On 5 October 2026, Alessia Melis, project manager at Blue Cinema TV, was awarded a PhD in Historical Sciences and Cultural Heritage by the University of Tuscia, defending the thesis “Digital geo-storytelling processes for the social and cultural regeneration of small historic towns”. The programme was carried out as an industrial PhD supported by Blue Cinema TV. For the company, it was an opportunity to submit the patented OLOS® methodology to a process of scientific validation in an academic setting.
The research starts from a simple observation: small historic towns hold a rich, layered heritage, but one that is often fragmented and hard to convey to visitors as a whole. Maps describe a territory without telling its story. Stories, once detached from places, lose their context. And technology, without a cultural project behind it, risks becoming mere spectacle. The thesis set out to bring these three dimensions together, geographic representation, narrative and digital tools, into a single model for reading the territory.
This work gave rise to OLOS®GIS, a methodological tool that combines geographic information systems with interactive storytelling and the mediation of a life-size virtual human figure, according to the OLOS® methodology. The map becomes the gateway to the content. Visitors explore it freely, choosing first a theme, then a more specific area and finally a precise location, each linked to videos and in-depth material.
The model was validated in the field at the Civic Naturalistic Museum of the Prenestini Mountains in Capranica Prenestina, where the installation is now in operation. Here Aria, a virtual naturalist, welcomes visitors and guides them through the territory, from Guadagnolo to its woods, springs and museum trails. Its modular structure allows the same framework to be adapted to other small historic towns, each with its own history and landscape.
References
PhD in Historical Sciences and Cultural Heritage, 38th cycle. Department of Linguistic-Literary, Historical-Philosophical and Legal Studies, University of Tuscia.
Programme coordinator: Prof. Patrizia Mania.
University supervisor: Prof. Luisa Carbone.
Company supervisor: Daniele Baldacci, Blue Cinema TV S.r.l.
Case study: Civic Naturalistic Museum of the Prenestini Mountains, Municipality of Capranica Prenestina.
