Using Serious Games for Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH)
Education: A Journey into the Canto a Tenore Singing Style
Francesca Maria Dagnino, Francesca Pozzi, Giacomo Cozzani and Luca Bernava
Institute for Educational Technology, Italian National Research Council, Via De Marini, 6, Genoa, Italy
Keywords: Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH), Serious Games, Game Based Learning, Innovation.
Abstract: Serious games are being increasingly adopted to sustain teaching and learning in a variety of educational
fields (school education, etc.); the cultural heritage field does not make an exception, especially as far as
tangible heritage is concerned. More recently, even in the field of ICH, games have started to be used to allow
learning of intangible cultural expressions or traditions (Yilmaz et al. 2015). In the frame of Intangible
Cultural Heritage (ICH), ITD-CNR has developed the “Canto a Tenore game”, a mixed 2D/3D adventure
game, aimed at supporting learning of the basics of this rare singing style, which originated and is still
practised in Sardinia (Italy). The idea behind the game is to involve the player in an engaging journey, where
s/he has to help the main character, who is currently living abroad, to find his roots in Sardinia. The
comprehensive integration of contents in the gameplay, as well as the immersive nature of the 3D
environments, allow the user to learn the basics of the Canto in an engaging way. In this paper the authors
discuss the main strong points, challenges and criticalities of adopting such technologies.
1 INTRODUCTION
In recent years, the growing potential of technologies
has started to be exploited in the Cultural Heritage
field. Tangible artefacts, as well as intangible heritage
expressions, have been digitized with the scope of
safeguarding them and making them available for a
wider public (Sotirova et al., 2012). These efforts
have allowed the creation of large and important
repositories, like Europeana, but, also, many Cultural
Heritage institutions such as Galleries, Libraries,
Archives, and Museums (or GLAM) have started
making use of digital resources.
From digitized records to 3D models and
applications, technologies are opening new
opportunities for Cultural Heritage exploration and
fruition: nowadays users can browse digital
repositories and see images of artefacts, can visit
virtual museums (Styliani et al., 2009) or interact with
treasures of the past through virtual reality (Gaitatzes
et al., 2001). Recently, the adoption of cutting-edge
technologies, like sensors and 3D modelling, have
also made the digitization and modelling of Intangible
Cultural expressions possible (Yilmaz et al., 2015).
Among technologies, a further step ahead has
been taken by digital games and in particular serious
games (namely games developed with an educational
purpose) which offer fun and engaging experiences
during which the user is motivated to keep interacting
with the game and therefore its contents (Mortara et
al., 2014). Moreover, games are recognized as an
appropriate media for both tangible and intangible
expressions, considering that they are grounded on
several elements – among which interactivity,
adaptivity and narrative (Prensky, 2001) – supporting
an interactive and situated experience (Bontchev,
2015).
Considering all these aspects, ICTs open up
interesting possibilities in the field of Cultural
Heritage education. As Ott and Pozzi (2011) state,
ICTs allow personalized and inquiry-based
approaches, where learners can discover at their own
pace and not just “being taught”. Moreover, they
support situated learning experiences, since learners
can use multiple devices and networks, while they are
exploring environments (pervasive and ubiquitous
learning). Last but not least, technologies give the
possibility of supporting informal learning
opportunities, namely outside a formal education
setting. Therefore, institutions like Museums for
example, now have the capacity to involve visitors of
all ages in interesting and meaningful learning
experiences.
Dagnino F., Pozzi F., Cozzani G. and Bernava L.
Using Serious Games for Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) Education: A Journey into the Canto a Tenore Singing Style.
DOI: 10.5220/0006347004290435
Copyright
c
2017 by SCITEPRESS Science and Technology Publications, Lda. All rights reserved
Serious games present additional advantages in
terms of learning experience: besides supporting
constructive, experiential and situated learning, they
are able to promote self-regulated learning and
collaboration among learners (Dagnino et al., 2015).
