| Summary: | This essay examines the potential of virtual reality (VR) for interacting with digitized ancient maps. Recent critical evaluations of digital humanities projects suggest that VR offers an immersive experience for accessing digital archives. The question of the perceived scale of these documents, however, becomes very problematic within a virtual environment. Due to the current high cost of haptic gloves, the materiality of digitized maps also remains largely inaccessible. The article describes a 2022 experiment conducted with students to study a 19th-century oceanic chart related to Moby-Dick, using VR. This case study allows us to think more clearly about the implications of VR in terms of scale, and to imagine future developments.
|
|---|