Use 3-Dimensional digital models and virtual environments to immerse the public in an artifact's historical context.
Learn MoreCreate a site to house relevant public information on the artifact, including chain-of-custody and historical or cultural relevance.
Learn MoreCollaborate with you to accurately represent and understand the complex cultural meanings tied to the artifact and its environment.
Learn MoreAfter repatriation, maintain and update these services to aid in public education and understanding, helping to ensure a cooperative future.
Learn MoreHave you ever walked into a museum and had your jaw drop to the floor in bewilderment when you see the vast array of displays, artifacts, replicas and dioramas? There’s a visceral feeling associated with being confronted with the most extravagant parts of another culture. But what if we could immerse the museum goer in the historical context to which these historical artifacts belonged? Here at Virtual Origins ©, brought to you by Serious Anthropology ©, we strive to return these and other artifacts to their original cultural context by integrating 3D models into a digitally constructed environment. By recreating the environment and landscape the artifacts would have been attached to at their time of creation, we hope that the viewer and public at large will see that these artifacts belong with the descendants of their creators, not locked behind a glass display or gathering dust in a basement.
You may find yourself asking how this is possible. See below as we outline our six step program to create a realistic and immersive experience for engaging with the artifact in question.
Through the use of a digital environment and interactivity we can recontextualize these artifacts, and allow the public to see them as more than just objects behind a set of glass, or as a miniature replica when the real thing is locked away in a basement. Through multisensory displays, including interactive tactile, visual and auditory environments, the public can immerse themselves in the reality of the artifact in question, which would not only be educational, but can instill a sense of involvement and empathy that cannot be found from the other side of a glass window. These virtual sandboxes will aid in garnering public support for the repatriation of the artifacts in question, and can be installed as permanent displays once the artifact has been repatriated, allowing the public to still enjoy, on a much more interactive level, the cultures and beliefs held by the artifact’s original creators.
These displays can range in the level of exposure the participant has to the artifact’s original context. In the interest of protecting sensitive cultural information, but still providing an interactive experience to aid in repatriation, the simulation can be limited to the artifact’s original environment, digital and real world artifact replicas for tactile immersion, and an auditory soundtrack composed to invoke the visceral feeling encountered through observing the beauty of a different culture. This immersive experience would disregard any cultural or spiritual significance the artifact has, although these could be simulated using visual effects if it remains culturally sensitive and non-detrimental. Through visual and tactile engagement alone we can provide an immersive experience not readily available to the average museum-goer. Through these engagements, we at Virtual Origins will promote the repatriation of your artifacts by working museums and private collectors to show them the context in which the artifacts they have on display truly belong.
