The Workshop
The Future through Memory participatory (remote) workshop was held from October 21 until December 2nd, 2020 with 15 core individuals over the seven-week span. The workshop covered an introduction to photogrammetry and A-Frame and was a space for individuals to share their creations and discuss their relationship to Toronto’s Chinatown, their memories and also questions about the community.
Participants to the workshop were invited through email correspondence as well as open call through social media. Participants to the workshop did not require any prior knowledge in 3D scanning, interactive documentary, or coding to take part. Individuals were not required to attend the whole workshop and were free to withdraw at any time.
Participants were active co-creators within the project and tasked with the creation and conceptualization of their memory space (‘site of memory’) based on Pierre Nora’s concept of les lieux de mémoire (1989). With their own digital device, co-creators could scan objects and places both indoors and outdoors and have it be rendered into a 3D photogrammetric model.
Participants were tasked with gathering items as part of their emotional toolkit, these items could be images, audio, video, and the creation of a 3D photogrammetric model of an object or location of their choice. Participants were provided with resources to free or discounted photogrammetric software that would allow them to develop their own scans at no or low cost. Participants that needed additional technical support could also contact myself to help guide them through the process or help assist them with rendering their objects based on their own photographs.
Workshops were also supported by optional physical meetings based on provincial-health guidelines to best support co-creators and to learn within a physical space together. These informal gatherings are also places to connect with individuals outside of the remote workshop framework and share our stories and expertise together. By the end of the seven-week, six-session workshop, participants of the workshop have a basic knowledge to conduct their own scans, had begun gathering their emotional toolkits (images, audio, video, and photogrammetric scans) and had an initial start to the formation of the memory space (‘site of memory’).
To allow individuals more time to work at their own pace, development of the memory spaces in WebVR continued past the workshop and allowed individuals to check-in through informal face-to-face meetings as well as remote meetings to troubleshoot together.
At the end of the workshop, development of the interactive documentary and communal archive began.