Revitalizing Public Urban Places through Cultural and Political Memory: A Technological Approach with LLMs and Augmented Reality

This paper explores the intersection of memory, place, and identity, examining how new technologies, particularly Apple Vision Pro, can illuminate this nexus. Leveraging digital twins and virtual reality, it investigates how memory is woven into landscapes and urban environments of cultural and historical significance, identifying visual elements that evoke memory and heritage. Applications such as Apple Vision Pro can facilitate image extension to define place identity, informing viewers about cultural and political entities across timelines. Visual storytelling can showcase the evolution of landscapes and the preservation of cultural heritage, while Virtual Reality (VR) enables the recreation of historical landscapes and urban-scapes. This immersive approach invites users to transcend temporal boundaries and experience the past dynamically. Semantic Image Search can support research by uncovering images related to monuments, tradition, or cultural identity. This research introduces a methodology to connect digital twins and virtual environments with urban and non-urban landscapes to illustrate cultural, historical, and environmental sustainability. Central to this approach is defining the resilience of the current state, its future evolution, and the significance of the past. These technologies facilitate a historical and cultural embrace while evoking the feeling of returning to a specific place years later. The methodology outlines the integration of technologies needed to revitalize public urban places through cultural and political memory. Through these applications, this paper contributes to research on digital twins of spaces, urban transformation, and cultural heritage preservation. By offering insights into the relationship between memory, place, and identity in the digital age, it supports a deeper understanding of our collective past and its impact on the present.