Faberllull is a network of residences located in the cities of Olot (Catalonia) and La Massana (Andorra) which focus on the Arts, Sciences and Humanities. Faberllull is managed by the Ramon Llull Institute, in collaboration with the City Council of Olot and the Government of Andorra. Faberllull offers thematic residences programmed throughout the year. Professionals from the fields of Arts, Science and Humanities can schedule a stay to share work-related experiences with other residents for a few days. During their stay, the residents collaborate on different kinds of activities addressed to students, professionals or the general public.

The last thematic residence “Science, technology and humanities or science and digital humanities?” took place April 12-23, 2021 at Faberllull (Olot), Catalonia. It was here that members of the TransMedia Catalonia research group at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona became Faberllull residents, in order to carry out pioneering tests with subtitles in 360 videos using eye-tracking technology.

The main motivation of this residence was to understand what humanities are and reflect on their contribution to developing a more critical consciousness regarding social, cultural, political, economic, ecological, biologic and cognitive problems in the scientific and technical area.

A participant tests the head-mounted display

This was the scenario for the workshop carried out by the pre-doctoral researcher and member of the TransMedia Catalonia research group, Marta Brescia Zapata. During the activity, participants had the opportunity to learn about immersive environments and explore the possibilities of 360º videos. The concept of creative subtitles was also introduced, and examples were given on how to insert them into 360º videos, to ensure that immersive content can be accessible for all users. The activity concluded with a discussion about this new way of generating audiovisual content. The data gathered from testing will be published in the prestigious Journal of Audiovisual Translation (JAT), as part of the Special Issue Media for All 9: Sketching Tomorrow’s Mediascape.