Shaping the Future Use of VR, AR and Computer Games in Holocaust Memory

Cover images for recommendation guidelines on virtualising Holocaust memoryscapes and using computer games and play in Holocaust mrmory and education.

by Dr Victoria Grace Walden

As more Holocaust institutions feel emboldened to incorporate digital media into their practices, it is increasingly urgent that there are clear guidelines to help shape their thinking.

In response to this urgency, the new Landecker Digital Memory Lab has launched the final two recommendation reports offering guidelines for a more sustainable approach to using virtual and augmented reality, and computer games for Holocaust memory and education.

The latest reports mark the completion of the set, which broadly looked at digital interventions in Holocaust memory and education (read the other recommendations here, which cover AI and machine learning, digitising material evidence, social media and digitally recording, recirculating and remixing Holocaust testimony).

The reports ask provocative questions of those responsible for the future of Holocaust memory: major tech companies, policymakers, academia, and Holocaust museums, memorials and archives.

Key recommendations from the two latest reports, ‘Virtualising Holocaust Memoryscapes’ and ‘Gaming and Play’ include:

  • conduct thorough research into the impact of digital Holocaust projects
  • establish technology working groups to help propel development in this field
  • create spaces to share knowledge and ideas
  • provide training and support for interdisciplinary exchange
  • rethink the design process of digital Holocaust memory projects
  • re-evaluate funding models
  • create a people or skills directory to enable collaboration
  • develop a non-profit streaming platform dedicated to Holocaust-related games  

If you think you could get involved in putting these recommendations into practice, get in touch.

Alongside the new reports we’ve also published a revised action plan, which is informing the objectives of the Landecker Digital Memory Lab, launched here at the University of Sussex. We’ll report on the building of the lab in future blogs.

The launch of the two newest reports marks the end of this two-year co-creation project. They form part of a raft of plans to make sure that the lab’s objectives are informed by what is needed within the sector, rather than imposing needs onto Holocaust organisations for the sake of research.

The team at Sussex wishes to thank all of the project partners:  The University of BerniRights.Lab, GermanyThe Centre of Life Writing and Life History, University of SussexThe Hebrew UniversityFuture Memory Foundation; and the Historical Games Network; the funders: Economic and Social Research Council, School of Media, Arts and Humanities, and the Alfred Landecker Foundation, as well as the Higher Education Innovation Fund which supported some of the pilot activities that addressed actions raised in the reports; and of course all of the workshop participants, without whom there would be no content to these reports.

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Published by Victoria Grace Walden

Professor of Digital Memory, Culture and Heritage at the University of Sussex. Dr Richardson-Walden is Director of the Landecker Digital Memory Lab and Deputy Director of the Sussex Weidenfeld Institute of Jewish Studies. She has written extensively about digital interventions in Holocaust and genocide memory. She is author of 'Cinematic Intermedialities and Contemporary Holocaust Memory', and editor of 'Digital Holocaust Memory, Education and Research' and 'The Memorial Museum in the Digital Age'. She is also currently Co-I on an XR project based in Hungary, 'If These Streets Could Talk' and the Swedish research project 'Holocaust Contestation and Commemoration on Social Media'. Her recent projects include: PI on the ESRC-funded 'Co-creating Recommendations for Digital Interventions in Holocaust Memory and Education', the HEIF-funded 'Dealing with Difficult Heritage', and the British Academy-funded 'Digital Holocaust Memory: Hyperconnective Museums and Archives of the Future'. She has served as an advisor or consultancy for numerous organisations, including the Imperial War Museums, the United Nations and UNESCO, and the Claims Conference.

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