REAL-TIME RECREATED CEREMONIES IN VR RESTITUTED CULTURAL 
HERITAGE SITES 
G. Papagiannakis 3 , A. Foni a , N. Magnenat-Thalmann 3 
a MIRALab, University of Geneva, 1211 Geneva, Switzerland - (papagiannakis, foni, thalmann)@miralab.unige.ch 
KEY WORDS: Archaeological Heritage Conservation, Architectural Heritage Conservation, Cultural Heritage, Virtual Reality, 
Modelling, Simulation, Animation, Real-time VR character simulation 
ABSTRACT: 
This paper presents the case study of a real-time interactive digital narrative and real-time visualisation of the Namaz Pray of a 
simulated Ottoman Imam in the 16 th century virtually restored mosque of Cucuk Hagia Sophia (previous St. Sergius and Bacchus 
church) as well as in the Hagia Sophia mosque (previous cathedral of Hagia Sophia), in Istanbul, Turkey. Inspired by a 
hermeneutical approach, this case study illustrates that the abandonment of traditional concepts of static cultural artefacts with 
interactive, augmented historical character-based narrative representations, can propel virtual reconstructions of cultural heritage 
sites to an exciting new edutainment medium. Furthermore, as the cultural tradition is conceived as a reservoir of living forces that 
can be experienced only if it is freed from the petrifaction exerted during the centuries, a reconstruction and real-time immersive 
visualisation is presented that captures such ‘living forces’ by simulating these edifices both as churches (original form) and as 
mosques, fully respecting the archaeological, historical and architectural premises. Instrumental to that approach is the rapid real 
time immersive 3D application prototyping, that it is feasible only due to the adoption a component-based real-time framework for 
VR character simulation. 
1. INTRODUCTION 
1.1 Character-based virtual cultural heritage 
Virtual Reality and its concept of cyber-real space invoke 
such interactive digital narratives that promote new 
patterns of understanding. The word "narrative” refers to 
a set of events happening during a certain period of time 
and providing aesthetic, dramaturgical and emotional 
elements, objects and attitudes [Nandi et al]. Mixing such 
aesthetic ambiences with virtual augmentations and 
adding dramatic tension, can develop these narrative 
patterns into an exciting new edutainment medium. The 
abandonment of traditional concepts of static cultural 
artefacts with interactive, augmented historical 
character-based event representation is an important 
component of this redefinition. For digital narratives 
realized with Virtual Reality, the conditioned notion of 
artefact gives away to a far more liberated notion; as 
suspended in virtual reality space, the visitor leaves the 
prison of petrified cultural heritage and emerges in a 
contextualized world of informative intangible sensation. 
In such a world, “the dream of perfect FORMS becomes 
the dream of information” [Coyne]. Such a transition is 
attempted with the real-time ceremonial visualisation in 
two world acclaimed cultural heritage sites, such as the 
S.S. Sergius & Bacchus and the Hagia Sophia edifices. In 
the following sections the Cultural Heritage 
Hermeneutical motivation is presented following by the 
previous related work in the virtual heritage field. The 
real-time character simulation section presents the virtual 
character simulation technologies, the architectural 
evolution of the edifices and the real-time VR architecture 
framework need. Finally, the immersive real-time VR 
application is described followed by the concluding 
remarks. 
1.2 Virtual cultural heritage hermeneutics 
What consequences flow from the premises at the level of such 
‘Intangible cultural heritage’ such as a Namaz Pray of an 
Ottoman Imam? Hermeneutics teaches us that all meaning is 
context-dependent and therefore unstable. The resulting 
conception of culture is thus poetic and creative rather than 
ethical or epistemological. Thus, such Heideggerian [Heideger] 
notions invite us to transform and to appropriate creatively the 
contents of cultural traditions towards a conception of culture as 
a realm of unstable and indeterminate possibilities waiting for 
further exploration and new interpretative horizons. We may 
actually say that cultural ideal consists basically in an endless 
process of active and creative interpretations of past 
productions. The cultural tradition is conceived as a reservoir of 
living forces that can be experienced only if we free them from 
the petrifaction exerted during the centuries. Such living forces 
are the characters of ancient ceremonies, the associated time- 
context and specific function of an edifice etc. 
Such ‘interactive contextualized narratives’ and ‘hermeneutic 
experiences’ are in fact stirring the fleeting notion of history 
and time-travel, based on the new emerging cultural fabric of 
the 21st century. That results in intriguing possibilities for new 
digital narratives that will pervade the information age raising 
new issues on cultural heritage representation, space, time, 
interpretation, interaction, identity and the real. 
1.3 Previous Work 
The most related character-based VR and virtual cultural 
heritage applications are summarised in the previous work of 
Papagiannakis et al as well as Foni et al. The historical and 
non-real time design & 3D modelling methodologies for both