We welcome you to the King’s College London Archives for our XRchiving Seminar entitled ‘London and the Future of the Virtual Past’. This will be hosted by Professor Michael Mainelli, Alderman for Broad Street of The City of London, and by King’s Joint Head of Archives, Geoff Browell. The programme for this half-day seminar was compiled by the Advisory Board of XRchiving Limited, co-chaired by Ronald Haynes, Senior Computer Officer and Regent at the University of Cambridge; and by Tam McDonald, founder of Cradle of English Limited and co-founder of XRchiving.

The seminar focuses on the role of Extended Reality or XR technologies in placemaking in a pan-European context. It will address the need for a standards-based approach and an updating of the existing London Charter. Our opening presentation will review the early history of that Charter – not so much from the point of view of what it set out to do, and did: but rather in assessing the invaluable foundation it provided for the world of Digital Cultural Heritage in 2023. What are we empowered to do with the framework it established, and the legacy it gave us?

From this point we set out two quartets of workshops with specially chosen moderators and rapporteurs: the first looking at current challenges in data sustainability and best practice in London’s immersive heritage; and the second looking forward to the challenges London will face in the evolving world of XR technologies and digitised assets. What will be our stories of the future? What will we mean by digital citizens, and by the Digital Public Realm?

We will explore four distinct areas of interest, with related outcomes:

First is the growing community of XR specialists in immersive technologies and story-telling. How can XRchiving augment their activities and optimise their effectiveness?

Second, for XRchiving itself, how will our work today inform the programme for future events, starting with our autumn conference at King’s College London on 11 November?

Third, how can we identify, fund, and optimise the synergies between the interests of the XR community and the efforts of the City of London Corporation and the Destination City initiative in promoting London as “the world’s coffee house” in developing its global ambitions?

Finally, in acknowledging London’s two millennia of close links with Europe, can we develop proposals for funding a European research project exploring the potential of XR for education, economic development, social improvement, and well-being?

Agenda:

12:30 – 13:00 Welcome: Coffee and refreshments

13:00 – 13:20 Introduction: today’s programme & vision

13:20 – 13:50 The London Charter: A window on infinity (2006 – ???)

Between its founding in 2006 and its losing momentum in 2017, the London Charter achieved global recognition for its commitment to agreed principles in researching and disseminating cultural heritage. The question for today is this: “If the Charter were to be renewed on its earlier foundations, what would be its mission for 2023 and beyond?”

13:50 – 14:00 Workshops looking back: contextualising the vision of 2006 >>> today (Chairman)

14:00 – 14:45 TIER ONE WORKSHOPS

A – Sustainability of data and products: ensuring long-term resilience of cultural heritage-related, computer-based realisations

Moderators: Geoff Browell & Gabriel Egan

B – Access & Interoperability: optimising the benefits of computer-based realisations for the study, interpretation, and management for audiences of all ages, backgrounds, and types

Moderators: Ronald Haynes & Fridolin Wild

C – Learnings from GLAM: Key to the XRchiving community is the creativity of “galleries, libraries, archives and museums”, in enhancing public access to cultural knowledge.

Moderators: Robert Morgan & Alex Winterbotham

D – London’s Best Practice Case Studies: London boasts world-class assets in the Tower of London, St Paul’s, the Maritime Museum Greenwich, Roman London, for starters . . .

Moderators: Tam McDonald & Drew Baker

14:45 – 15:00 TIER ONE PLENARY – Workshop Rapporteurs

15:00 – 15:15 Coffee & tea break

15:15 – 15:45 Workshops looking forward: contextualising our challenge of today >>> Our legacy (Host)

Michael Mainelli looks ahead to a year of ‘connecting to prosper’ for the world’s coffee house

15:45 – 16:30 TIER TWO WORKSHOPS

E – Evolving Digital Citizens: Immersive technology and the future for Digital Scientists and Archaeologists, encouraging informed political activism and User-Generated Content

Moderators: John Collins & Robert Morgan

F – Narrative Binding Theme: Telling a “London story over centuries”, e.g. the history and global spread of English common law, ahead of the launch of the Justice Quarter in 2026

Moderators: Gabriel Egan & Karina Rodriguez Echavarria

G – UK & Europe: A review of 3D digitised asset sites across Europe, encouraging London’s recreating cultural and scientific links, as with Europeana’s Twin It! and Horizon Europe

Moderators: Ronald Haynes & Marinos Ioannides

H – A commercial strategy for Sustainability: Moving beyond random funding dependencies, creating an XRchiving world of interests founded on a mixed public/private funding model.

Moderators: Fridolin Wild & Debs Wilson

16:30 – 16:45 TIER TWO PLENARY – Workshop Rapporteurs

16:45 – 17:00 HOSTS’ CONCLUDING REMARKS