Starting from these considerations, in the
framework of the i-Treasures project (Dimitropoulos,
2013) a serious game has been developed about Canto
a Tenore. The game has the scope of introducing the
basics of Canto a Tenore in a playful and engaging
way.
Canto a Tenore is a four-part form of polyphonic
singing that is orally transmitted and practised in the
central areas of the island of Sardinia in Italy.
A Canto a Tenore choir is composed of four
singers with different roles: a soloist (the “ boghe” ),
who sings the text of a poem, and three accompanying
voices (“su bassu, sa contra and su mesu boghe”)
who support the soloist usually using nonsense
syllables (Pozzi et al, 2013). This tradition is fairly
well-known and appreciated in the area in which it is
spread, but not outside Sardinia and even less around
the world. In 2005 it was included in the
“Representative List of the Intangible Cultural
Heritage of Humanity”.
In the following, first of all the i-Treasures project
is described, in order to give an idea of the context in
which the game has been developed. Afterwards, a
short introduction is provided to serious games in
cultural heritage. Then, the game development
process is presented and discussed, so as to highlight
the main challenges encountered.
2 THE i-TREASURES PROJECT
With the UNESCO convention (UNESCO, 2003) the
safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage has
become clearly a priority. Several initiatives have
been carried out with this aim, also involving
technologies, but most of them were aimed at creating
digital archives or inventories of materials, with
documental purposes. This effort, which is certainly
a starting point, will otherwise have limited impact.
The i-Treasures project is an Integrated Project
co-financed by the EU under the ICT theme of the
FP7th; this project has the scope of going beyond the
current attempts at safeguarding ICH through
technologies and going towards ICT-enhanced
dissemination and not the mere digitization of cultural
contents. The i-Treasures project is developing “an
open and extendable platform providing access to
ICH resources enabling knowledge exchange
between researchers and contributing to the
transmission of rare know-how from Living Human
Treasures to apprentices (Dimitropoulos, 2013).
With this platform, the project aims to provide new
contents and learning opportunities by analysing and
modelling the different ICHs and making this specific
knowledge available through innovative tools and in
structured educational paths (Dagnino et al., 2016).
I-Treasures makes use of cutting-edge ICT
technologies in order to capture “hidden” experts’
knowledge in a number of cultural expressions in the
fields of dancing, singing, music composition and
craftsmanship.
Using a multi-sensor technology (e.g. 2D/3D
optical sensors, inertial sensors, ultrasound sensors,
microphones, electroencephalograms, etc.) the data
related to the basic features of the cultural expressions
considered were captured, then analysed and merged
so as to identify specific patterns (e.g. postures,
gestures, audio, affective states, etc.) in ICH
performances. These data serve as input to create 3D
models of the performers and use them for teaching
and learning purposes: recognizing the great potential
of games, the project introduced innovative game like
applications aimed at teaching sequence of the steps
or sounds of different cultural expressions (Yilmaz et
al., 2015).
Moreover, in the project framework a game aimed
at delivering theoretical information and developing
listening competences in users has been developed:
the Canto a Tenore game.
3 SERIOUS GAMES FOR
CULTURAL HERITAGE
The use of games in Cultural Heritage was first
explored by Anderson and colleagues (Anderson et
al. 2010) and recently sketched by Mortara and
colleagues (2014), and Bontchev (2015). While the
first two contributions are specifically oriented to
serious games, the third includes both entertainment
and serious games.
As for entertainment games, Bontchev (2015)
highlights the existence of some titles belonging to
the group of documentary games, like “History Line:
1914-1918(developed by Blue Byte in 1992) or
Great Battles of Rome” (developed by Slitherine
Strategies in 2007), that are able to realistically
represent historical events like battles or wars.
Moreover, he highlights that other popular games,
despite being developed for fun purposes, are able to
convey accurate information. Among them, he
presents the example of theAssassin’s Creed II
game, which includes a number of key elements
proper to virtual heritage applications (Granström
2013) and is able to represent the Renaissance period
in Italy with great accuracy and realism.
