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Overview
Utah Valley University's Digital Media Program
The Preservation Project represents a multidisciplinary effort to digitally document, preserve, and present the cultural heritage of cultural and historical sites, with a focus on its rich architectural traditions and historic significance. By leveraging digital tools and methodologies, we aim to contribute to the broader field of heritage preservation while making these resources accessible to a global audience.
Developed by students in the Digital Media Department, this initiative underscores the role of emerging technologies in safeguarding historical knowledge. Our team is committed to ensuring that historic sites, particularly those at risk of deterioration, are preserved in digital form and made publicly available through an open-access platform.
Through careful research, digital reconstruction, and the integration of multimedia resources, we provide a space where scholars, educators, and the general public can engage with cultural heritage in meaningful ways. By situating these historic environments within the digital landscape, we strive to extend their visibility and ensure their continued relevance for future generations.
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Our Goal
This project is build on the belief that history should not be hidden in archives or left to deteriorate in silence. By preserving and sharing these sites digitally, we’re ensuring that cultural memory remains visible, accessible, and valued by future generations.
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Our Team
The Team
This site is the product of collaborative work by students in the Digital Media Department, with project teams rotating for each new phase and location. While the contributors may change, the foundation remains consistent. The site’s structure was originally designed and built by Emma Lam and Tessa Johnson, with scalability and longevity in mind. Their work ensures that future student teams can continue to expand the platform, adding new locations, content, and features, while maintaining a cohesive and accessible experience for all users.
The Lagkadia project was a collaborative effort between students and profesors from both Digital Media and English departments. The group traveled to Lagkadia in July 2025 in order to document the Blossoming Stones conference being held there. The conference's purpose is to educate architecture students on the ancient art of stone carving, which will allow them to restore and preserve historic buildings in Greece.
English students, Elizabeth Holman and Aubrey Jones, under the guidance of Professor Amber Smith-Johnson, interviewed the stone carving artisans at the conference. Later they wrote articles about their experience.
Digital Media students, Gabby Escamilla and Shelby Schaerrer, filmed some of the interviews aforementioned and also documented the work of those attending the conference through video and photography.
Digital Media professors, Emily Hedrick, Michael Harper, and Dan Hatch, also documented the work of those attending the conference but through spatial video and 3D scans.
Through these efforts, students can learn more about this craft and its importance from anywhere in the world.
The Pentalofos, Greece project was a collaborative effort bringing together faculty and students across disciplines, united by a shared goal of preserving cultural heritage through digital media.
Faculty leads included Michael and Emily, who provided guidance in interaction design and immersive media, while Dr. Aliki Milioti, an architecture professor, contributed her expertise to support the expedition and contextualize the site within a broader preservation framework.
Students Emma Lam and Tessa Johnson were responsible for collecting assets on-site, including photography, interviews, and drone footage, and for developing the website design and templatizing it to support future projects. Michael Bailey and Darrick Cochrane, students in immersive experience design, led the creation of virtual reality tours, helping to bring the historic village of Pentalofos to life in an interactive digital format.
Together, this team laid the groundwork for an evolving archive of digitally preserved heritage sites, starting with the stone-carved legacy of Pentalofos.