Digital Storytelling.

The innovation of the Digital Storytelling project is in the integration of immersive virtual reality simulations of former Mission sites, with the digital storytelling narratives and augmented reality data overlays. Survivors stories are able to be accessed while the ‘viewer’ is immersed in an interactive ‘virtual’ environment, simulating the place of significance in which the described events occurred. This project goes beyond others of its kind through the use of architectural modelling software that can create highly detailed renderings of focus environments, which are then imbedded with digital narratives recorded in the voices of those who were there.

In the future this model can be additionally layered with supplementary data such as documents relating to policy, official directives, personal correspondence and archival photographs through an augmented display, to further evidence the history of this place. Many former mission sites seeing the rapid deterioration and loss of many significant buildings over time. Modelling projects such as this, can serve a historic archive of place, a growing repository for oral history and personal narratives documenting the times, places and people who are fading from current collective memory.

Whether used as an introspective healing tool for the Survivors and their communities or more broadly as an educational asset and historical archive, this project has the potential to keep significant oral stories connected to place alive for generations to come through the innovative use of modern technologies and a transdisciplinary approach to research.

Image Credit: Keith Bodman