Imaging Place


Imaging Place, is a place-based, virtual reality art project. Since September of 2006 the Imaging Place is being implementing in Second Life. It takes the form of a user navigated, interactive computer program that combines panoramic photography, digital video, and three-dimensional technologies to investigate and document situations where the forces of globalization are impacting the lives of individuals in local communities. The goal of the project is to develop the technologies, the methodology and the content for truly immersive and navigable narrative, based in real places. Imaging Place is therefore experienced as a process of navigation and excavation, allowing the user to uncover many layers of history and meaning. Imaging Place documents sites of cultural significance that for political, social, economic, or environmental reasons are contested, undergoing substantial changes, or are at risk of destruction. This includes historic sites as well as sites of living culture that are being displaced by globalization. The project also seeks to expand the notion of documentary by exploring how place is internalized, mapping place as a state of mind.