Cultural and Archaeological Virtual landscapes: the Case Study of the Appia Antica Park

With a methodological approach on to the principles of the ecological thinking its possible to face in a completely different way technological issues related to cultural heritage. The reconstruction of archaeological landscape could be faced as a continuous activity of exchanging and comparing information with the goal of propose different mindscapes. In theoretical sense we distinguish three levels of landscape to investigate and to interpret: mapscape (virtual landscape by GIS and spatial data), taskscape (activities and relations of the landscape), mindscape (perceived landscape, digital ecosystem). In conclusion, we will face up methodological and technological problems of the virtual reconstruction using OpenGl software and libraries in order to project, to reconstruct and to navigate the ancient landscape in real time. The new rules of this digital ecosystem will be autopoietic, in the sense that they follow ecological and cyber-anthropological theories. Each interaction in real time within the virtual landscape will produce difference and, through the difference, new ways of learning. In this paper we will focus on the realization of the virtual reality system of the Appia antica Park (in Rome), a very complex virtual archaeological landscape reconstructed from the fieldwork using integrated technologies: laser scanning, photomodelling, photogrammetry, DGPS. Data acquired belongs to different realms, different historical periods, different places; they comprehend other data and can produce new kind of data, etc. These two dimensions (narrative and spatial) can use different grammars in order to create applications for various purposes. Two directions have been undertaken by the research team. The narrative approach to cultural data is focused more on graphic and photorealistic scene generation, using software such as 3DStudio Max and Virtools, which allow interactive, game-like quality applications for the web and Virtual Reality. The work is based on the creation of complex behaviors inside the virtual worlds in order to stress the communication through different types of narration (story-telling).