Visualising the Conflict: Immersion in the Landscape of Victims and Commemoration in Northern Ireland

The Conflict Archive on the INternet (CAIN) Web Service is based at the University of Ulster. The Web site - available at http://cain.ulster.ac.uk/ - incorporates source materials on the Northern Ireland conflict and politics in the region. Within the resources available are databases, funded under a previous AHRC project, which focus on victims, survivors and commemoration in Northern Ireland (http://cain.ulster.ac.uk/victims/). These databases contain a range of information about the victims of the conflict and include detailed but text-based geographical information on publicly accessible physical memorials to the conflict and on the geographic locations where victims died. In its current format these databases and accompanying geographical information cannot be easily analysed, interpreted or interacted with. Visualising the geographical context of the patterns of deaths and commemoration associated with the Northern Ireland conflict, in tandem with existing information on victims, is an essential component in the understanding of its nature and causes. Extending this process to being able to interact collaboratively with this sensitive material in a reasonably safe setting while facilitating cross-community dialogue and engagement could aid the amelioration of some of the barriers to engagement.

The proposed project has two inter-dependant strands.

Mapping to the Web
The first strand involves the use of current Web 2.0 technologies to increase the functionality of existing databases thus allowing more flexible access. Google Maps/Earth would be incorporated into the CAIN site to provide users with enhanced ways of manipulating, visualising and interpreting data e.g., cluster analysis of memorial sites and street level details of the location of deaths and memorials. The resulting maps can be augmented by additional information from the databases e.g., photographs, video, and links to external Web sites. In addition GIS programs would be used to undertake detailed mapping and analysis exercises and to prepare a range of static maps for distribution on the CAIN site. Cross fertilisation between existing databases would be possible using this approach. The option for external researchers to create their own GIS mappings and analysis of the data will also be available, facilitated by a user manual to be made available on the CAIN site.

Immersion within Virtual Worlds
The second strand of the project involves the innovative use of virtual world technologies for conflict resolution. An educational space will be created in a virtual world and will use state of the art technologies in virtual world's education underpinned by sound pedagogical practice. This immersive environment will facilitate highly interactive collaborative group experiences with a focus on research and teaching. The focal point of this environment will be an enhanced version of the CAIN databases. Google Maps/Earth, augmented by information from the databases, will be integrated into the immersive 3D environment allowing the data to be visualised and re-interpreted by groups of online users working collaboratively. The use of a virtual world's platform will extend the reach and impact of the existing resources. The collaborative multi-user element, allowing a sense of physical presence and identity for users will facilitate new ways of interacting with the existing databases and allow for a diverse range of online interactions to be experienced. This would involve facilitating cross community involvement and dialogue by using the material as a teaching resource and a point for engagement. It will allow the discussion of sensitive issues and material in a relatively safe virtual environment facilitating interactions and meetings that would not normally be possible in a real world setting.

Within the wider public the research and project outcomes will be of use to individual survivors and relatives of victims. It will also be of interest to the numerous victims' groups who work with survivors and campaign on victims' issues and also to those conducting research related to the issue of victims, such as Healing Through Remembering. CAIN receives many requests for information related to victims and survivors and is also given additional material for inclusion in our databases e.g. the scores of amendments that have been made to the Sutton Index of Deaths - since it first appeared on the CAIN site in October 1999 - based on new information provided by relatives and friends of victims. A high level of engagement is likely to take place based on the augmenting/enhancement of the databases and the inclusion of geographic information where members of the general public with local knowledge are likely to provide details which would allow the accuracy of the information to be improved over the coming years.

Policy-makers including those within the Victims' Unit, the Commission for Victims and Survivors (CVS), and the Office of the First Minister and Deputy First Minister (OFMDFM), are also likely to be interested in the visualisation of the victims and commemoration data. This information and its interpretation is also likely to be of interest to those victims and survivors providing an advisory role in the newly constituted Victims Forum. Civil servants who deal with planning issues and disputes surrounding the erection of monuments without official planning permission will also have an interest in data on the physical location of memorials.

The inclusion of a group collaborative working/enhanced engagement element to the databases, facilitated through the use of virtual worlds will allow the investigation of new ways of engaging with controversial and sensitive issues through this medium. The outcomes of this project and the experiences of the researchers involved would be an invaluable source of help to other researchers in this and similar fields.

The newly re-furbished Ulster Museum (which re-opened on 22 October 2009) now, for the first time, has a gallery devoted to 'the Troubles' in Northern Ireland. Permission was given to National Museums Northern Ireland (NMNI) staff to download a version of the CAIN site for display on two off-line computer terminals in the new Troubles Gallery. NMNI staff monitor and assess the use made of, and the public reaction to, the CAIN site within the gallery. CAIN staff have had initial conversations with members of the museum staff about the possibility of including the Second Life resource (or a video demonstration of the virtual world) on the computer terminals. This is something they would be keen to follow-up if the proposal is successful.

The Museum of Free Derry (The National Civil Rights Archive) is a small museum based in the Bogside area of Derry close to the Magee Campus of the University of Ulster. CAIN staff have spoken to the manager of the museum. At present the museum does not allow users of its computer facilities to view external Web sites. However the staff at this location have suggested that if it was technically possible to limit or restrict user access to external resources or contain their virtual worlds activities to a particular location then it may be possible to allow online access to the outcomes of this project in this location. It is hoped that there would be the same response of this nature across similar facilities worldwide. Initial investigations have shown that it is technically feasible to restrict user access to particular regions inside of a virtual world using firewalls so widespread usage of this type could be facilitated.