The Virtual Reality (VR) Witness Blanket Project

虚拟现实目击者毯子项目的目标不仅是创建逼真的物理设施模拟，而且以其他方式不可能的方式增强物理设施及其要素，以促进认识、和解和治愈。见证者毯子由艺术家凯里·纽曼创作，由来自加拿大77个社区的800多件个人文物组成：每个文物和见证者毯子作为一个整体站在一起，无声地见证了印第安人居住学校时代(IRSE)的暴行。除了参观温尼伯的加拿大人权博物馆(CMHR)外，目前观看证人毯子的途径包括访问见证人网站、下载iOS应用程序或参观由全尺寸打印输出组成的旅行复制品之一。与这些替代方案不同，虚拟现实体验将忠实地复制证人毯子的令人印象深刻的存在和情感影响，同时也通过用户互动和基于凯里·纽曼的书《拾起碎片：住宅学校记忆和证人毯子的制作》中的主题的巧妙指导的叙事，为这些沉默的证人提供声音。在文化遗产，特别是有争议的遗产的背景下使用虚拟现实，“有能力通过吸引用户的注意力来扩大其影响用户的能力，这是多媒体VR系统的基本功能，旨在以更丰富、更身临其境和更有效的方式传输历史信息。”书名/作者声明：Reach of[Chong，H.T.，Lim，C.K.，Rafi，A.et al.关于虚拟现实促进文化遗产实践的全面系统审查：连贯的分类和动机。多媒体系统(2021)]。然而，要达到这种程度的参与，需要对历史和文物、叙事和声音、声音和视觉、纹理和技术进行敏感的编织。作为见证毯子的共同管理者，凯里·纽曼、Camosun Innovates和加拿大人权博物馆寻求在数字分发平台上免费提供虚拟体验，最终目标是向加拿大各地的偏远土著社区提供必要的硬件，将见证毯子带回使之成为可能的社区，以便那些受影响最大的人可以见证我们共同历史的这座强大的纪念碑。

The objective of the Virtual Reality Witness Blanket Project is to create not only a true-to-life simulation of the physical installation, but to augment it and its elements in ways that would not otherwise be possible, to promote awareness, reconciliation, and healing. The Witness Blanket, created by artist Carey Newman, is comprised of more than 800 individual artifacts gathered from over seventy-seven communities across Canada: each artifact and the Witness Blanket as a whole stand as a silent witness to the atrocities of the Indian Residential School Era (IRSE). Beyond visiting the Canadian Museum for Human Rights (CMHR) in Winnipeg, current avenues to view the Witness Blanket include visiting the witnessblanket.ca website, downloading the iOS app, or visiting one of the travelling replicas comprised of full-scale printouts. Unlike these alternatives, a virtual reality experience will faithfully replicate the imposing presence and emotional impact of the Witness Blanket, while also affording a voice to each of these silent witnesses by virtue of both user interaction and subtly guided narratives based on themes from Carey Newman's book "Picking up the Pieces: Residential School Memories and the Making of the Witness Blanket." Working with virtual reality in a context of cultural heritage, especially a contested heritage, "has the power to extend its capabilities of influencing users by capturing their attention, which are essential functionalities in multimedia VR systems designed for transferring historical information in a more enriched, immersive, and effective manner." [Chong, H.T., Lim, C.K., Rafi, A. et al. Comprehensive systematic review on virtual reality for cultural heritage practices: coherent taxonomy and motivations. Multimedia Systems (2021)]. Achieving that level of engagement, however, requires a sensitive braiding of history and artifact, narrative and sound, voice and vision, texture and technology. As co-stewards of the Witness Blanket, Carey Newman, Camosun Innovates, and the Canadian Museum for Human Rights seek to make the virtual experience freely available on digital distribution platforms with the ultimate goal of providing the necessary hardware to remote Indigenous communities throughout Canada, bringing the Witness Blanket back to the communities who made it possible, so that those most effected may bear witness to this powerful monument to our shared history.