Conclusion: A Reparative Framework for Immersive Preservation
This thesis has proposed a new model for cultural preservation—one that uses immersive technologies not as neutral tools of record, but as instruments of repair. Through 3D documentation, annotated spatial storytelling, and community-grounded collaboration, Daufuskie3D demonstrates that preservation can be participatory, situated, and guided by those whose cultural knowledge it seeks to uphold.
Focused on Daufuskie Island—a site of enduring Gullah Geechee presence and ongoing displacement—this work challenges dominant paradigms that privilege monumental architecture over vernacular life. It reframes preservation as a forward-facing act: not about fixing the past in place, but about protecting futures and honoring the lived knowledge embedded in Black space.
The central contribution of this thesis lies in its methodological fusion: combining mobile and professional-grade scanning technologies with relational protocols, narrative sovereignty, and theoretical grounding in Black geographies and techno-vernacular creativity. It introduces a new distinction between visualization and analysis tools, while emphasizing that the real stakes lie not in resolution, but in responsibility.
More than a digital archive, Daufuskie3D is a prototype for a reparative immersive practice—one that invites cultural institutions, planners, and technologists to reimagine who preservation is for, and what it must do in the wake of historical omission.
As environmental precarity and digital acceleration reshape the built environment, the urgency of community-centered, justice-oriented preservation grows. This thesis offers not an end point, but a beginning: an invitation to co-create practices that are accountable to the past, generative in the present, and emancipatory for the future.
Next Steps
1. Strengthening Institutional Partnerships:
A sustained collaboration with Tuskegee University will expand the educational and technical components of this project, including co-taught modules, field-based workshops, and return visits to Daufuskie Island. These trips will support both continued documentation and the development of Gullah-led cultural economy and preservation strategies.
2. Securing Long-Term Support and Stewardship:
The Daufuskie3D platform will serve as a public-facing proof of concept to engage funders, preservation networks, and cultural heritage institutions committed to ethical immersive practice. By sharing the work through exhibitions, presentations, and grant outreach, the goal is to secure ongoing support and build a sustainable ecosystem for Black-led digital preservation.
3. Launching Ground3D: A Cooperative Spatial Data Venture:
This summer, the core insights of this thesis will be advanced through Ground3D, a new social venture incubated in MIT’s Delta V accelerator. Directly inspired by this project, Ground3D explores cooperative data governance models for community-driven 3D documentation. The platform will support neighborhoods, cultural groups, and institutions seeking tools to document, interpret, and steward their environments on their own terms.
Together, these efforts continue the reparative vision of this thesis: to build systems that not only preserve culture, but return control to those whose memory, labor, and place-based knowledge have too often been left out of the archive.