Artificial Intelligence in Cultural Heritage Storytelling

Dear Colleagues,

The rapid integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) into media production is fundamentally transforming the entire lifecycle of audiovisual content creation, from pre-production and design to post-production and distribution. Within the field of cultural heritage, these developments enable innovative approaches to the documentation, preservation, interpretation, and communication of heritage assets, moving beyond static representations toward dynamic, immersive, and interactive storytelling experiences.

Audiovisual production is inherently interdisciplinary, encompassing film, video, sound design, animation, and computer graphics. Recent advances in generative AI—including text-to-image and text-to-video systems, synthetic media, and automated editing tools—are reshaping creative workflows and enabling scalable, adaptive, and cross-platform content production tailored to cultural heritage applications. These technologies introduce new paradigms for content generation, where AI acts not only as a tool but also as a creative collaborator in the production process.

At the same time, immersive technologies such as Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), and Extended Reality (XR) are redefining audience engagement, allowing users to experience cultural heritage through personalized, interactive, and spatial narratives. These approaches foster new modes of digital heritage dissemination and participatory engagement, particularly within contemporary media ecosystems characterized by social media platforms, mobile technologies, and online environments.

This Special Issue aims to explore how AI-driven and AI-assisted approaches can support the documentation, interpretation, and dissemination of cultural heritage through advanced audiovisual production and immersive storytelling. This Special Issue places particular emphasis on AI-supported audiovisual production workflows and interactive media systems in cultural heritage environments, highlighting practice-based approaches, user experience design, and real-world applications in digital museums and heritage platforms. It seeks to bring together interdisciplinary contributions that bridge creative practice, technological innovation, and critical reflection, while also addressing emerging challenges related to ethics, authenticity, and the evolving role of AI in cultural heritage contexts.

We particularly encourage contributions that combine theoretical insight with practical implementations, case studies, and experimental approaches that advance the field of digital heritage.

With this Special Issue we aim to investigate how Artificial Intelligence can support the documentation, preservation, interpretation, and communication of cultural heritage through advanced audiovisual production and immersive media technologies. The collection will focus on the development of innovative methods, tools, and workflows for creating, managing, and disseminating heritage-related content, including generative media, immersive environments (VR/AR/XR), and hybrid human–AI production systems.

Particular emphasis is placed on AI-enabled audiovisual production processes, interactive storytelling systems, and user-centered design approaches that enhance audience engagement and experiential access to cultural heritage. This Special Issue also seeks to explore how such technologies contribute to new models of heritage representation, digital curation, and knowledge transmission across diverse platforms and communities. By bridging cultural heritage research with emerging digital media practices, this Special Issue aligns closely with the scope of Heritage, contributing to the advancement of innovative tools and methodologies that support heritage preservation, accessibility, interpretation, and sustainable public engagement.

In this Special Issue, original research articles and review papers are welcome. Submissions that combine theoretical approaches with practical implementations, experimental systems, and case studies are particularly encouraged.

Research areas may include (but need not be limited to) the following:

• AI-driven storytelling in cultural heritage contexts;
• Generative AI for audiovisual heritage content (text-to-image, text-to-video, synthetic media);
• AI-supported audiovisual production workflows and creative processes;
• Immersive storytelling using Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), and Extended Reality (XR);
• Interactive and participatory heritage experiences;
• Digital reconstruction and simulation of cultural heritage assets;
• Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Large Language Models (LLMs) for heritage archives and narratives;
• AI in digital museums, exhibitions, and cultural platforms;
• User experience (UX) and human–computer interaction in heritage environments;
• Accessibility and inclusive design in AI-driven heritage applications;
• Hybrid human–AI creative systems in cultural production;
• Ethical, legal, and societal implications of AI in cultural heritage;
• AI for heritage documentation, preservation, and digital curation.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Matina Kiourexidou
Dr. Sofia Stamou
Dr. Evangelia Kavakli
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-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Heritage is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly 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 1800 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.