Dziadzia Memorial

I made a VR tribute to my dziadzia (grandfather), who passed away in January 2020 after a long, adventurous life of 100 years. It’s a sort of time capsule framed via 360 footage of the Polish “opłatek” tradition, which he invited his family to partake in each Christmas. (We exchange bits of a wafer with everyone while offering well wishes for the new year.)

As a memorial ritual, family members can take turns entering the virtual world, picking up an object that has an inspiring quote from his autobiography attached, and tossing it over the edge of the glass floor to the “death portal” below. Each object thrown off triggers a new development in the scene, as the Polish Eagle symbol is pieced together (a symbol very dear to his heart, which was etched into a Polish WWII Veterans Monument he helped establish at the Buffalo waterfront), a dubstep remix of Ave Maria starts playing (the og song played at his funeral), text conveying the span of his life appears, and fireworks celebrate his legacy.

I really appreciated hearing stories of his journey from rural Poland, to Soviet gulags, to Polish Army training in the Middle East, to fighting in the Battle of Monte Cassino in Italy alongside Allied forces, to the long migration to America, where he worked very hard to raise a healthy family and contributed to many community projects til his final years.

kocham cię, i dobranoc, dziadzia