CONCEPTUALISING VIRTUAL REALITY EXPERIENCES FOR THE DIFFICULT HERITAGE AS THANATECHNOLOGIES
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.55877/kkmp.2026.1.622Atslēgvārdi:
difficult heritage, virtual reality, thanatechnologiesKopsavilkums
While virtual reality (VR) has increasingly been adopted in heritage practices, particularly for immersive storytelling and memory mediation, little attention has been given to its conceptual use for difficult heritage. This type of cultural heritage, marked by trauma, conflict, human suffering, and contested narratives, presents distinct challenges for digital mediation. VR experiences risk oversimplifying trauma related to difficult heritage through gamification, trivialization, or ethically ambiguous first-person perspectives. Despite growing interest in immersive technologies, such as VR, the heritage field still lacks a consistent conceptual framework to address these tensions. By contextualizing how difficult heritage has been brought into VR, the article delineates the challenges of current practices and ultimately calls for a framework more attuned to representing difficult heritage in immersive formats. Drawing on examples like “Anne Frank House VR”, “Lipke VR bunker”, and “Nobody’s Listening”, the author of this article proposes that framing such VR experiences as thanatechnologies – a term coined by Carla Sofka [1997] and drawn from thanatology or death studies – offers a more ethical conceptual lens. Thanatechnologies emphasize ethically grounded, thanasensitive or death-sensitive design that respects the affective, historical, and mnemonic weight of the past, thus creating more responsible digital forms of remembrance. Furthermore, by positioning VR not only as a tool of simulation but as a medium of mourning, the article contributes to a broader conceptual framework for immersive difficult heritage practices.
Lejupielādes
References
Addison, A. C. (2001). Virtual heritage: technology in the service of culture. IEEE Conference on Visual Analytics Science and Technology.
Anne Frank House (2019). Renewed VR tour of Anne Frank’s Secret Annex. Pieejams: https://www.annefrank.org/en/about-us/news-and-press/news/2019/7/4/renewed-vr-tour-an-ne-franks-secret-annex/ (skatīts 30.04.2025.).
Arora, G. (2017). Gabo Arora: How Can VR Promote Social Causes? Paris: Paris Virtual Film Festival, Le Forum des images.
Assmann, A. (2011). Cultural Memory and Western Civilization: Functions, Media, Archives.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Bryman, A. (1999). The Disneyization of Society. The Sociological Review, 47 (1), pp. 25–47. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-954X.00161
Champion, E. (2011). Playing with the Past. Springer.
European Commission (2021). Recommendation on a common European data space for cul-tural heritage. Brussels: European Commission.
Fassi, F., Mandelli, A., Teruggi, S., Rechichi, F., Fiorillo, F., Achille, C. (2016). VR for Cultural Heritage. In: L. De Paolis, A. Mongelli (eds.). Augmented Reality, Virtual
Reality, and Computer Graphics. AVR 2016. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Vol. 9769. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-40651-0_12
Fivush, R. (2011). The development of autobiographical memory. Annual Review of Psychology, 62, 559–582. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.121208.131702
Harrill, J. (2003). Researchers turn to virtual reality to treat 9/11 post traumatic stress. Pieejams: https://www.washington.edu/news/2003/09/09/researchers-turn-to-virtual-reality-to-treat-911-post-traumatic-stress/ (skatīts 02.05.2025.).
Hoskins, A. (2003). Signs of the Holocaust: Exhibiting memory in a mediated age. Media, Culture & Society, 25 (1), pp. 7–22. https://doi.org/10.1177/0163443703025001631
Kansteiner, W. (2017). Transnational Holocaust Memory, Digital Culture and the End of Reception Studies. In: T. S. Andersen, B. Törnquist-Plewa (eds.). The Twentieth Century in European Memory: Transcultural Mediation and Reception. Leiden, Boston: Brill,
pp. 305–344.
Kazlauskaitė, R. (2023). Virtual reality as a technology of memory: Immersive presence in Polish politics of memory. Memory, Mind & Media, 2, e7. https://doi.org/10.1017/mem.2023.9
Kraft, A. (2015). 8:46. Pieejams: https://archive.org/details/8-46_20201217/1366_2000.jpg (skatīts 02.05.2025.).
Kramer, A. E. (2020). Ukraine Holocaust Memorial Project Provokes Debate. The New York Times. Pieejams: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/11/world/europe/ukraine-holo-caust-babyn-yar.html (skatīts 05.05.2025.).
Macdonald, S. (2009). Difficult Heritage: Negotiating the Nazi Past in Nuremberg and Beyond. London, New York: Routledge.
Madary, M., Metzinger, T. K. (2016). Real virtuality: A code of ethical conduct. Recommendations for good scientific practice and the consumers of VR-technology. Frontiers in Robotics and AI, 3. https://doi.org/10.3389/frobt.2016.00003
Massimi, M. (2012). Thanatosensitively designed technologies for bereavement support (Doctoral dissertation, University of Toronto). University of Toronto TSpace Repository.
