Groove Jones Revives the Zion Cemetery Through Immersive Technology
Groove Jones, the world’s leading XR studio, collaborated with the non-profit Special Angels Investments to create an immersive and educational experience centered around Zion Cemetery in Tampa, Florida, the oldest known African American Cemetery in the city.
Intentionally and illegally stolen from the Black community, Zion Cemetery was rediscovered in 2019 under the Robles Park Village apartment complex in Tampa, Florida. Zion Cemetery was created in 1901 to serve the thriving African American community of Dobyville and Robles Pond. Ground-penetrating radar, archaeologists and burial records suggest 382 people are buried there.
Groove Jones crafted an interactive, three-dimensional WebGL experience using Three.js technology. Through research of ceremonial artifacts, newspaper clippings, and witness accounts, we carefully brought forth a story to ensure that the user could comprehend and empathize with the historical context.
One significant challenge of this project was how to best create a commemorative digital experience about a location with a history crowded with oppression so that descendants of those buried in Zion can view and learn about what was taken from them.
There is a passionate commitment to transforming this historically significant and forgotten burial ground into an interactive teaching tool using emerging technology. Throughout the project, the dedication to shedding light on an important but often overlooked part of history was a key objective.
The primary narrative unfolds in three stages: the founding of the Robles Pond area, including historic ceremonies to celebrate with deceased family, the Segregation Era, and the Present Day. Users can tap on hot spots to reveal more information about the ceremonies that took place in the cemetery. Fred Herns, the President of the Zion Cemetery Preservation & Maintenance Society, provided audio and video, which helped tell the story.
Users can explore maps of Zion Cemetery throughout its history, revealing the story of land transactions and transformations that eventually erased it from maps. A scrollable timeline presents the history of Zion Cemetery with unarchived photos and articles providing detailed accounts of the events that transpired over the years.
Robles Pond was a wood-framed school near the Zion cemetery that was attended by many East Tampa African American children. It was an all-Black school due to Jim Crow Laws that perpetuated racial segregation.
Robles Park Village was a white-only community that was constructed over Zion Cemetery. Nearly a decade later, African American Families were permitted to reside in the Robles Park Village.
This narrative guides users through the cemetery’s history, from its establishment to its destruction and the occupation of the space by housing projects. Each era is explained in detail, highlighting the events that led to the erasure of the past. The experience concludes with a call to action, urging users to contact their representatives and make a change.
A Spoken Word VR Experience
Groove Jones also created a VR experience to explore Zion Cemetery. This spoken word VR experience tells the real story of the lost souls at Zion Cemetery destroyed during Jim Crow. A narration of a powerful poem by Ebony Payne-English, a poet, playwright, filmmaker, and educator from Duval County, FL guides it.
The experience includes original artwork and scarce documents that allow viewers to travel through the 20th century to see and feel the impact of racism on sacred land. The App uses hand tracking to allow the user to reach out and interact with the story without needing controllers.
This VR experience allows participants to confront difficult truths about life in the Jim Crow South, understand the lasting impact of Jim Crow on today’s society and memorialize the individuals buried at Zion Cemetery. The Zion Cemetery VR Experience is being released through the Meta VR App Lab
Groove Jones is a creative technology company, one of the world's oldest and most recognized XR studios. Founded in 2015, Groove Jones has taken home over 200 industry awards, including multiple ADDYs, Event Marketer's EX Awards, Shorty's, Obies, and Clios.
Their team of accomplished artists and thoughtful engineers leverage emerging technologies and proven processes to produce innovative and creative solutions for today's digitally connected brands and consumers.
GJ are best known for award-winning work in AI (Artificial intelligence), AR (Augmented Reality), VR (Virtual Reality), ML (Machine Learning), WebGL, and Web 3.0 development for advertising and marketing, experiential activations, sales enablement, and enterprise training.