The Belitung Shipwreck in Virtual Reality: Exploring the Narrative Framework of Digital Cultural Heritage

Abstract Building on the work of Belitung VR, this article seeks to explore a narrative framework for digital cultural heritage storytelling. Belitung VR is a serious game intended to disseminate cultural knowledge about its subject via VR, wherein users can freely explore the virtual reconstruction of a shipwrecked Arab dhow to learn about historical shipping between China and West Asia while collecting clues to the cause(s) of the wreck. The framework consists of narrative goals (physical and nonphysical), narrative elements (character, world, and plot), and narrative grammar (immersion, interaction, rhetoric, and factuality). This work can serve as a practice guide and evaluative framework for designers/artists with an aspiration to digitally disseminate cultural heritage.