Milgram, P., Kishino, F. (1994). A taxonomy of mixed reality visual displays. IEICE TRANSACTIONS on Information and Systems, 77 (12), pp. 1321–1329.
Nisiotis, L., Souropetsis, M., Kyza, E. A. (2023). Embracing Cultural Heritage Through Virtual Reality: Development, Usability and Enjoyment Evaluation of a VR Environment for the Church of Panagia Aggeloktisti. In: L. T. de Paolis, P. Arpaia,
M. Sacco (eds.). Extended Reality, Vol. 14219. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-43404-4_15
Oren, G., Shani, A. (2012) The Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum: educational dark tourism in a futuristic form. Journal of Heritage Tourism, 7 (3), pp. 255–270. https://doi.org/10.1080/1743873X.2012.701630
Özdemir, V., Springer, S., Yıldırım, A., Biçer, Ş., Kendirci, A., et al. (2021). Thanatechnology and the Living Dead: New Concepts in Digital Transformation and Human-Computer Interaction. OMICS: A Journal of Integrative Biology; 25 (7), pp. 401–407.
O’Connor, S., Colreavy-Donnelly, S., Dunwell, I. (2020). Fostering engagement with cultu-ral heritage through immersive VR and gamification. In: F. Liarokapis, A. Voulodimos,
N. Doulamis, A. Doulamis (eds.). Visual Computing for Cultural Heritage. Springer Series on Cultural Computing. Springer Cham, pp. 301–321. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-37191-3_16
Ritzer, G. (1993). The McDonaldization of Society. Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press.
Sangamuang, S., Wongwan, N., Intawong, K., Khanchai, S., Puritat, K. (2025). Gamification in Virtual Reality Museums: Effects on Hedonic and Eudaimonic Experiences in Cultural Heritage Learning. Informatics, 12 (1), p. 27. https://doi.org/10.3390/informatics12010027
Sofka, C. (2010). History and Healing: Museums as Healing Spaces. The International Journal of the Inclusive Museum, 2 (4), pp. 79–90. https://doi.org/10.18848/1835-2014/CGP/v02i04/44291
Sofka C. (1997). Social support “Internetworks,” Caskets for sale, and more: Thanatology and the information superhigh-way. Death Studies, 21 (6), pp. 553–574. https://doi.org/10.1080/074811897201778
Stone, R., Ojika, T. (2000). Virtual heritage: What next? IEEE MultiMedia, 7 (2), pp. 73–74. https://doi.org/10.1109/93.848434
Stublić, H., Samovojska, R. (2018). Introduction Into Difficult Heritage Commodification Issues. Studia Ethnologica Croatica, 30 (1), pp. 294–294. https://doi.org/10.17234/SEC.30.9
Sturken, M. (2008). Memory, consumerism and media: Reflections on the emergence of the field. Memory Studies, 1 (1), 73–78. https://doi.org/10.1177/1750698007083890
Stylianou-Lambert, T., Bounia, A., Heraclidou, A. (eds.). (2022). Emerging Technologies and Museums: Mediating Difficult Heritage. Berghahn Books.
Sweeting, J. (2019). Authenticity: Depicting the Past in Historical Videogames. Transtechnology Research Reader 2018.
Thomas, S. E., Herva, V.-P., Seitsonen, O., Koskinen-Koivisto, E. (2019). Dark Heritage. In: C. Smith (ed.). Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology (Living Edition ed.). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51726-1_3197-1
Tunbridge, J. E., Ashworth, G. J. (1996). Dissonant heritage: The management of the past as a resource in conflict. John Wiley.
UNESCO Office for Iraq (2015). UNESCO’s action in Iraq since 2003. World Heritage Review, Special issue, pp. 8–11.
Uzzell, D., Ballantyne, R. (1998). Heritage that hurts: interpretation in a post-modern world. In: D. Uzzel, R. Ballantyne (eds.). Contemporary Issues in Heritage and Environmental Interpretation: Problems and Prospects. Norwich, UK: The Stationary Office, pp. 152–171.
Van House, N., Churchill, E. F. (2008). Technologies of memory: Key issues and critical perspectives. Memory Studies, 1 (3), pp. 295–310. https://doi.org/10.1177/1750698008093795
VR Voyaging (2023). Nobody’s Listening: The Forgotten Voices of Sinjar. Pieejams: https://www.vrvoyaging.com/nobodys-listening-the-forgotten-voices-of-sinjar/ (ska-tīts 30.04.2025.).
Wright, D. W. M. (2020). Immersive dark tourism experiences: Storytelling at dark tou-rism attractions in the age of ‘the immersive death’. In: J. K. Jacobsen (ed.). The age of spectacular death. Routledge, pp. 89–109.
Žaņa Lipkes memoriāls (b. d.). Kolekcija. Pieejams: https://lipke.lv/muzejs/krajums/#pid=6 (skatīts 30.04.2025.).
Downloads
Publicēts
Žurnāla numurs
Sadaļa
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Krustpunkti: kultūras un mākslas pētījumi
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
