Immersive Experiences of

Heritage, Museums & Archaeology

I am interested in how people encounter their past — not only as information, but as experience. My work brings together research, reconstruction, craft and educational design to create immersive settings that are thoughtful, materially grounded and open to dialogue. I supervise PhD students in the field of Public Archaeology and Heritage; lead the design of immersive heritage experiences; and activley participate in historic re-enacments.

My Vision

Heritage carries stories of how people lived, worked, created, adapted and cared for one another. Yet these histories can sometimes feel distant or abstract, especially when the physical traces of past lives are fragmentary, dispersed or no longer visible in the landscape. I am drawn to ways of making heritage feel present and relatable — ways that invite curiosity, reflection and personal connection.

For me, immersive heritage work is about creating environments in which visitors can step into a historical world, even briefly. Through reconstructed spaces, material culture, craft practices and embodied engagement, I seek to open small windows into everyday life in the past. These encounters are not about spectacle, but about proximity — allowing people to sense scale, texture, movement and atmosphere.

When individuals can move through a space, handle objects, witness processes of making, or participate in shared activities, history becomes less distant. It becomes something that can be felt and imagined. Such experiences often spark personal questions: Who were the people who lived here? How did they relate to their environment? What do we carry forward from them?

I believe that these moments of encounter can support both individual reflection and community wellbeing. When people engage with heritage in embodied and participatory ways, they are invited to reflect on identity, belonging and responsibility — on how relationships between humans, other-than-human beings, materials and environments are formed and sustained. Such encounters can also strengthen a sense of community agency, reminding us that heritage is not only something inherited, but something continually shaped, renewed and carried forward. By engaging thoughtfully with the past, we open space to consider cultural continuity, resilience and knowledge, and for thinking about how we live with one another and with the worlds we inhabit.

Designer of Immersive Heritage Experiences

Immersive Exhibition on Submerged Neolithic Coastal Settlements

The BEFOREtheFLOOD project focuses on the submerged Neolithic settlements along the Carmel Coast — some of the world’s earliest coastal farming communities, now lying underwater as a result of post-glacial sea-level rise. These sites offer a rare window into early sedentary life, human adaptation to environmental change, and long-term relationships between communities and coastal landscapes

As part of this archaeological research, the project is also developing a virtual exhibition to support public engagement with the heritage of the earliest coastal villages now lost under the sea. Alongside VR, AI modelling and audio interpretation, a central strand of the project focuses on creating immersive and tangible experiences that allow visitors to encounter these submerged landscapes in embodied ways, even though their current location underwater is inaccessible to the public.

In my role as Designer of Immersive Heritage Experiences, I lead the reconstruction of Neolithic coastal lifeways for physical exhibitions and hands-on interpretive settings. This includes designing reconstructed spatial environments, working with material culture and craft traditions, and developing multisensory experiences that translate archaeological research into participatory engagement. The aim is to make inaccessible underwater heritage experientially present — not only through technology, but through space, material and embodied interaction.

Applied Academic Mentoring & Supervision

Public Engagement and Sustainable Use of Archaeological Sites

Avi Mashiah (PhD candidate, University of Haifa, supervised by Dr. Shirly Ben Dor Evian and Dr. Noa Lavi)

This project explores how archaeological sites in urban settings can be thoughtfully integrated into public life through improved interpretation, accessibility and community participation. It develops models for strengthening visitor engagement while maintaining long-term site sustainability.

Reconstruction of a Natufian Prehistoric Learning Environment

Timna Raz (PhD candidate, Hebrew University, supervised by Prof. Leore Grosman and Dr. Noa Lavi)

This project explores the reconstructed Natufian environment for Experimental Archaeology and as a space for experiential public learning. Drawing on archaeological evidence, it examines how spatial reconstruction, material culture and embodied activity can deepen understanding of early lifeways.

Living History

Alongside exhibition design and archaeological reconstruction, I engage in living history and historical re-enactment as a form of embodied interpretation. Working with school groups and public audiences, living history uses material culture, craft processes and historically grounded environments to create encounters that feel immediate and relational, where visitors can step into a historical world and explore it alongside others.

For me, re-enactment is not performance but pedagogy. It is a way of exploring how knowledge is carried through gesture, tool use, social interaction and everyday practice. By inhabiting reconstructed spaces and engaging with historically informed craft and lifeways, visitors — especially young learners — are invited to ask questions, handle materials and reflect on how people lived in relation to one another and their environments.

This work complements my broader interest in immersive heritage, offering direct, relational experiences that connect research, reconstruction and education.

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