Thirteenth International Conference on The Image

Abstract

Intangible cultural heritage is identified by UNESCO as the wholistic identity that includes the oral traditions, performing arts, social practises, rituals, festive events and crafts knowledge and practises or skills to produce. While re-enactment and creating surrogates of heritage artifacts was the way to preserve the tangible and intangible cultural heritage, the trend in its digitization is becoming more popular. Hence, the representation of middle eastern intangible cultural heritage is limited and stereotypical. This paper aims to illustrate how the digital image in the form of a designed virtual identity can aid in promoting the accurate intangible cultural heritage of the middle east through interacting in virtual realities such as the metaverse. This interaction would influence the existing stereotypical design of the Arab identities. The design process suggested would include trying to immerse the participant or viewer in the experience to engage with the design as part of their own virtual identity in the form of an avatar design. The ICH (intangible cultural heritage) item chosen is the Burqa, a face cover more relevant to female cultural expression and identity. The Burqa is common amongst tribal groups in the Middle East and functions more like a jewellery piece. As a design item, it is suggested to represent the Burqa in relation to each region by providing designs in avatars and captioning it accordingly or designing face filters on social media. Overall cases support that connections from the designs in these virtual realities influence users and prompt conversations on the design.