As for Serious Games (SGs), Anderson et al.
(2010) describe the following categories:
a) Interactive Virtual Museums - virtual
museums incorporating exploration and
specific tasks (e.g. quizzes, reassembling
tasks) and b) Prototypes and demonstrators
games that are based on 3D technologies to
reconstruct historical sites.
Applications like “ThIATRO” (Froschauer et al.
2011) belong to the first category. This is a 3D virtual
environment, where the player acts as a museum
curator, having to collect paintings from different
museums in order to prepare an exhibition.
Applications like “Roma Nova”, an SG based on
the “Rome Reborn” model (Vourvopoulos 2013),
belong to the second category. This game is
conceived to support exploratory learning by
immersing the learner/player in a virtual
environment; the main aim of the game is to help the
player learn, by interacting with autonomous
characters in a cultural heritage environment,
different aspects of history through their interactions
with a crowd of virtual authentic Roman avatars.
In addition to these two categories, Bontchev
(2015) identifies another two categories:
c) Games for acquisition of cultural knowledge
and intangible heritage (for cultural skills and
language training) like “Second China”, a
web - based multimedia repository and an
island in Second Life designed to mimic
cultural and visual aspects of China
(Henderson et al., 2008) and “Icura”
(Froschauer et al. 2010) in which the player
learns about Japanese culture and etiquette;
d) Social tagging and knowledge acquisition
games – games conceived to encourage
players to submit cultural information about
cultural artefacts. Among these, “One-Up” is
a multi-round mobile app game in which
players score points for submitting single-
word tags (Flanagan et al. 2013).As for the
game type, according to Mortara et al (2014),
in the field of CH, SGs of different kinds have
been adopted: from trivia, puzzle and mini-
games to mobile applications for museums or
sightseeing, (e.g. ‘Muse-US’ (Coenen et al.
2013), ‘Tidy City’
1
) to simulations (e.g. the
Battle of Waterloo’
2
), to adventures and
roleplaying games (e.g.the Priory
Undercroft’, Doulamis et al. 2011).
1
http://totem.fit.fraunhofer.de/tidycity
2
http://www.bbc.co.uk//history/british/empire seapower /laun
ch gms battle waterloo.shtml
The Canto a Tenore game presented in this paper
can be included in the third category cited by
Bontchev (2015), i.e. games for acquisition of
cultural knowledge and intangible heritage, since its
aim is to spread the Canto a Tenore tradition. It is
worth saying that the game appears to be innovative
in the field since, to the best of our knowledge, the
existing games are more oriented to cultural
awareness, rather than to presenting specific cultural
expressions.
As for the game type, it clearly belongs to the
category of adventure games, since the player is
immersed in the main character’s search for his
origins.
In the following, the game is described, with
particular attention to the design process that is
clearly a core phase in the development of a game. All
the aspects considered in this phase are presented and
discussed.
4 THE CANTO A TENORE GAME
As said above, the Canto a Tenore game is an
adventure game in which the player/learner acquires
a basic theoretical knowledge, as well as some
listening skills, in this singing expression, by helping
the main character, Andrea. Andrea is a young man
living in Argentina, who has a very limited
knowledge of his origins until he finds an audio tape
belonging to his grandfather (containing the
recordings of a group of men singing a cappella) and
a picture (where his grandfather appears in a group of
four people, apparently singing together). Andrea
decides to find out more about his origins and starts
his search for possible relatives in Italy.
In the following, the game is described, according
to the guidelines and principles adopted in i-Treasures
to develop all the games of the project (Yilmaz et al.
2015), namely in terms of: 1. Pedagogical aspects; 2.
Game structure and 3. Score and performance
evaluation (Dagnino et al., 2015).
