Every year the SJSU Library hosts Art of Remembrance, a celebration of Día de los metros (Day of the Dead). It is a large event that draws attendees from both the campus and local community, including a large number of students. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, I coordinated the development of a virtual reality environment in Fall of 2020 as a way to continue celebrating this tradition in the library. I co-curated the exhibition, specifically focusing on efforts to incorporate an SJSU Community Altar through partnerships with the SJSU Chicanx/Latinx Success Center and the Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies. Although we were all working and learning remotely due to the pandemic, I wanted to create an experience that students would remember, particularly those who were just starting their academic career during an unprecedented time. The virtual reality environment allowed them, and other SJSU community members, to participate by submitting photographs and descriptions which were incorporated into the virtual setting. The VR experience additionally gave visitors an opportunity to learn the meanings and history of this 3,000-year-old ritual.
Below is a demo of the virtual reality environment, which includes altars created using photogrammetry. Students, community members, and artists were provided instructions on how they can use their own smartphones to capture images, which were then used by our team to create the 3-D image. They were additionally invited to submit stories related to individual pieces and/or altars, which were recorded by the SJSU team and included in the exhibit.
To assists users in navigating the environment, we created a virtual hummingbird to serve as the guide within the exhibition. The hummingbird is a symbolic figure within Día de los muertos, and guided visitors to each altar where they could interact with the prerecorded messages that described items included on the altars.
Michael J Aguilar 