Jeffrey Shaw develops cultural heritage visualisation
Shaw is currently Dean of the School of Creative Media at City University, Hong Kong. Shaw has developed what he calls “cultural heritage visualization”, a technique that he hopes will help preserve key sites around the world before the onslaught of mass tourism destroys them.
Shaw said his most important project to date is a collaboration with the Dunhuang Academy in Gansu Province, China. Dunhuang is in an oasis amid the Gobi desert and a former gateway to and from China on the ancient Silk Road.
The UNESCO World Heritage Site Shaw is working on is made up of 492 Buddhist grotto temples — or Mogaoku — which contain murals, statues and architectural monuments of enormous cultural and historical value. The material is presented in an interactive panoramic cinema known as AVIE (Advanced Visualization and Interaction Environment), which offers opportunities to experiment with virtual and augmented realities.