4.1 Game Design
4.1.1 Pedagogical Aspects
In line with the literature in the field (Habgood, 2007;
Ulicsak and Wright, 2010) the contents related to
Canto a Tenore are totally integrated in the gameplay,
because the information needed by the player/learner
to solve the mystery of Andrea’s origins are strictly
intertwined with the information about the Canto a
Tenore itself.
Therefore, while the declared scope of the game
is to find out where Andrea’s grandfather was born
and whether his relatives are still alive, this objective
can be reached only by learning about Canto a Tenore
singing. In this way, the player doesn’t feel forced to
read or listen to singing excerpts, as everything is
functional for him/her to solve the game.
Being conceived for youngsters and adults with
no previous knowledge of Canto a Tenore, the
educational objectives of the game are related to
knowledge acquisition and listening competence
development, while singing competences are not
addressed. At the end of the game the player is
expected to have acquired a basic knowledge of
Canto a Tenore and to have developed basic listening
skills.
A map of the contents to be addressed in the game
was drafted with the help of a group of experts in this
cultural expression and then the contents distributed
in different scenes of the game, so as to be balanced
and well-integrated into the narrative and the
gameplay. In particular, the theoretical knowledge,
mainly related to the historical, geographical and
technical aspects of this singing tradition, is delivered
through dialogues with the game characters and
information retrieving by the main character.
Listening competences are trained through listening
tasks, aimed at highlighting the main characteristics
of this singing style (e.g. the features characterizing
the four voices, the different forms of the chant and
local variations).
While theoretical knowledge is mainly delivered
during the first two scenes, the listening tasks are
proposed in the second and third scenes.
In the game the main educational strategies are
active (Bonwell and Eison, 1991) and experiential
learning (Kolb, 1984), as the player is called on to
find and elaborate information to proceed with the
game.
Assessment does not imply separate quizzes or
tests, but knowledge and skills are assessed through
tasks that are perceived as part of the game (the player
writes e-mails and a diary at the end of each scene).
Feedback about correctness is provided
immediately: the e-mails and the diary are structured
as “fill in the blank” tasks, therefore, when the player
makes a mistake in his/her text, the system corrects
him/her by pointing directly to the resource where the
correct information was originally given.
As for the advances in the game, when the player
takes a wrong decision, one of the other characters
intervenes to help him/her to change his/her mind.
4.1.2 Game Structure
As for the general organization in scenes/sessions and
the rules guiding the progression from one to the
other, The Canto a Tenore game is structured in two
main scenes and is placed in two different locations:
Argentina and Sardinia. The transition between one
scene (location) and the other is done through videos,
explaining what the following expected steps are.
An introductory video is also included, to
introduce the player to the game plot and to make
him/her aware of the scope of the game.
Score and performance evaluation.
The Canto a Tenore game is mainly conceived as
a game to be played individually and – as such -
doesn’t include any mechanism oriented to
competition or collaboration.
In this game the player’s motivation is expected
to be boosted by the solution to the enigma of
Andrea’s grandfather.
Besides, since the game was mainly conceived as
a non-formal or informal learning experience, the
player’s progress is not evaluated in the strict sense,
but s/he gets feedback about the correctness of his/her
answers and decisions. As said above, feedback is
provided immediately after each task (emails and note
writing or decisions taken at crossroads) thus helping
the player to find the correct answers or to make
correct decisions.
4.2 Game Development
The development of the Canto a Tenore Game was
carried out using a rapid prototyping approach:
several prototypes were developed before reaching
the final stage. Initially the game was conceived as a
2D application, but in order to make it more appealing
and interactive it was developed with both 3D and 2D
scenes, using the Unity3D platform
3
.
In the three-dimensional scenes the user can guide
Andrea in his exploration of the environments (Figure
1).The two-dimensional scenes are used for Andrea’s
interactions with other characters (Figure 2) or where
the user has to assess his/her knowledge of
information collected during the game, in the form of
e-mails or notes (Figure 3).
3
https://unity3d.com
Figure 1: A 3D scene in which Andrea explores the city of
Buenos Aires.
