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By Minda Smiley, Reporter

May 25, 2016 | 3 min read

Over time, historical sites and monuments all over the world have been destroyed due to conflict and natural disasters. In many communities, the destruction of these sites means more than just a loss of physical presence since they often represent a community’s culture and heritage.

To honor these artifacts and the cultures they symbolize, researchers Chance Coughenour and Matthew Vincent created Rekrei, a project that integrates “their knowledge in archeology, web development, and photogrammetry” to create digital reconstructions of historical sites in a crowd-sourced manner.

In partnership with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s (UNESCO) #Unite4Heritage, a global movement that aims to celebrate the places, objects and traditions that make the world “such a rich and vibrant place,” Oglilvy & Mather New York created a website called Reclaim History for Rekrei to help the co-founders of Rekrei maintain and grow their project.

According to the agency, the site will be "the central hub where people can go visit and learn more about the monuments that have been digitally recreated. The site will also be a place for anyone to come together and help recreate more monuments."

"ReclaimHistory.org provides users with a much more visually immersive experience, encouraging them to explore historical sites that have been lost around the world,” said Vincent. “In many cases, physical restorations are impossible due to the extent of the destruction, but through crowdsourcing the digital preservation of the memory of that heritage, not only does it provide a way for the public to engage with lost heritage, but also to have an active, tangible role in preserving it.”

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Credits:

Chief Creative Officer: Corinna Falusi

Creative Directors: Bastien Baumann & Chris Rowson

Associate Creative Director: Rodrigo Moran

Senior Art Director: Lauren van Aswegen

Senior Copywriter: Chad Johnson

Chief Production Officer: Matt Bonin

Senior Executive Producer/Director: Akiko Nakashima

Design Director: Francesco Bertelli

UI Designer: Dallas Barnes

Creative Technology Director: Kaare Wesnaes

Strategy: Jeremy Wilson, Adam Kornblum, Molly Hoffman

Chief of Staff: Alexander Banon

Production Partner: Pet Gorilla

Creative Works UNESCO

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