Development of VR Application for cultural heritage preservation and re-curation

Abstract

This dissertation presents the development of an interactive Virtual Reality (VR) application that explores the education potential of this technology in promoting the cultural heritage, Panorama of Congo. The developed application aims to preserve, and educate, through re-curation and decolonization, this colonial heritage for future generations in an immersive, engaging and interactive way. The project implementation features the collaboration of five artists from Congo and Congolese Diaspora in the form of interactive artistic installations within the virtual world, bringing a new narrative to the panorama colonial history. The development of the application was divided into three prototypes, testing the usability and user satisfaction with the use of questionnaires and playtesting in museum exhibitions. The final version of the application was presented to the public in the National Museum of Natural History and Science in Lisbon for 3 months. The contribution of this dissertation is the development of a platform that serves as a template for the preservation, re-curation and education of cultural heritages, such as Panoramas, to the public through museum exhibitions.