Abstract
Cartography and architecture are official channels that facilitate remembrance in Ho Chi Minh City. Maps and buildings serve as sites for actors of memory to manipulate the city's narratives and shape its collective identity. Power enables the production of space and knowledge through sites of memory. The ruling regimes of Ho Chi Minh City have leveraged control over the natural environment and the local population to create new forms of materials that propagate their ideologies and ideals for the city. Alterations to the natural and built environments in the city legitimize the authorities' official narratives for its history and future developments. This project explores the context and subtext of urban memory and its formation, using critical augmented reality to visualize the sites of memory. The design of the supplementary augmented reality application takes into consideration the computational theory behind the technology and the development tools for digital historical narratives. In addition, as this study investigates the complicity of science in promoting colonialism, imperialism, nationalism and uninformed nostalgia within the urban setting, it also critiques the use of a new form of technology, augmented reality, in memory formation and other historical processes. Augmented reality offers unprecedented potentials for history and other disciplines thanks to its accessibility and performance; however, the pitfalls of technology require developers and users to remain aware of the implications and assumptions behind each design.
Advisor
Byrnes, Denise
Second Advisor
Ng, Margaret Wee Siang
Department
Computer Science; History
Recommended Citation
Dinh, Thuy, "Remembering the City: An Augmented Reality Reconstruction of Memory, Power, and Identity in Ho Chi Minh City through Cartography & Architecture" (2020). Senior Independent Study Theses. Paper 9032.
https://openworks.wooster.edu/independentstudy/9032
Disciplines
Architecture | Asian History | Computer Sciences | Graphics and Human Computer Interfaces | Historic Preservation and Conservation | History | Landscape Architecture | Urban, Community and Regional Planning
Keywords
architecture, cartography, memory, Ho Chi Minh City, augmented reality, power, identity, urban memory, feature detection, vuforia
Publication Date
2020
Degree Granted
Bachelor of Arts
Document Type
Senior Independent Study Thesis Exemplar
Included in
Asian History Commons, Graphics and Human Computer Interfaces Commons, Historic Preservation and Conservation Commons, Landscape Architecture Commons, Urban, Community and Regional Planning Commons
© Copyright 2020 Thuy Dinh