SOPHIATOWN IS GONE

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There is no cultural heritage site that isn’t in some sense lost, dealing with cultural heritage is fundamentally an exercise in working with objects and places that have changed form and carry the weight of past lives. Many researchers have noted the potential of VR to preserve and communicate cultural heritage. Yet the current literature on reconstructing cultural heritage in virtual reality does not clearly state the hurdles of reconstructing aspects of cultural heritage that could be considered lost.

 

This research aims to set technical, ethical and methodological standards for the reconstruction of tangible and intangible cultural heritage that have been lost, meaning that the original tangible heritage is no longer existing or that the original practices of intangible heritage are no longer being practiced. The research aims to reconstruct the lost neighbourhood of Sophiatown in Johannesburg, South Africa in VR, and will use this precedent as a way of testing and implementing the methodology proposed by this research. Proposed methodologies will look at reconstructing lost heritage when drawing on multiple sources (oral, photographic etc) as well as varying levels of documentation (well documented to scant documentation).