Keywords

Since the 1990s the Chinese people’s living patterns and social methods have undergone tremendous changes and people have been increasingly individualized and alienated. With the development of information network technology and the improvement of people’s living standards “loose flexible and temporary social networks are gradually replacing our original communities which has led to an increasingly fragile social system. In the face of existing crises and contradictions the complexity of society is constantly increasing and contemporary society is fragile” Davies [1]. Zolli [2]. Taleb [3] “mainly because of the lack of cohesion within society or the low level of social resilience” Keck [4]. Therefore the “Cultural Resilience” (CoR) project of the University of the Arts of London (2014.01–2016.07) and the “Design for Resilience City” project (2015) of the School of Design and Creativity Tongji University Shanghai China all attempted to introduce the concept of “Resilience” into the construction of community culture. The project uses a variety of methods to trigger greater participation such as community workshops student design interventions co-creation projects and public engagement activities. Mancini finally boils down to proactive design “creating meaningful forms of participation and a flexible sustainable way of living and working is the goal of community building” Ni Yuqing [5].

In August 2018 the author’s project team conducted a public opinion survey and interview with residents of Jiading District Shanghai China, on the topic of “intention to participate in regional cultural tourism activities combined with AR technology” with 522 valid data. The project hopes to consider the regional cultural innovation development path combining AR technology with the concepts of local community cultural resilience participation design and active design Manzini [6]. Among them data analysis shows that 86.2% of the population expressed interest in cultural activities combined with virtual reality technology 82.1% expressed their willingness to participate in the experience and content design provide design related materials feedback etc. 49.8% believe that the content design is novel and interesting helping to understand traditional culture and stimulate the fun of learning new knowledge 52.3% believe that they can interact more with others (friends strangers relatives etc.) 46.8% think it is more interesting than the traditional display form. In addition the project team conducted a survey and measurement of the audience on the display effect of the AR work “Shan Hai Jing: Shen You” (2017.12) exhibited at the “China Creation Myth – Internet Art Exhibition” at the Liu Haisu Art Museum in Shanghai. Analysis and effective investigation of 921 people. The total number of valid investigators is 921. After two data comparisons the conclusions are basically the same.

Therefore this paper builds a topic based on the resilience virtual public space of traditional culture with the theme of regional cultural design incorporating AR technology and Anthony Dunne’s speculation theory Dunne [7]. by analyzing the spatial characteristics of existing virtual cultural works including the relationship between designers (rule makers) users (individuals) space environment and design features of the space of running rules cognition publicity possibility and resilience. The experiment explores the design ideas of the resilience virtual public space of traditional culture and lays a theoretical foundation for driving cultural innovation and the transformation of cultural education and communication.

1 Imitate the Divergent Thinking of the Human Brain

Digital culture is a new art form in which people use digital technology for cultural innovation. It is an open virtual space composed of digitalized cultural information. Like a black hole, it constantly absorbs the cultural information created by history. Meanwhile, It also constitutes a new virtual world of digital art information. Its vertical is covered with historical imprint and horizontal link to modern science and technology, in the form of digital code in the virtual space. In the mobile Internet, this organic network will spread and exchange cultural information with people in the virtual space in a more advanced, richer, more convenient and more active way. People who enter the virtual space are also more likely to get closer to culture, appreciate and evaluate culture and participate in cultural creation. Based on a virtual space of a network-like digital culture that combines multiple cultural information data and multiple terminal nodes, it seems to mimic the divergent thinking of the human brain. With its rich information resources and technology, it promotes the creation of more new cultural forms. “If the net of the spider knot is flat, then the net of the virtual space is three-dimensional, diversified, and self-propagating” He [8].

2 Operating Rules of Virtual Cultural Space

After the digital culture transforms form and meaning into codes consisting of 0 and 1 in the virtual world, the form and meaning appearing in the codes are an anarchic digital stream or manipulated false imaginary? Although the designers of the program are still making money on them, the digital tools that rely on the program are designed to break away from the designer and immediately set new rules for the digital world. First of all, this new rule is not controlled by the designer or some individuals, because the program is not unique, can create a variety of rules for the digital world, and even contradictory rules, the digital world will open up isolation space for these contradictions (just a piece of code that can be run), rules are easily created or abolished, this is just a migration in the digital world. Secondly, the designer of the rules must also rely on the digital world to reflect the rules, that is to say, the designer is also the image under the rules. After the rules are designed, they have achieved a position above the digital image, but this position is not stable, may be abolished at any time. In addition, the image of the individual in the digital world depends on the rules, and the abolition of the rules means that the image is destroyed, but the elimination of one image is only a small excuse for the creation of another image. From the perspective of the entire virtual world, the image is not unique. The simulation image is inhabited under various rules.

