The War up Close Project – memorialization of destructions
Project
The War up Close Project unveils the details of the genocide against the Ukrainian nation to the global community using 360° panoramic photos, drone footage and 3D modelling. Our materials form a tangible evidence of Russia’s crimes and we hope they will help bring the aggressor to justice.
The project is initiated by experts from Discover.ua and FreegenGroup. Mykola Omelchenko, a photo journalist with years of experience and the first Google Trusted Photographer in Ukraine, has embarked on photo shooting for the War up Close.
Using state-of-the-art technologies, we capture the damage inflicted by the aggressor and put the photos on Google Maps, social media pages and the project website. For better immersing and more realistic experience we are planning to demonstrate the images of Russia’s crimes using VR goggles and immersive theatres. Besides, a number of virtual museums of war has been created in Kyiv, Chernihiv and Kharkiv regions in coordination with public agencies for tourism.
The War up Close Project team is in close cooperation with the State Emergency Service, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine. Our panoramic views and drone footages assist rescuers in debris removal and examining the actual scope of damage. We also specialise in 3D modelling of monuments and historic buildings.
Despite the dangers, we are capturing crimes against Ukraine and humanity for all the future generations to preserve the memory of this tragedy.
The VR Museum of War
The Discover team in coordination with the Kyiv Oblast State Administration has created the VR Museum of War to capture and demonstrate the consequences of Russia’s invasion. We are going to tell you how it was made possible.
Key stages of creation
The Virtual Museum of War has been created through the cooperation with the War up Close volunteer project and aims to convey the horrors that befell Kyiv city and region to the whole civilised world. The Discover team have gone through several stages to create the VR museum:
- Developing a detailed concept of the project, i.e. its general vision, idea and plan.
- Obtaining permits for photo and video shooting from competent public authorities and agencies.
- Conducting the shooting at great personal risk, as obtaining detailed footage often required us to come very close to destroyed and dangerous buildings.
- Designing and programming the VR museum section.
- Creating Google Street Views of the tours and adding them to Google Maps.
- Spreading the word about the museum in mass media.
Руйнації в 360'
The War up Close virtual tours take the audience to the horrors of the Ukrainian reality, where they find themselves surrounded by the consequences of Russia’s hostilities, replicated down to the smallest detail, on all sides.
Burned furniture in apartments, destroyed infrastructure, remnants of stucco decorations on bombed-out century-old monuments, desolate streets… That’s what Ruscists are making us see on a daily basis, what we aim to show to the outside world in maximum close-up using VR technology.
Virtual Tours
War in Ukraine in 3D
Digitalising by laser scanning and photogrammetry are the innovative technologies our team uses to preserve cultural monuments as well as to visualize their destruction caused by Russian shelling.
Our 3D models allow you to examine the damaged buildings in great detail, help the architects assess the damage and plan the restoration, and the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy may use them to prove the extent of destruction to the world community.
War in 3D
