Telling Stories: Historical Narratives in Virtual Reality
We tell stories to save the past. Most of these stories today are experienced through reading texts, and we consequently are denied the visceral experience of the past even though we strive to recapture and animate lost worlds through our distinct senses. Virtual Plasencia is our highly realistic and interactive model of the Spanish medieval city of Plasencia. Virtual Plasencia offers dynamic new ways of storytelling via visual and auditory senses. By navigating the three dimensional city simulation, users begin to experience the sights and sounds of daily life in a medieval city, meander its cobbled streets and contemplate its principal structures and residences, and observe human interactions from different (e.g., religious, personal, communal) points of view. Inside Virtual Plasencia, users encounter people and places that cannot usually be achieved through traditional written narratives. The opportunity to observe historical events in loco represents a valuable new form of representation of the past.