Visitors who always wanted to envision what it was like exploring ancient rock art and dark caves can now look forward to testing Fish Hoek Valley Museum’s new digital museum room.
The museum is currently experimenting with virtual and augmented reality to provide visitors with a new outlook of their artefacts said curator Sue Maude.
Maude has lived in Fish Hoek for 15 years and has served the museum for a year now.
She has also published a coffee-table book on Llandudno and was ghost writer for long time Fish Hoek resident Neoklis Pneumaticatos for his second book of memoirs called South of Ithaca.
“I have an interest in contributing to my local community. As a Fish Hoek resident, I used to walk past the museum.
“The homeless were sleeping outside and I wondered if anyone felt comfortable visiting.
“Then in 2023 the museum had a renovation and fencing was put up. I attended the re-opening function and volunteered.
“I have since become the curator after Sally Britten, curator for 10 long years, stepped back,” Maude says.
3D Virtual Reality goggles at the Fish Hoek Valley
Museum. Photo: supplied Credit: Supplied
The inspiration that birthed the digital museum occurred through a visit from the archaeology team at Global Digital Heritage Afrika (GDHA) – a non-profit organisation (NPO) dedicated to documenting global cultural and natural heritage. It was launched in March last year.
“In May last year when the team from Global Heritage Afrika visited the museum to do 3D scans of our stone tools, the whale bones and some of the other displays, they also did a scan of the museum building itself and of the inside of Peers Cave. It is these scans that we are now trying to develop into the digital museum.
“We have set up a virtual walkthrough of the museum and are now busy putting ‘hotspots’ on some of the displays so that the visitor can explore the rooms of the museum and learn more when they click on the hotspot. We are still adding to these hotspots,” explains Maude.
Volunteer Brian Martin has been scanning all the Museum’s photographs and documents to create a digital archive for several years.
He also made contact with Bruce McDonald, a Deputy Chief Scientist for GDHA and a Fish Hoek local, with his vision for a complete digital archive of the Museum’s collection.
There was much excitement amongst the museum volunteers watching this cutting-edge digitisation process underway.
Curator Sally Britten said: “This is an opportunity not to be missed, opening our collection to the world. Peers Cave is a remarkable site with a fascinating history and we are pleased that it will be freely available for anyone to view.”
The team will also digitise a selection of the other historical artefacts housed in the museum and will also go out and scan Peers Cave itself.
Martin says: “We are still working on more ideas of mine for taking the museum into the future.”
The museum has also acquired a Google Cardboard VR headset which turns visitors smartphones into a cheap VR viewing device.
This device can be used for viewing the 3D stone tools and artefacts in the museum.
“The Peers Cave walkthrough is also being set up and we hope to have this ready later in the year. I am excited for this launch as people will be able to visit Peers Cave from their computer or smartphone. The Cave is a very significant historical place in the valley as it has been used by the ancestors of early humans for many thousands of years. Once the virtual museums are working, the next step is to ‘add’ new rooms to the display. For this we will involve the community to fill in the gaps that are missing from the existing physical museum.”
“The Fish Hoek Valley Museum coverage is supposed to extend right across the valley. Most of the focus has been on Fish Hoek itself and I am keen to extend our focus to represent the entire valley.
The museum is also calling on volunteers to assist with testing their augmented virtual reality devices.
For details contact Maude at 062 576 6166.
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