Sending a 3D laser scanner around the world enabling young people to tell their own heritage stories.

‘Your Scans. Your Stories. Your Heritage’ sends a 3D laser scanner on an amazing journey through the British Overseas Territories. This machine is used by groups of young people to capture 3D portraits, stories and spaces from across the globe. The journey reveals the commonalities and extraordinary differences in the everyday lives, livelihoods, environments, heritage, hopes and expectations from the unique perspectives of young people curating their own visions of some of the most politically contested lands under British sovereignty.

The resulting interactive experience is a set of online educational tools, geared towards A Level Geography teaching and specifically the syllabus section focused on the concept and importance of ‘place’.

Users enter into a collection of 3D scanned environments and audio testimony collected by our young participants. Selecting an individual’s story you are briefly guided through the scan of their chosen site, before taking control of the 3D navigation and exploring. Your experience is narrated by the young person who chose that place, collected that 3D scan and explains its importance to them.

Our ambitious prototype focuses on a series of young people’s stories from across the Falklands Islands. George tells controversial tales of sheep shearing and memorialising lost Argentine soldiers. Nikki explores the global makeup of the Falklands community and Kursha talks of taking on the family farm. We explore 3D scans of sheep mid shearing, fallen Argentine planes, the islands aerial taxi service and a former minefield.

Enabling young people to tell their own stories, and respecting the authenticity of these voices has been fundamental to the project at all stages. By placing such valuable, unique and emerging technology in the hands of young people the project provokes a new and genuine way of identifying digital heritage, sharing stories that would otherwise remain untold.

Lead organisation

ScanLAB Projects

Hardware

Web (ideally viewed on iPad)

Team

The young people of the Falkland Islands including Kimberly, George, Kursha, Marvis, Nicki, Jessica and Liam – directors, capture specialists, storytellers & narrators

Matthew Shaw – exec producer & creative director
Tom Brooks – computational designer
Pascal Wyse – sound design and edit
Dr Alasdair Pinkerton – academic collaborator
Angela Chan – project advisor