While the COVID-19 makes the headlines for many newspapers around the world, Syria is still trying to recover from, adapt to, and accept the war that affected the country for so many years. The conflict has left many people without a home. Therefore, they share tents with other families, which makes them be more vulnerable in the face of the coronavirus. Hospitals and other health facilities have been destroyed by attacks and medics are persecuted by the government. With a poor medical network, decimated infrastructure, and people sharing the same living space, it is only a matter of time until the COVID-19 bomb drops. According to Vox, “An outbreak there would be hell.”

But let’s take our minds off the coronavirus news just for a second and focus on other issues that affected Syria. The Syrian Civil War is responsible for the damage of many historical buildings, including all six UNESCO World Heritage Sites in the country. There have been many attempts to revive their spirit, especially in the online environment because, in reality, this would be impossible. One of the campaigns that tried to resurrect them was made for UNESCO by agency Africa. Titled “History Blocks,” the campaign’s action takes place entirely inside Minecraft and allows students to learn more about these buildings while virtually admiring their endless beauty. The 2D experience represents an ingenious way to learn history.

With a similar idea in mind, ARTHELPS — a charity set up by artists and creatives who help those in need by using art — and German advertising agency Jung von Matt create a 3D adventure, in which you can actually immerse yourself in one of three Aleppo sites, before it being torn apart by war. Enter “Rebuilt From Memories,” a project that gives a new meaning to the Syrian history.

Made under the form of an experiment, nominated for the now-canceled Innovation Awards at SXSW 2020, the campaign features three destroyed Syrian sites that can now be virtually visited through a mobile VR experience. At the foundation of the project stand people’s memories and images taken from our generation’s biggest visual archive: Instagram.

“Only on Instagram could we find the data we needed: unique angles and moments of encounter – to create this view into a collective memory,” says Rico Noël, Creative Director at Jung von Matt/NECKAR.

Thomas Bedenk, Director of Immersive Media at Exozet adds: “We knew the source would pose certain challenges, such as low resolution, different lighting, misalignments or missing angles. The combination of Jung von Matt’s creative vision and our developers’ and artists’ experience, I am amazed by the results created out of such a variety of source pictures.”

The realistic experience was made possible thanks to the collaboration with Exozet, that was responsible with transforming the two-dimensional dataset into immersive 3D environments. Also, the Aleppo sites were crowdsourced via geotags in multiple languages, then resorted via deep learning and processed as a dataset for photogrammetry.

If the city of Aleppo will not come to you, then you must go to Aleppo. Even virtually.

Credits:

Client: ARTHELPS

Agency: Jung von Matt