Reparative Preservation through Immersive 3D Documentation: Cultural Memory, Spatial Justice, and Gullah Geechee Futures on Daufuskie Island

Abstract

This thesis advances a reparative framework for cultural preservation by combining immersive documentation with co-authored digital storytelling to support Black spatial memory and community sovereignty. Grounded in fieldwork on Daufuskie Island, South Carolina—a historic Gullah Geechee community confronting dispossession and cultural enclosure—the project co-creates Daufuskie3D (https://daufuskie3d.org/), an interactive website that presents annotated 3D scans, oral histories, ambient videos, and symbolic interface design rooted in Gullah epistemologies.

It is guided by two research questions: How can immersive documentation support reparative preservation for communities at risk of spatial erasure? And what frameworks—technical, ethical, and political—ensure digital practices reflect Black cultural values, descendant authorship, and community control? Drawing from Black geographies, wake work, vernacular cartography, and speculative design, the thesis introduces a conceptual distinction between visualization and analysis tools to examine how different modes of spatial capture shape visibility and authority. The project finds that immersive tools, when grounded in ethical design and descendant authorship, can function not simply as representational media but as reparative infrastructure—supporting visibility, stewardship, and spatial return in communities confronting erasure.

The Daufuskie3D website serves as both platform and method. Its spatial interface draws on Gullah visual language, including Underground Railroad quilt codes and spiritual symbolism, while its non-linear navigation resists conventional heritage taxonomies. Rather than flattening culture into content, the site embraces ambiguity, withheld spatial detail, and narrative restraint as ethical design principles. Developed in partnership with Ms. Sallie Ann Robinson, a sixth-generation Gullah cultural steward, the project repositions preservation as participatory, situated, and future-facing. It offers Daufuskie3D as both a working prototype and a methodological contribution toward reparative immersive practice—centering digital preservation as a strategy of memory, sovereignty, and cultural regeneration within the Black diaspora.

Keywords: Immersive Documentation, 3D Scanning / LiDar / Photogrammetry, Cultural Preservation, Gullah Geechee, Daufuskie Island, Reparative Preservation, Black Geographies, Digital Heritage, Speculative Design, Counter Cartography, Counterpublic, Spatial Justice, Oral History, Afrofuturism, Digital Public, Digital/ Web Archive, Cultural Stewardship, Ethical Design, Participatory Design, Underground Rail Road, Return