École de Design de Nantes Atlantique
Nantes
L’École de design Nantes Atlantique trains designers in digital, UX, product, spatial, and graphic design. At its Laval campus, the school also offers a specialized curriculum in immersive design and XR technologies, standing at the intersection of creation, design, and technological innovation.
Recto VRso
About the Project
Archiv
Arkiv’ is an interactive installation that turns static photographic archives of Nantes’ historic shipyards into three-dimensional, explorable memories. Seated at a physical desk, the user steps into the shoes of an archivist tasked with piecing history back together.
To navigate the narrative, participants physically manipulate authentic photographs embedded with NFC tags. Placing the right image in the designated spot gradually reconstructs a fragmented 3D environment. These digital spaces are spatialized using AI-generated Gaussian Splatting and powered by Unreal Engine.
Face-tracking technology enables completely controller-free exploration, as the user’s natural head movements directly steer the camera’s perspective.
By turning real photographs into physical keys that unlock a virtual world, Arkiv’ builds a tactile bridge to the past while honoring the work of the photographers who documented this now-vanishing industrial heritage.
