Patricia SEED | Magda EL ZARKI
(Univ. of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA, USA)
Keywords: virtual, augmented, immersie, historical, cultural
Abstract:
We began by visiting the site, the oldest surviving slave fort in Africa, St. George Elmina, on the coast of Ghana. The site’s historical significance lies in the large number of prominent African-Americans, including Michelle Obama and Oprah Winfrey, whose ancestors passed through its portals. During the initial site visit we documented the surviving exteriors through extensive photographs. We then set about creating a preliminary 3D model of the fort. During a second site visit, we sketched and took detailed photographs of the interior in order to allow us to complete the virtual 3D reconstruction. While this result was satisfactory, it was far from our goal, which was to immerse the viewers in a historical and cultural experience of this major world event. To achieve that goal, we decided to employ an interactive story line with animated historical figures and game play that would invite audiences of different ages and backgrounds to understand the nature of life in the historical slave castle and its surroundings. By overlaying the existing historical site with renderings of actual historical figures and cultural objects used during the slave trade, we have recreated the environment as it was two hundred years ago during the Dutch era. This includes narrating the lives of slaves and their communities through interactive folk tales and community rituals. We used Unity to create the immersive interactive environment and have added a 3D Oculus Rift experience. We believe that this immersive and interactive approach will make the site more accessible to, and engage a larger public audience.