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By Atiyyah Khan
Innovative ways of thinking around heritage interpretation and presentation were explored at the World Heritage Futures Lab hosted in January this year in Windhoek. Eager participants from Southern and Eastern Africa joined for a 3-day laboratory highlighting UNESCO heritage sites.
Community members from each region were paired up in teams with creative technologists to brainstorm ideas for each site. Some of these participants shared reflections of their experience during the lab.
Victoria Falls (Zambia And Zimbabwe)
Lusaka-based Lipe Kabanze is deeply passionate about environmental preservation and cultural heritage. She was encouraged to apply for the lab by her former supervisor from the Zambia Commission for UNESCO where she previously interned. Her work represents the heritage site Victoria Falls, indigenously known as Shungu Namutitima (the smoke that thunders).
For Kabanze, “The lab was nothing short of amazing. I got to learn and understand technology that never crossed my mind. For example, I was part of an archaeological excavation at Gorge-24 at the Victoria Falls and the purpose was to determine where the Zambezi river once flowed.” The lab provided her with insights on how XR can be used to recreate the river and understand the community that settled there hundreds of years ago.
She believes XR is an important means of storytelling for the site because it enables inclusivity. There are many people living with disabilities who are limited by how much they can experience Victoria Falls and she says, “XR is a means to give them a full experience of the site.” The impact of having XR experiences at Victoria Falls could enable a deep sense of how, “to protect and preserve. We believe that once people have seen, experienced and appreciated the significance of the site, it will breed a sense of responsibility and a sense to preserve and protect for the generations to come.”
Kabanze’s lab team-mate was data scientist and entrepreneur Lord Joshua Mill, from London but based in Lusaka. He says, “The lab was an amazing experience because it taught me a lot about African culture and heritage, as I’m not fully acquainted with that.” Mills adds that he enjoyed interacting with the participants too who shared stories based on their cultures and traditions and says, “It was a big learning experience for me and I loved every bit of it.”
The team imagined their project as being the voice of the Leya people who are indigenous to Victoria Falls. “Their culture, history and place of worship might be taken away because of the modernisation that’s going on at Victoria Falls,” says Mill. Their project is based on creating awareness of the Leya’s existence and the importance of protecting their heritage and their home.
The main usage of XR would be so that people can “step into the footprints of the Leya people that live at the Victoria Falls, without them actually having to be in Livingstone,” says Mill.
The team’s dream is to create an exhibition over three days that people will attend. The audience’s journey will begin from home with short film documentaries and various 360 video footage that they can explore on their mobile phones through YouTube 360 and Vimeo, or if they have access to a VR headset. From there, attend the exhibition, which will have the full immersion of XR-experience installations with the final phase being a physical visit to Victoria Falls engaging with the Leya people
Lamu Old Town (Kenya)
Agnes Ndegwa is a VR content creator and 3D artist based in Nairobi, Kenya. Her work in this field spans 10 years and recently she has been engaged with storytelling through virtual reality. She heard of the lab when working in an XR programme with Electric South, around telling stories with social impact.
Ndegwa found the experience of the lab “insightful”. She says she got to meet people from different cultures, doing work in their respective fields all brought together by a common interest. “Hearing other people’s takes on their historical sites was very informative and eye opening. The experience gave me a different perspective on the things I could do to help bring awareness on all of those aspects. “
Interacting with participants and advisors, “made me value what I can do as a creative technologist and the opportunities it offers, especially when it comes to working with people from different backgrounds” she says.
Ndegwa’s work represents the Lamu Old Town heritage site in Kenya. Her interest is to bring awareness and understanding of the rich culture and history of the town through the use of VR and AR. “I plan on using technology to bring a wider audience to view the story of the town of Lamu and its people.” For her, “there is nothing more inspiring than getting to offer knowledge on such a vast subject and getting people to see and experience it for themselves. I want to bring communities together to see the value in preserving their heritage and what it means to them in the future.”
In her opinion, XR is one of the best ways to approach telling unique stories of the site as it offers a more interactive experience. “Lamu old town is a historical site and a beautiful tourist attraction. Though the pandemic hugely affected the decline of the site, I feel using XR to offer a platform for people to view is a good way to spread knowledge on the rich history, and culture the place holds.” An installation of this kind of XR experience, she believes, could help boost tourism and highlight the importance of preserving history and culture, “and the influence they still have on our daily lives from religion to simple house architecture. XR provides a more accessible way for people to learn about each place on the site from the comfort of their own homes.”
Her partner on the project was Abutwalib Mohamed, whose background is in the field of the built environment and works with community participation in heritage protection within the Lamu Old Town. He was nominated by the site manager to take part in the lab due to his active role as a volunteer at the site.
The lab exposed him to different cultures from Africa. “I got to learn about the vast cultural practices in the represented heritage sites; how youth and women are involved in the conservation and propagation of their own culture and traditions and most importantly, that regardless of artificial intelligence being among modern technology, it can be constructively used to restore, preserve and revitalize the lost cultural story in the heritage sites.”
Mohamed says, “The damages that Covid-19 brought to the site led to a great impact in the increase of cultural dilution and a struggling tourism sector. I think it is time to spread the story of our site by developing a virtual tour of the site.
He believes that the use of XR will “rejuvenate the documenting of the site in a new story that never existed before. It shall revive the lost stories that were not told and those stories that are about to be forgotten and they can be documented using modern technologies.” If XR should be installed at their site, Mohamed believes it will impact the transfer of knowledge on cultural and heritage training while also rejuvenating traditional practices and cultural involvements by youth and women.
Island of Mozambique (Mozambique)
Filipe Alage is a heritage activist based on the Island of Mozambique since 2018. Currently he works as a development technician of the Mertola Heritage Defense Association.
Alage represents the Island of Mozambique world heritage site and his interest is “to find ways to conserve and promote the site developing project that can contribute to the well-being of the local community.”
At the lab, he had the opportunity to understand more about “technology and its potential to conserve and promote heritage. I learnt particularly about immersive technologies like VR and AR,” which was deeply informative for him.
He believes XR is important because it “can provide new tools for conservation; new ways to explore the site in different ways and can create new narratives about the site and its value. So, it’s a very important tool.”
By listening to all these stories shared by the participants, it is clear that the lab was vital to their knowledge development and highlighted the importance of how digital technologies can aid in the interpretation of heritage and the roles they can play in telling those stories.