Just as traditional culture is digitized, when a hand-painted work is created by an artist and digitized, everything will be out of control. Because the work has been mutated in the process of digital communication, and new code has been implanted, forming a new art form (new rules). For example, the PS spoof of a work, or borrow a part of the picture to form a new art work created by another designer, the same work encounters different people with different fates (new rules), so constantly Loop, from building rules, to being ruled, to abolishing rules. The original designer can’t form effective control over the completed cultural works, and the work itself will mutate, just like a digital living body that is constantly reproducing. Just as Brown Shaw pointed out in the article “Literature Space”, this work is separated from the author after it is completed. The meaning of work is only presented in the reading process of someone. Similarly, rules (spaces) are only experienced by the user during use. The experience after the rules are completed is completely unique and private. Even these experiences exceed the rules themselves. Users may gain new insights from rules and images.

It can clearly be seen, the rules of cultural creation in the digital world are not binding. These rules are only a relatively independent space in the digital system, in which they exercise power, but the residents they rule are completely voluntary and mobile. And they can abandon these rules at any time. In the virtual cultural space, people can freely log in to different spaces through the network, participate in different experiences, abide by their corresponding rules, or choose not to log in or leave.

3 Cognition of Virtual Cultural Space

For the digital image that enters these spaces, from the beginning of the source, it constitutes a split (subject and object). From Lacan’s Mirror Theory: infants can find many images reflected from the mirror, and use a series of gestures to “experience the relationship between mirror movement and the reflected environment, and experience the relationship between actual mixture and its replicated reality” Wang [9]. In this mirror game, the baby can recognize that the copied subject that controls the game is the baby itself. This is different from the subject of self-thinking by the French philosopher Descartes. The baby confirms the self-image from the unconscious mirror game. But Descartes’ abstract self-thinking is the forgetting of the mirror game. It is abstracted from the rational reality and ignores the dependence on the object, and it is an affirmation of the existence of an individual by the degree of self-recognition of the subject. But in Mirror Theory, the self can only be confirmed by the reflection (mirror) of the object.

In fact, mirror is not just a reflection of image. In the process of constant interaction between subject and object, to some extent, this image is constructing the self (the process of cognition). The replication and manufacturing capabilities of virtual reality built by the digital world are much greater than the mechanical reflection capabilities of ordinary mirror. The reflections obtained in the digital system have mutated during the original planned reflection propagation process. As the director expressed in the film “Source Code” and “Avatar”, the protagonist’s separated self (subject) and mirror (object) experience different lives in two worlds, and the mirror (object) in the parallel space has formed a whole new idea through a series of new world experiences, and variation has taken place. Then, in the virtual cultural space, according to Lacan’s mirror theory, the subject defines the environment of self-existence through experience, and then, under the influence of the environment, gains recognition of self and culture, just like the philosophical thought of Descartes ’s “Cogito ergo sum.”

4 Possibility of Virtual Cultural Space

Heidegger pointed out in “Existence and Time” that the essence of human being is that “the existence of man always refers to the existence that is going to be” Zhang [10]. The meaning of the world is manifested by the existence of human beings, the existence of others, and the relationship between things. Digital technology enriches the possibilities of human existence, and forms a variety of experiences in digital systems. The realization of possibilities (virtual reality) is more and more convenient and simpler. Just like the space created by the program (rules), it is the place to realize the possibilities.

Possibility comes from speculation, and “speculation comes from imagination, that is, the ability of truly imagine more possibilities of the world and its alternative choices” Dunne [7]. “There are many kinds of imagination, including social, professional, scientific, technical, artistic, and design imagination. Fictional literature may be the most active creative laboratory in the world’s structural career” Dolezel [11]. “The virtual world of literature is constructed by words and is realized by deriving the logical relationship of language to the extreme, such as science fiction” Bal [12]. Porter Abbott [13] or virtual environment narrative. But the traditional cultural virtual world, which is integrated with digital technology, is composed of codes 0 and 1. The design imagination can virtually visualize all material or non-material objects including virtual literature. This virtual world can be a fusion of imaginative design of game design, digital media, visual effects and augmented reality. It is carried out through the frequent interaction, collision and integration between real reality, imaginary reality, simulated reality, occurring reality and fictional reality. We can immerse ourselves in thinking about the relationship between the “Form” of virtual design and the real “Meaning”, as well as cherishing and enjoying unrealistic needs.

