. Environment Built
There are three steps to our Unity development. The first one is to create the historical context of the 1900s as an immersive setting for visitors. Then, we created a big cylinder painted with relevent historical images on the inside and built some invisible walls to prevent users from going outside.
2. Historical Sources Organized
The second step was to study historical documents as well as categorize and organize them. Since the “March on Beijing” eventconsisted of a series of locations and dates, our purpose was to organize it as non-linear and interactive content. After studying the archived images, we found various types of documentation, including pictures, photos, maps and texts, etc. To take full advantage of all of these types of data, we utilized a map as a navigation tool to organize the documentation. Therefore, users could employ clickable maps shown in the second scene to the right.
3. Interactive Design
For the third step, after entering one map, users will see the map from a bird’s-eye view in which they can locate important spots as “buttons” on the map. When clicking each location, relevent texts, images and pictures will pop up around the specific location as a virtual gallery.
💎 More information, please see Prof. Ellen Sebring’swebsite 💎