Cultural Heritage and Art in VR/AR/MR

Dear Colleagues,

In the evolving landscape of digital innovation, virtual, augmented, and extended reality (VR/AR/XR) technologies have emerged as transformative tools for the preservation, interpretation, and dissemination of cultural heritage and the arts. Their capacity to recreate, enhance, and extend our engagement with tangible and intangible heritage has opened up new pathways for research, education, and creative expression. As these technologies continue to mature and become more accessible, expectations for high-quality, data-driven, and experientially rich applications have risen, creating fertile ground for advanced scholarly exploration.

This Special Issue invites researchers, practitioners, and interdisciplinary teams to submit original and rigorous studies that examine both the opportunities and challenges of integrating VR/AR/XR within cultural heritage and artistic contexts. We particularly encourage contributions supported by empirical evidence, user studies, data analytics, or applied experimentation and that offer meaningful insights into the technological, methodological, educational, or societal implications of immersive technologies.

We see this Special Issue as an opportunity for the academic and professional communities to share recent findings, novel approaches, best practices, and conceptual frameworks related to the use of immersive technologies in cultural heritage, museums, galleries, the performing arts, digital humanities, and creative industries. Submissions showcasing innovative workflows, user-centered design, collaborative environments, storytelling techniques, and preservation strategies are especially welcome.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

• VR/AR/XR applications for cultural heritage documentation, preservation, and restoration;
• Digital storytelling, narrative reconstruction, and interactive exhibitions;
• Immersive experiences for museums, galleries, and the performing arts;
• Artificial intelligence and machine learning for cultural heritage visualization;
• Photogrammetry, 3D scanning, digital twins, and procedural reconstruction;
• Multimodal interaction, haptics, and sensory augmentation in cultural experiences;
• Presence, embodiment, and user engagement in heritage and artistic environments;
• Remote collaboration and co-creation using immersive platforms;
• Gamification and educational frameworks for heritage learning;
• Conservation ethics, authenticity, and methodological challenges of immersive media;
• Accessibility, inclusivity, and audience analysis in cultural VR/AR/XR;
• Creative practices, digital art, and experimental immersive installations.

We look forward to receiving your valuable contributions and advancing the dialog on how immersive technologies can shape the future of cultural heritage and the arts.

Dr. Radu Comes
Prof. Dr. Dorin-Mircea Popovici
Prof. Dr. Calin Gheorghe Dan Neamtu
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Applied Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.