ICAT Playdate: Roots of Eternity: Breathing Life into Meketre’s Garden in VR

Term: Fall 2025

Date: October 31st, 2025

Time: 8:30 to 9:30 a.m.

Location: Community Assembly in the Creativity + Innovation District Living-Learning Community

Instructor: Phyllis Newbill

Presented By: Institute for Creativity, Arts, and Technology (ICAT)

Description:

Roots of Eternity is a multisensory immersive exhibition that reimagines the 4,000-year-old garden model from the Tomb of Meketre—one of the most iconic archaeological finds from Ancient Egypt. Now divided between the Egyptian Museum in Cairo and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, this project digitally reunites and brings the model to life through VR, projection mapping, spatial audio, scent, and animated storytelling. Drawing on research in digital cultural heritage and environmental design, the exhibition explores the everyday life and agricultural wisdom of ancient Egyptians, offering visitors an embodied experience of their intimate relationship with land, nature, and community. The project also engages with themes of digital repatriation and cultural continuity, connecting past and present through technology, narrative, and sensory design. Roots of Eternity premiered at the Cube, and was later adapted for display at the Target Gallery, Torpedo Factory Art Center in Alexandria, Virginia.
 

Speakers:

Dr. Eiman Elgewely – Project PI & Exhibition, CuratorAssistant Professor, Interior Design, School of Design, AAD, Director, Visualization & VR Lab;

Ivica Ico Bukvic – Director, Creativity + Innovation Professor, Creative Technologies in Music, SOPA, AAD;

Amanda Nelson – Associate Professor & Graduate Program Director, Theatre, SOPA, AAD;

Thomas Tucker – Associate Professor, Creative Technologies, SOVA, AAD;

Sang Won Lee – Associate Professor, Computer Science, College of Engineering