Funded by a National Geographic Society grant, I built the immersive series of VR experiences below with my partner Devlin Gandy. Drag the frames of the videos below as they play to see each scene in 360 video. In each you will hear elders from the Zuni, Hopi, and Jemez Pueblos guide you through these remote sacred sits in Bears Ears National Monument in Utah. Part of the Nov 2018 Cover story in National Geographic Magazine about the fight for public lands this project won the Webby Award for Best Interactive Design in 2019. The core of each video is a photogrammetry model made from thousands of images stitched together into a millimeter accurate virtual model that can be used by archaeologists and conservationists to help study and preserve these unique cultural heritage sites.
ON DESKTOP PRESS PLAY AND USE YOUR MOUSE OR TRACK PAD TO SCROLL AROUND THE 360 SCENE.
SACRED KIVA, BEARS EARS
CLIFF-SIDE GRANARIES, BEARS EARS
PUEBLO VILLAGE, BEARS EARSPHOTOGRAMMETRY MODELS
The models below, built with Devlin Gandy between 2017-2022 are just a few of the 100+ of cultural heritage sites and objects that were scanned to build immersive exhibitions and teaching tools. All will eventually be linked to narration from Indigenous elders, archaeologists, and medicine people.
AUGMENTED REALITY
The National Geographic Society grant also funded the creation of a series of AR activated experiences that used pages of the 2018 cover story to trigger interactive models of the sites pictured in the story.
