Immersive Musical Storytelling in Virtual Reality : Virtual Heritage Experiences Creation

Throughout history, music has consistently played a crucial role in storytelling due to its capacity to transmit emotions and enrich the story in ways that visuals by themselves cannot. Therefore, artists working in the field of virtual heritage (VH) combine virtual reality (VR) and cultural heritage to provide an opportunity for the audience to become an integral part of the immersive musical heritage experiences. VR provides limitless possibilities for musical innovation, pushing the frontiers of music and sound spatialisation in creation of realistic experiences which are both, sonically and visually, profound.
This paper offers conceptual reflections on the role of immersive music in creating realistic full-body VH experiences for the audience and communicating the appreciation for cultural diversity and heritage preservation.
Theoretical framework of this research combines concepts from new media theory and theory of musical emotions. In particular, it is based on McLuhan’s new media theory characterized by his phrase ‘the medium is the message’. Following McLuhan’s statement that the content of every medium is always another medium, main message in this research is transmitted through the music medium within VR medium. With a goal to create Interactive VH Exhibit representing UNESCO Heritage site of Ohrid Region in Macedonia, musical semiotics are in the form of spatial sound cues, organised in Macedonian asymmetrical rhythmic patterns, driving audio-reactive visual semiotics. To evaluate if the goal of creating virtual heritage environment that allows intercultural communication is achieved, user experience evaluation is based on the concepts of theory of musical emotions including BRECVEMA framework.