Mikhail Nikolaev

My project titled, “A Memory of a Fragile Archive” is an interactive audio visual installation showcasing 3D scanned models collected and uploaded from Ukraine. As an effort to preserve cultural objects and to document the ongoing war, some Ukrainian citizens have turned to photogrammetry and archiving to fight back against the Russian aggression in the region.

My installation aims to highlight some of these objects in both digital and physical form. I used a 3D realtime game engine to build an interactive scene populated with these objects.

I also 3D printed these digital artefacts to turn them back into a scaled physical version of themselves. These objects have been coated in conductive paint and turned into a custom interface, allowing the audience to actively participate and discover these objects for themselves.

My hope with this project was to create an all encompassing audio visual experience, which depicts both the destructive nature of war, and the hope that important cultural artefacts can still be preserved through digital technology. As the war with Russian still rages on, I hope to honour the people who are still fighting for their own survival, and the preservation of their culture.

I would like to thank the Polycam users akella, easytrap, louismovuitton and VladTiunov for their contributions to the archive, without which this project would not be possible.