our investment in time
Silves 900 years ago
XELB 12 is a Virtual Tour under development, for the community, with potential to change minds.
By following us, you are actively supporting its future.
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PROJECT'S HISTORY
posted on 29.11.2024
- behind the scenes -
IDEA
XELB 12 is an ongoing "Playable Virtual Medieval Tour" project started in 2024, created initially as a source of fun and information for the community, upon relocation of Pixbit's Studio to the city of Silves - one of the most iconic references of the Gharb al-Andaluz.
As a contribution to the community and a need for an engaging experience to cast brand awareness and educate about 3D outputs, in one month we recreated the city of Silves in the 12th century when it was ruled by the Moors. The collection of documented archaeological sites was vast in artifacts but limited in descriptive environment visuals.
The idea is to have an interactive tour of the city in the 12th century, populated with various hotspots of reconstructed remains or places that are far gone and only exist in brief descriptions of the past. The visitor will be able to fly over the city or walk on the streets and enter specific places to get immersed onto the culture and fascinating variety of facts that can finally be experienced.
PURPOSE
The support of visuals and interaction to efficiently communicate complex subjects, has been the entire purpose of creation of PIXBIT. Either for strategic ends such as Archviz, or for cultural and educational purposes such as this.
We estimate that everybody wins. Here are the key takeaways:
Local Citizens can obviously have a refreshed view over their heritage. During the course of our prototype presentation, some were really surprised to see their city in such exuberant detail. The point of agreement to all local visitors was never having had the "true feel" of the architecture, location of strategic buildings and overall surroundings. Basically the bits of information all came together. The Medieval Fair has cast light to the relevance of the Moorish culture, but it would still be far from the true aesthetics, architecture and Almohad culture.
The most engaging activity of city inhabitants was to self-locate their home places. The controller was taken on their own hands and once discovered their place, it was time to look for the surrounding buildings and investigate what they were. It took an average of 30 minutes per visitor and some fights over who gets the controller (not just kids...). Mesmerized by their findings, they asked for the continuation of the tour's development and pin pointed what they would look like to see done.
Some even commented that their ancestors used to tell some fascinating tales. Urban Legends are almost lost in the midst of so much culture appropriation, discredit and miscommunication. On our set of demonstration of this Tour, the visitors revived them by sharing, unaware of being responsible to bring them back to life. This has no price.
Beta footage of the project + Mood concept
Beta footage of the project + Mood concept
Schools can study on the project itself. Since the information used to build it is complex, curated and directly extracted from published sources, teachers can use it as a new and engaging media to support the communication of content. We estimate a playtime of 3 hours to completely experience all content, and with the contribute of a teacher guiding the class toward the necessary topics, would make wonders.
Student engagement has been a source of worry in our time, and this is a new approach to the missing link: Interest. The world has thought us to live in a rush, therefore it gets unsustainable to take time to read. A virtual tour cannot make up for any book, but learning what can be assisted by technology and creativity, is already the present. Learn it.
Touristic Agents can use it as a marketing tool to attract tourists, creating a new segment of digital tourism and broadcast to the world how Silves was. The city is almost a museum. Decades of abandonment and natural disasters left it only with the skeleton of a great civilization. Even so, conserved and a source of pride and profit. The castle makes the city's postcard, the streets hide countless secrets that only a trained eye can see, even the people (sometimes unaware) show habits of the enduring legacy of Moorish domain (names, words, cuisine, handicrafts, architecture, jewelry, fashion...) The touristic value is irrefutable, but its sustainability is in question.
Urban Regeneration and Real Estate Integrating heritage into modern real estate can attract both local and international buyers who value history, creating an appealing mix of historical tourism and contemporary living. Virtual tours can help investors demonstrate the fusion of heritage with modern development plans.
Heritage Preservation: although it is not our purpose to replace a visit on site, the tour allows for some conservation of the actual ruins. Some sites are closed to the public for being either too dangerous to the public or to the monument itself, in terms of mass tourism. Others are in phase of discovery, leaving no space for visits to happen. And finally, the pieces that are too big to be exhibited at the museum. All of this can be possible with this Virtual Tour.
Government & Cultural Institutions have a new tool to support the defense of the national patrimonial value of Silves for UNESCO with the Algarvensis Geopark project. This virtual tour can enhance global recognition, attract international interest, and drive sustainable tourism that respects the area’s heritage, fostering national pride, cultural exchange, and international cooperation. The new normal will be to capitalize on emerging technologies such as VR/AR for for cultural preservation. XELB 12 encompasses all, plus: It's playable.
Local Business Owners and Community Investors As an integrated need for the public to relate to the actual city, we include an overlay scenario of nowadays references that the visitor can toggle On/OFF. This gives the chance to "Local Business Placement" that can serve as an extra marketing strategy. Furthermore, the promotion of this Tour can lead to increase touristic foot traffic.
Beta footage of the project + Mood concept