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The memory of a zouave
18 Digital Humanities students create a heritage digital twin and a multi-site geolocated exhibition in Rennes.
Use case — Université Rennes 2 / Le Zouave
Digital Humanities Master · Université Rennes 2
"La mémoire d'un zouave": students create a heritage digital twin
As part of the partnership with the Digital Humanities Master at Université Rennes 2, 18 students designed and deployed a multi-site geolocated AR exhibition around the zouave jacket — a fragile 19th-century textile heritage piece.
Over the full academic year, students managed everything: object selection, scientific text writing, audio recording and urban scenography design. BavAR[t] handled the final 3D modelling, guaranteeing museum-grade engineering standards and producing a high-fidelity digital twin usable for institutional conservation.
A deep dive into Breton heritage conservation
The centrepiece: the zouave jacket, a 19th-century military textile object, fragile and unique. Each of the 18 students conducted a photogrammetry session on the jacket, learning 3D capture applied to heritage preservation — the same technique used in professional museology.
BavAR[t] then produced the final 3D model and technical clean-up, ensuring a render quality worthy of museum display. The resulting digital twin is available for any institution wishing to include it in their conservation or mediation tools.
The students also created all editorial content: scientific texts, audio tracks, AR scenography across 3 urban sites in Rennes.
Université Rennes 2
Academic partner
Université Rennes 2 is a public higher education institution specialising in social sciences and humanities. Its Digital Humanities Master trains students at the intersection of human sciences and new technologies — the ideal profile for BavAR[t]'s cultural digital mediation projects.
University website Press releaseContact us to build an academic partnership.
The showcasing of the zouave jacket — the jewel of the exhibition
The zouave jacket places a special spotlight on Breton military heritage. Through augmented reality, visitors are invited to discover the jacket's history, the stories of those who wore it, and the photogrammetry process that made its digital preservation possible.
The 3D model, produced from the students' capture sessions and refined by BavAR[t], achieves a level of fidelity that makes it suitable for academic research as well as public mediation — a dual-purpose asset for the heritage ecosystem.
Results
This project was supported by the Digital Humanities Master programme at Université Rennes 2
BavAR[t] is honoured to have been selected as the technology partner for this academic project, which demonstrates that education and heritage conservation can be fully integrated into a single, real-world creative experience.
The model — students provide scientific expertise and content; BavAR[t] provides the technical pipeline — is fully replicable in any university offering digital humanities, heritage science or cultural management programmes.
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