Augmented reality technology enhances cultural memory

Yu (School of Marxism, Shanghai University)

In recent years, AR technology has been widely used in medical treatment, industry and production, military affairs, navigation, mobile augmented reality system, education and training, museums, entertainment, sports and games, and it is applicable to almost every subject: physics, chemistry, biology, mathematics, history, astronomy, medicine and even music. What is AR technology? Generally speaking, in the real world, through a certain virtual interface, the information that is difficult to experience in the real world space-time is truly perceived by people after technical simulation. Although AR technology is a virtual world superimposed on the real world, it should be pointed out that at present, everyone's discussion on AR technology focuses on products at first, but the relationship between people and the world, technology and culture behind it is rarely discussed. In fact, the construction of virtual and real world is conducive to the enhancement of cultural memory: breaking through the limitation of physical space, shortening the distance of time, changing people's cognition of culture through digital technology, and enhancing their experience and emotion of culture.

Cultural memory is the interaction between the subject's present and past in the cultural context. With the passage of time, the transformation of space and the death of witnesses, archives, texts, cultural relics, sites, monuments and other physical objects have become the main carriers to preserve cultural memories. If the subject does not or cannot integrate these objective cultural memories into the present real life, cultural memories will always be objective, static and "dead" and will always be in a state of "preserved". The application of AR technology in museums, art galleries, memorial halls and other cultural institutions makes cultural memories "talk" and come alive, and allows visitors to truly interact with virtual scenes and objects in the real world, gain personal experience through immersion and participation, and collide with culture in the process of touching and interacting, resulting in association, imagination, doubt and exploration desire. This kind of experience goes far beyond the intellectual information provided by words and cultural relics, but becomes a part of the subject forever.

AR technology embedded in cultural venues: a typical place to enhance cultural memory

AR technology can make cultural memory "alive" and help subjects get more information. The communication and interaction among individuals, groups, countries and even multinational countries under a certain cultural background. There is a certain "time-space distance" in the occurrence of this interaction-from the genetic sense, events (memory content) occur in the past, and memory behavior (memory and memory of the memory subject) occurs in the present. The impersonality brought by the "time-space distance" makes a lot of information impossible to obtain only by the senses. For example, the technical system of AR technology can realize the reappearance of historical situations, realize the real-time interaction between the present memory subject and the past memory content, realize the immersive experience of the memory subject, make cultural memory a vivid experience, and let the subject establish a more rational and firm belief based on experience and emotion. AR technology has become one of the important ways to enhance cultural memory.

Cultural venues have built a "technology-memory" bridge between AR technology and cultural memory. With the popularity of visiting experience activities, cultural venues have gradually gained a new position in the construction and inheritance of cultural memory-not only the combination of traditional cultural memory and cultural memory in the digital media era, but also an important and typical place where AR technology helps realize the transformation and innovation of cultural creativity. Cultural venues, as one of the cultural gene banks and the reappearance places of past history, are the bastions to awaken and protect cultural memories, so that people can touch vivid, concrete and experienced history at present. In the current digital media era, the autonomy of the subject is enhanced, and the status of individual memory is increasingly prominent. Coupled with the diversity and personalization of media, visitors entering the venue no longer simply and passively absorb the knowledge carefully organized by curators and official institutions, but include the needs of participation, interaction and creation. Introducing AR technology into cultural venues is the need to enhance the inheritance and development of cultural memory, and also conforms to the call of the times.

AR technology enhances the embodiment, authenticity and identity of cultural memory.

First, realize the embodied experience of the memory subject and stimulate the strong emotion of cultural memory. "Digital twins" can create an immersive live experience, so that visitors can maintain certain interaction with exhibits and cultural relics in a more intuitive and exciting way. As the birthplace of China * * * production party, red has always been the background color of Shanghai. The Second National Memorial Hall, Chen Yun Memorial Hall and Shanghai Songhu Anti-Japanese War Memorial Hall all embed ar technology into the promotion and inheritance of red culture. AR technology can help visitors stroll around the site of the second conference in China and touch desks, chairs, cups and so on. , intimate dialogue with history; The party's first film, party constitution, was born in the Second National Congress of the Communist Party of China. Visitors can browse several party constitution films made or revised in the history of the Party on a transparent screen through the "Turntable". Tourists are immersed in two historical scenes of light, shadow, sound and touch, and realize emotional closeness with historical figures and events in immersion.

Second, realize the reappearance of historical scenes and increase the profundity and authenticity of cultural memory. Generally speaking, it is difficult for tourists to imagine what the places they visited were like in the past, and what historical events in textbooks and other texts extended. AR technology can bridge the gap between virtual and reality, past and present. Under the AR technology, tourists can walk naturally in the existing real world with the help of AR headsets, and interact with virtual scenes, objects, people and so on in real time, so as to meet the needs of tourists for "touching" and "participating", experience vivid historical figures personally, and understand historical sites and major events there more comprehensively and interestingly. Studies have shown that AR effect is equal to or even better than VR in education and training. AR technology is applied to cultural venues to help tourists interact with virtual objects in the real world. On the basis of visitors' existing knowledge structure, improve their understanding of what they have learned, make them more active, get more details and enhance the authenticity of what they have learned.

Thirdly, the effective integration of individuals, society and culture has been realized, and the sense of identity of cultural memory has been enhanced. The combination of reality and reality, real-time interaction and immersive experience realized by AR technology have changed the remoteness of historical time, which seems to make it stagnate or even lengthen-people now can walk beside people in the past, and they are all in the same time and space; In other words, people can repeatedly "enter" the same historical event and experience the space at a closer distance. This kind of activity changes the cognitive structure and experience form at the individual level, and enables individuals to acquire a kind of knowledge of cultural memory from their own practice, which makes it easier to form beliefs and identities than other cognitive methods. In the process of dispelling the distance between time and space, individuals have greater willingness to communicate with others, and their biased understanding and explanation are debated, verified or corrected in social communication; In fact, this has become a two-way construction and two-way integration of social communication memory and cultural memory. While harvesting learning, meditation and social communication, individuals create embodied memories, stimulate emotions, enhance the authenticity and persuasiveness of history and construct cultural memories; On the cultural level, it has realized the preservation, truthfulness, vividness and development of the past-present-future cultural memory.

Future Prospect of AR Technology Enhancing Cultural Memory

With the development and maturity of AR technology, its application prospect of enhancing cultural memory is huge. AR technology can not only increase the interest and initiative of visitors, but also interact with visitors in real time by presenting historical situations. AR technology, which combines reality and reality, helps individuals not only immerse themselves in and participate in the concrete digital virtual world, but also become a part of the content and live in it, which highlights their creativity-integrating cultural memory well, realizing the spontaneous and creative development of cultural memory, and the subtle communication from top to bottom will become a subtle inheritance from bottom to top.

Fund Project: This paper is a phased achievement of the National Social Science Fund's major project "Frontier Research on Contemporary Emerging Enhanced Technologies" (20ZD045).