5 Publicity of Virtual Cultural Space

In general, “public space is a social space that is open and accessible to people, is the expression of regional cultural diversity and the foundation of its identity, is a place where residents invest their emotions over time. It is through the creation of these places that the physical, social, environmental and economic health of urban communities can be nurtured” Charter of Public Space [14]. The virtual public space of traditional culture is a digital place based on virtual reality technology, which is different from the traditional public space. The research content is not to explore or build new spaces, but to reorganize and superimpose existing space, focusing on the activities and needs of people in space, emphasizing design and thinking while testing. Intervene in the development of regional culture with a new and more active attitude, and imagine the possibility of the future design of traditional culture through public participation and virtual narrative story design.

6 Resilience Design of Virtual Cultural Space

“Social resilience requires the presence of a local community, a group of people who interact in a physical environment. The proximity of the state and its relationship with the local community enables the local community to organize and solve problems in a crisis” Manzini [6]. Therefore, regional cultural development requires the existence of resilience cultural space of local communities. And virtual reality technology has the advantage of creating resilience cultural space. “The concept of resilience originated from ecology, which was proposed by Canadian scholar Holling” [15]. Hall [16] and then began to intervene in different disciplines, now extended to a four-dimensional (ecological, technical, social and economic) perspective. Resilience in this paper refers to the capacity of the social-ecological system of the virtual cultural space to “absorb or withstand perturbation and other stressors such that the system remains the same regime as the original one, essentially maintaining its structure and functions” Ni [5].

According to the existing literary works, historical records, videos, photos and other archives, the author attempts to introduce resilience design ideas in the regional cultural tourism development project “RuiJin Revolutionary Site Installation” (China, 2011.03), carry out the experiment of resilience design of virtual traditional culture, and at the same time, think about how to use the form of virtual design to spread and educate people about the true meaning of traditional culture. The project mainly uses AR technology, from daily and micro perspectives, based on the consideration of the resilience design of regional tourism culture products, including individuality, sociality, participation and initiative design, expansion and continuity.

6.1 Individuality

Individuality, refers to the self-satisfaction and self-realization of people entering the virtual cultural world. According to specific scenes, the project creates virtual character content, virtual interactive experience area, reproduces 3D dynamic historical scene (Fig. 1). Also develops a mobile app (Fig. 2): The scanning function of the AR makes the scene reappear. Including the reproduction of historical figures, historical videos and live explanations. Camera function with special effects (Fig. 3): In the option interface of special effects, visitors can take photos according to their preferences. Object analysis (Fig. 4): In the interface of object analysis, the visitor can point the camera at the object that you want to know, and the information about the object will appear.

Fig. 1.
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Virtual character content

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Fig. 2.
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Mobile app

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Fig. 3.
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Camera function with special effects

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Fig. 4.
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Object analysis

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6.2 Sociality

Sociality, refers to the orientation of mainstream value of social (the expression of meaning) under the cultural environment created by the virtual world (the expression of form). A series of follow-up activities such as online feedback, uploading new materials, participating in storytelling, “micro-intervention” Manzini [6]. And active design through the operation of APP or virtual interface are the specific expressions of people’s social cognition of regional culture. At the same time, the design team can easily obtain test data about people’s needs through the pre-set function of data statistics of virtual system, so as to test and think while designing.

6.3 Participating

Participating in design and active design, is an effective way for people to understand regional cultural sociality, and it is also the effects of concrete manifestation of people’s understanding of cultural. The micro-intervention here is a way of participating in design and active design, which constitutes a series of follow-up activities, with the essence of short-lived. It refers to endowing intangible (the cognitions of things that short-lived, movable, and tiny) things to tangible. It also points to the design possibilities of a new and open participation, and these possibilities are the supplement of the real meaning of the content, make traditional culture contemporary, realize cultural innovation and development. Anne Eggebert writes in relation to the short period in which students can participate in the life of a local community: “In the current climate of the mass movement of people, in a world city, 3–4 years might be understood as a significant period of habitation.” Eggebert [17]. That means the population is in a state of flow is a true portrayal of contemporary society. So the people involved in the design can be permanent residents, students, immigrants or tourists. It can improve the openness of the regional culture, and also a model for open communication and exchange of differences, or the possibilities for making culture richer. Of course, these possibilities are not cultural alternatives of which have been built on stable, long-lasting regional societies, but different people’s understanding of regional culture and the desire for modern life. It is a contemporary regional culture that meet the needs of modern people through the micro-intervention approach, and create a new cultural ideology with the characteristics of regional traditional culture and contemporary culture. Participation or active design is the way of people to achieve individual satisfaction and the behavior of social cognitive in the public space of virtual culture.

