Synesthetic Design and Intangible Heritage: Mixed Reality as a strategy for preserving and promoting endangered traditions

Abstract: Intangible heritage is the name given to practices, expressions, different knowledge, and skills that several communities recognize as being part of their cultural identity. This includes aspects such as traditions, oral histories, rituals, performing arts, and craftsmanship passed down through generations. Intangible heritage, unlike its tangible counterpart, cannot be materialized. However, it plays a unique role in enhancing and deepening cultural diversity. More importantly, it fosters a sense of belonging, underlining the significance of preserving these living traditions. Intangible heritage now faces threats such as lifestyle changes, urbanization, and the decreasing interest of new generations in traditional cultural manifestations due to digital advancement and the influence of globalized companies.Intangible heritage, unlike its tangible counterpart, cannot be materialized. However, it plays a unique role in enhancing and deepening cultural diversity. More importantly, it fosters a sense of belonging, underlining the significance of preserving these living traditions.Studies state that virtual museums and platforms are effective in promoting intangible heritage and that technologies such as virtual and augmented reality provide effective experiences for its dissemination and preservation. However, limitations persist due to the predominant focus on audiovisual senses, neglecting others such as smell, taste, touch, proprioception, kinetic, vestibular, and thermal, limiting the user experience.Virtual and augmented reality are technologies that make it possible to experience a virtual world and add layers of information to the real one. Virtual reality (also known as VR) makes it possible to create an immersive digital environment where users can interact using audiovisuals such as VR goggles. Augmented reality (AR) allows digital elements to be added and superimposed to the real-world using devices such as smartphones or special glasses, providing an enriched perception of the natural environment. While VR offers users an entirely new experience, AR complements existing reality by integrating information and virtual elements in an interactive and visually appealing way, and both technologies have applications in gaming, education, training, and entertainment. However, being focused on the audiovisual senses, they leave other senses unstimulated, neglecting the ones such as smell, taste, touch, proprioception, kinetic, vestibular, and thermal, limiting the user experience.This study explores how, through synesthetic design, a multi-sensory approach can be conceived for virtual and augmented reality experiences. It uses robotics to stimulate different senses and analyse its impact on immersion and acquiring knowledge related to intangible heritage. It also aims to investigate how robotics can be used for sensory stimulation, what senses can stimulate, how they can be integrated into the immersive experience, and how this practice can be used to preserve intangible heritage.The results obtained will help to define synesthetic design practices, integrate the analyzed technologies into the preservation and dissemination of Portugal's intangible heritage and serve as a reference for future projects related to both synesthetic design and sensory stimulation practices.

Keywords: Intangible Heritage, Mixed Reality, Robotics, Sensory Stimulation, Synesthesia, Synesthetic Design

DOI: 10.54941/ahfe1006715

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