AncestARs

Description:

The AncestARs project is a Cultural heritage preservation project that seeks to digitize African cultural practices on the verge of disappearance using extended reality technologies like (AR, VR and MR). By leveraging Augmented Reality technology capabilities in social media applications, the AncestAR application enables the Makonde’s infamous facial and body arts and wood carving artworks to be relived and experienced in unprecedented ways. These effects are a representation of the Makonde tribe cultural experiences which were learnt through field research in the Mtwara region.

The AncestARs project seek to preserve the intangible cultural heritage of the Makonde tribe using Extended Reality technology.

About the Makonde:

Makonde tribe is an Ethnic group in South-East Tanzania, Northern Mozambique and Kenya. They are famous for Wood carving, primarily made of Blackwood( Mpingo), Facial Scarification and mouth piercing (Ndonya) and their observances of puberty rites (jando na Unyago).

Behind the Scene:

I worked as an Onastories team member, collaborating with the Tanzania National Museum on this cultural preservation project. Our project lead was Tulanana Bohela. In this project, I contributed by creating a VR tour of a traditional Makonde house using WeboBook, and helped clean and enhance 3D-scanned sculptures and facial masks of the Makonde tribe in Blender, using scans provided by MagiScan-3D.

Tool:

Blender, WeboBook, MagiScan-3D

Duration:

October 2023.