Workshop IEEE VR 2025 ARCHERIX Archaeology and Cultural Heritage through XR

Dear all,

We are pleased to announce the 1st edition of the Workshop on Archaeology and Cultural Heritage through XR, ARCHERIX, to be held during the IEEE VR 2025 conference, 8-12 March 2025 in Saint-Malo, France (https://ieeevr.org/2025/). ARCHERIX is a half-day on-site workshop whose focus is the exploration of new methods and practices for archaeology and cultural heritage through XR.

More details are available at https://sites.google.com/view/archerix/welcome.

In the same way as 3D, innovative uses for XR are beginning to emerge in the field of historical sciences, on the initiative of archaeologists, anthropological biologists, paleopathologists and conservator-restorers. These technologies, which are constantly progressing, are opening up a new era in the knowledge, conservation and dissemination of archaeological and more generally cultural heritage data. Fundamentally interdisciplinary, they are revolutionizing practices and raising new concerns and issues. XR based methods provide powerful interactive and non-destructive access to fragile historical material and immediate information. Furthermore, new approaches that combine AI methods to XR might benefit the cultural heritage domain, providing high visual quality solutions that allow for digital restoration, prediction of future (de-)generative natural processes, scientific exploration and communication to a broader audience. In addition, XR provides a powerful opportunity for the preservation and dissemination of intangible heritage. With the increasing development of virtual reconstructions in the domain of Cultural Heritage, and thanks to advances in the production and 3D animation of virtual humans, immersive and interactive simulations have emerged to preserve human activity associated with traditional culture and folklore.

However, the production of heritage related environments in XR raises a number of questions of both a methodological and technical nature. Indeed, the nature and construction of such interactive 3D digital environments combine real elements, or at least those obtained by digitizing the real thing, with interpreted elements. The latter may be linked to a previous complete environment to represent missing elements, or to data created by the user during virtual work sessions to enrich the environment with the help of tools offered to him. It is important to define a methodology for controlling and representing these different levels of data in the XR environment, and to assess the cognitive relationship between the expert user and these representations.

The goal of this interdisciplinary workshop is to bring together in one place researchers specialized in XR and CH users such as archaeologists, restorers and curators, who until now have often expressed themselves collectively but separately through a number of scientific works. While each participant will contribute his or her own expertise, experience and point of view, the workshop should also serve to strengthen cooperation and partnerships between disciplines.

The program will consist of a balanced mix of keynote talks, paper presentations, and panel discussions around the current state of use and opportunities of use of XR for archaeology and cultural heritage.

We call for submissions of research papers, technical notes, and position papers and encourage the submission of work-in-progress research on the following topics:

· Innovative XR based methods and tools for archaeology and cultural heritage

· Cognitive studies of archaeological activity in XR

· Curation and restoration of archaeological material through XR

· XR based experiences of dissemination for archaeology and cultural heritage

. Combination of XR and AI for archaeology and cultural heritage

Format and Submission Guidelines

Papers must be submitted in PDF format via PCS, using the IEEE VGTC format, following a double- blind process. All paper submissions must be in English. All accepted papers will be included in the IEEE Xplore Library. A committee of expert reviewers will evaluate all submissions.

One best paper, will be awarded at the end of the workshop and subsequently invited to publish an extended version to ACM J. on Computing and Cultural Heritage (JOCCH).

We welcome the following submissions (page limits include references):

• Research papers: 4-6 pages

• Technical notes: 2-4 pages

• Position papers: 2-4 pages

• Work-in-progress research: 1-4 pages

All accepted submissions must be presented orally at the conference.

An in-person presentation is expected, and online presentations will be accommodated only in exceptional cases.

Important dates

Submission deadline January 2, 2025 (Anywhere on Earth)

Notification deadline January 09, 2025

Camera-ready deadline January 16, 2025

We look forward to seeing you at the ARCHERIX workshop in Saint-Malo.

The ARCHERIX organizers

Valérie Gouranton, Selma Rizvic, Holger Graf, Théophane Nicolas and Ronan Gaugne