6.4 Expansion and Continuity

The resilience design of the virtual cultural space is also reflected in the expansion and continuity of the degree of people’s self-organization, learning and adaptation. Gunderson [18, 19]. The concrete manifestations are as follows:

Superimpose the information with the real historical place, and coexist with other cultural communication forms and media, and combine the Internet technology to realize the sustainability of design, participation, interaction and experience.

Through micro-intervention, meet the individual needs of people, realize self-organization, learning and social cognition of culture, and provide more possibilities for new cultural forms.

According to the test data obtained by people’s participation behavior, the virtual system continuously upgrades the existing space functions, enabling people to better adapt to the virtual culture world based on their knowledge of historical culture and the skills of equipment use.

The design of APP continues the spread of culture, and will not disappear with the departure of people. On the contrary, relying on the Internet, Internet of Things, and AI technology, an intelligent cultural network group has been formed, and people in the flow state can continue communicate with the virtual cultural world of each region. This is the expansion and continuation of the virtual cultural space.

7 Conclusion

“The virtual world of digital cultural space is mainly realized by the digital simulation of culture and the emerging of new forms of digital media culture, namely the completion of Baudrillard’s third sequence of simulation” He [8]. It has the following characteristics: First, the network group composed of virtual world based on digital copy has the ability of divergent thinking. Second, its operating rules determine that the results presented by the virtual world are not necessarily the same as the facts; Third, the virtual space will not be destroyed by the leaving of some individuals, nor does it require any special commitment. Individual data has already been recorded; Fourth, based on the above three characteristics, all the information entering the virtual space system has the possibility of free combination, forming a rich understanding of culture and promoting the formation of new ideology of culture; Fifth, at beginning, the resilience virtual cultural space just presents to everyone a possible virtual cultural narrative space that is more suitable for modern people to accept cultural information than traditional methods. What the designer needs is not the audience’s approval of the design, the audience may also be the designer. They can create more possibilities by design and imagination through the options available in the virtual space and build their own perceptions; Sixth, as a path for the protecting, spreading and developing of regional culture, virtual cultural space can easily and realistically present a variety of possible cultural spaces that people want. But the aim is not to create a cultural display space that can be regarded as long-lasting and stable. On the contrary, it is necessary to create an ecosystem that enables various social relationships to coexist. By creating opportunities to participate in design, people brainstorm and solve problems, open up new perspectives, and realize the expansion and continuation of regional cultural space.

The same model can be applied to more applications. In terms of regional cultural education topics, this can be a new curriculum of art education. But unlike traditional way, what we want to build is an intelligent teaching model that combines advanced technologies such as virtual reality, the Internet, big data, IOT, or AI, etc. The design inspiration is derived from traditional cultural materials, forms and patterns, combined with knowledge of social sciences, to obtain information about user needs, and to carry out the teaching model of design for the present world. Meanwhile, in the face of market homogenization, we need to shift the focus of design to “design for the possibilities of the future world” Dunne [7]. Of course, the object of education is not limited to students at school. According to the results of the author’s recent survey report, people generally have a high degree of interest in digital display forms of traditional culture. The influence factors such as age, education, and occupational are low. But the familiarity with AR technology is not high, indicating the penetration rate of related knowledge is low. At the same time, the general public generally expressed their expectation for the virtual form of traditional culture, and it is expected to increase their social experience and cultural quality. Therefore, the creation of virtual spaces of regional cultural can also provide educational opportunities for the public.

From another perspective, the virtual spaces of regional cultural just as an innovative digital product that meets the needs of the times. The design difficulties we face are not only technical bottlenecks, but also need a benign combination of factors such as environment, product service, social, economic, culture and government, etc. “We need to cultivate on-going relationships with a number of organizations that would understand both the limitations and benefits of what we can offer” Penty [20].

In addition, different people’s design and imagination of the possibility of traditional culture is a multi-angle understanding and interpretation of culture. The result may be a modern expression that conforms to the spirit of traditional culture, or misinterpretation. From the perspective of the existence and development of cultural diversity, the correctness is not so important. From the perspective of the dissemination and development of cultural connotations, it is meaningful to involve more people in the process of design. Because traditional culture comes from human civilization, the continued development under the cognition and inheritance of human beings is what we need to pay more attention to.