The ITS-STORY project, funded by ANR (ANR-24-CE33-4992), is an experimental, exploratory and interdisciplinary project. We aim to explore the use of Mixed Reality (MR) in a Memory-based Heritage.

To tackle this vast subject, we want to focus on the Remembrance Work (RW) on the role of Nazi transit camps during the Second World War (WWII). This application framework is interesting because it carries a particular ethical dimension. Making part of the museographic project, whose themes refer to a painful past, interactive experiences could provoke ambiguous feelings in visitors and victims alike. It is therefore essential to maintain a certain ethic when conveying the history of the Holocaust and the processes of persecution and repression that took place during these deportations.

The hypothesis is that a distanced immersion allowed by this type of technology and an ethical personalized interactive narration make it possible to involve the visitor, and to propose a different understanding of the past, in situations where visitors no longer have direct, autobiographical links with events that took place almost 80 years ago. In Compiègne, this trend is reflected in the fact that almost half of all visitors are under thirty. A challenge for both generation and gender. The research question studied is: “Can we use Mixed Reality for Remembrance Work on the role of internment and deportation camps during WWII and if so, how and which impact will it have on the visitors?”.

The project follows on from the MemoReal project funded by the Hauts-de-France region (Dispositif STIMulE : volet Recherche Exploratoire - STIR)

This project brings together four disciplines:

1. History and Museology
2. Computer Science
3. Information and Communication Sciences
4. Cognitive Ergonomics

Heudiasyc UMR7253 - Project Leader: Domitile Lourdeaux (AI, VR) - Team: Sébastien Destercke (AI), Dominique Lenne (HCI), Robin Monje (AI PhD), Anatole Stankovic (VR PhD)

Borelli - Team: Julien Nelson (HFE), Lise Haddouk (Clinical Psychologist), Clément

COSTECH - Team: Serge Bouchardon (Digital Creation), Bruno Bachimont (Philosopher and Computer Scientist)

Mémorial de l’internement et de la déportation – Camp de Royallieu - Team: Aurélien Gnat (Director), Gabrielle Perissi (Assistant Director), Julia Maitre (Collections Manager)

CHS - Team: Fabien Théofilakis (Assistant Professor), Alexandre Millet (Postdoctoral Researcher)

Emissive (Excurio) - Team: Emmanuel Guerriero (Director), Jérémy Boistière (Project Manager)

Footnotes

1. Mixed Reality is a continuum between real-world environment and Virtual Reality (Milgram, 1994).
2. We have chosen to use the term Remembrance Work rather than “duty of memory” which has a connotation of obligation.