'Hidden in Plain Site' VR experience uncovers local stories - VPM News

For a deeper look astatine showcasing the voices of Black American descendants, watch VPM News Focal Point at 8:00 p.m. Thursday.

J. Dontrese Brown, laminitis of selling bureau BROWNBAYLOR, considers himself a past lover. But his passionateness for past is recent, rooted successful the request to cognize much astir his ain past and a tendency to guarantee his bequest impacts however past is told successful the future.

Hidden successful Plain Site is simply a web-based level that educates the nationalist done a communicative of ocular mentation — from humanities photos to their existent spot successful the world. Created by Brown, Dean Browell and David Waltenbaugh, the partnership’s absorption is to assistance usage virtual world to enactment users successful idiosyncratic else’s shoes and alteration their narration with the stories each around.

“What we bash is, we cod archival images and past we usage virtual reality, movie and video and exertion to orient an idiosyncratic wherever they are,” Brown said, “and past transitioning that constituent of wherever they are, to a humanities constituent successful history.”

After the execution of George Floyd successful 2020, Brown said they wanted to adhd to a societal justness communicative from a antithetic perspective.

“I realized [that] successful the metropolis of Richmond, there's a batch of stories present that aren't being told by the civilization that needs to archer them," Brown said. “So, we focused connected lifting those voices erstwhile we started to place what we wanted to do. As we started to bash that, we started to recognize however important that is for immoderate historically underrepresented group.”

As of now, HiPS is disposable successful Richmond. There is besides an effort underway to make the acquisition disposable successful Roanoke.

In Roanoke, Brown said HiPS plans to absorption connected sites that are important to the Black experience, including a Black vicinity “they wholly destroyed” to physique a civic halfway and the recreation center, Dreamland, which was the lone recreation halfway for Black Americans successful its time. According to Brown, “We're going to speech astir Henrietta Lacks. We're going to speech astir the Borough Memorial Hospital, which was the archetypal achromatic infirmary for Black Americans successful Roanoke. We're going to speech astir the Old Lick cemetery, which was destroyed to person an interstate tally through.”

Brown said he’s seen the interaction of HiPS firsthand, erstwhile radical who spell done the virtual world acquisition go affectional and reminisce astir the past.

“Once individuals commencement to recognize the existent history, down either their civilization oregon immoderate different historically underrepresented culture, past we recognize that determination is an accidental for america to usage that past to assistance those voices. But past arsenic a society, arsenic a community, arsenic a country, [we can] travel unneurotic and commencement to determination guardant into creating a much equitable spot for everyone,” Brown said.