Figure 2: Andrea interacts with the music school teacher.
Figure 3: Andrea’s notes.
The interactions between the three-dimensional
objects and the management of the user interfaces are
implemented using scripts written in C# language.
A great effort was applied to manage the graphic
aspects of the Canto a Tenore Game. Indeed, to
accomplish the three-dimensional view, some
standard assets directly downloaded from the official
Unity asset store site have been joined with some
assets created ad hoc for this game. In particular, the
main character of the Canto a Tenore Game is a
combination of the outputs given by Autodesk 123D
Design, to develop the main structure of the 3D
object, Adobe Fuse CC, to manage the animations of
the character, and Sculptris Alpha 6 to create the
facial expressions.
To create the 2D textures, which represent the
main features of the dialogue interactions and of the
educational and interactive aspects inside the Canto a
Tenore game, a combination of Adobe Photoshop and
Adobe Illustrator was used to build the whole images
and some particular details of the scenes.
4.3 Main Challenges in the Canto a
Tenore Game Design and
Development
The process of designing and developing the Canto a
Tenore game posed several challenges mainly at
design level.
The first is related to the objectives and contents
of the game. It is worth saying that, like many other
traditional cultural expressions, Canto a Tenore is not
formally taught. Aficionados and apprentices acquire
knowledge about it and skills spontaneously listening
to the performance of singers and speaking with them.
Therefore, the objectives and the contents were
necessarily agreed with experts depending on the
potential users of the game. This required consistent
interdisciplinary work involving experts in cultural
expressions, educational technologists and
developers.
Secondly, in order to avoid a detachment between
the contents to be addressed and the game itself, as
sometimes happens in educational games, great effort
was put into conceiving tasks and integrating them in
the gameplay. Indeed, every learning task is
functional to progress in the game: information is
given in the form of clues and assessed in the form of
notes (having a notebook is quite common even in
commercial games) or decisions to be taken; the
scope is to avoid the player feeling s/he is being
taught or assessed with quizzes or something similar,
that can hamper the flow.
Last but not least there was a challenge linked
with the game development. SGs usually face the
limit imposed by a low budget; compared to
commercial ones, they are often perceived as less
appealing at graphic and interface level. The same
issue was faced for the Canto a Tenore game: the
game needed ad hoc drawn assets (the main character,
the Sardinian village, etc.) not allowing us to use just
the ones already available on the Unity website.
Therefore, as said above, the small developers’ group
put a consistent effort into preparing the 3D and 2D
assets with the limited resources available. This effort
resulted in fairly good quality characters and
environments that of course don’t reach the level a
player can find in a commercial game but were
considered satisfactory.
5 CONCLUSIONS
Several authors have clearly stated that digital games,
and in particular SG, per se present important
advantages that make them useful tools in the specific
field of CH. As highlighted by Mortara et al. (2014)
and Bontchev (2015), in recent years, the
development of games also in the area of ICH has
been increasing; this may certainly be due to the
advances at technological level. In this contribution,
the process of design and development of an SG for
ICH education was presented. This game appears to
be innovative in the genre, because it is oriented to
teaching about a specific cultural expression and not
languages or traditions. In the paper particular
attention has been paid to the guidelines followed to
produce a sound product at educational level and, at
the same time, to provide the user with a playful
experience. Following these guidelines faced the
design group with several challenges that were briefly
discussed.
Future research would be of course advisable in
the field, so as to exploit the potential of games to
develop meaningful applications, especially in the
area of Intangible Heritage.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This work is funded by the European Commission by
the i-Treasures project (Intangible Treasures -
Capturing the Intangible Cultural Heritage and
Learning the Rare Know-How of Living Human
Treasures FP7 – ICT – 2011 – 9 – 600 – 676 – i-
Treasures). It is an Integrated Project (IP) of the
European Union’s 7
th
Framework Programme ‘ICT
for Access to Cultural Resources’
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