Katyń

How to tell the story of a massacre? How to construct a narrative about a history easier to be forgotten? How to encourage young people to learn about this story? How to support the relatives, who cannot visit the final resting place of their deceased loved ones due to the geopolitical issues?
Katyn forest is a distant, inaccessible place associated with a terrible history of 1940. It was the year when members of Soviet People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs (NKVD) executed more than 22,000 Polish officers and prisoners of war. Despite 80 years that have passed since this tragedy the victims’ families still long for their loved ones. They need to pay their respects and tell this story worldwide as a warning to future generations.
Using the possibilities of the new media, we rejected a typical textual narrative in favor of intriguing sounds and visualisation. While browsing the archives of the massacre, we decided to focus on restoring the remembrance of victims – using memoirs, letters and souvenirs placed in a virtual forest. For the first time in our works, we have combined a 3D image with exceptional sound in such a unique way. Audio tracks were recorded with the voices of some of the greatest Polish actors. Creating them, we also had in mind the elderly, who prefer listening than reading the content on the screen. The virtual forest is a precise reconstruction of the Katyn forest. It allows the victims' families to explore a place so significant to them, yet difficult to access at the same time.
The concept of lighting a virtual candle of remembrance is an integral part of the website. It turned out to be a fulfilling and important part for the victims’ families. Currently, the count shows more than 80,000 candles lit.
Despite implementing innovative technology, the website is fully available to work on mobile phones as well.