Nazaré and Immersive Media: New Approaches to Cultural Heritage through Mixing Old and New Media

Abstract

This article focuses on immersive representations of Nazaré, starting with stereoscopic photos from the early 20th century and finishing with 360º videos from the early 21st century. Located in central Portugal, the coastal town of Nazaré has inspired many visual representations by painters, photographers and filmmakers. During the first half of the 20th century, perhaps no other photographer captured Nazaré and its inhabitants as richly as the amateur photographer Álvaro Laborinho (1879-1970), who also experimented with stereoscopic photography. Today, immersive media are somewhat different from these stereoscopic photos, certainly with a greater degree of technological sophistication, but probably with less durability over time, given the quick obsolescence of current immersive technologies. More than a hundred years after the creation of these stereoscopic photos we arrive at 360º videos like Surfing with Pedro Scooby in VR and Nazaré, Mais que Mar é Mulher, produced respectively by Red Bull Brazil and by Marina Oliveto.

Yet another kind of representation is offered by the trans-disciplinary exploratory project Nazaré Imersiva (Nazaré Immersive) from Lusofona University, based on the stereographic photos of Álvaro Laborinho, whose images were remediated and repurposed for the current immersive media technologies. This project aims to contribute towards the promotion of Nazaré’s cultural and natural heritage in an innovative way, mixing traditional and contemporary representation technologies. Furthermore, the project addresses current issues such as pollution and the impact of tourism, challenging its participants to speculate about possible futures for Nazaré – that is to say, for other similar coastal towns in Portugal – and beyond.