#NEWPALMYRA
An online community platform dedicated to the virtual remodeling and creative use of architecture from the endangered Syrian city of Palmyra.
- Dates: 2015 - Present
- Location: Global
- Role: Director
- Link: #NEWPALMYRA
-
Collaborators:
- Bassel Khartabil
- Jon Phillips
- Dana Trometer
- Clement Renaud
- Christopher Adams
- Jim Ellis
- Annie Schneider
- Global Community
“#NEWPALMYRA” is a community platform dedicated to the virtual remodeling and creative use of architecture from the endangered Syrian city of Palmyra. We create 3D models, run workshops, produce exhibitions, and develop tools to engage the global community around Syrian cultural heritage, and build the future #NEWPALMYRA from the past. All of our work is released into the Public Domain under CC0 Licenses to encourage its reuse in creative explorations that we hope will promote cultural understanding.
Work on #NEWPALMYRA was started in Damascus by Syrian-Palestinian open source software developer, free culture advocate, and Creative Commons affiliate Bassel Khartabil in 2005. With a team of artists working with the publisher Al-Aous, he began remodeling the ruins of Palmyra in 3D. The project continued until Bassel’s unlawful detention by the Syrian government on March 15th, 2012. Sadly, this important and prescient work was never published or released from Al-Aous, so much was lost.
The public relaunch and “open-sourcing” of #NEWPALMYRA was undertaken by a global teams of Bassel’s supporters in October of 2015 after his “disappearance” by the Syrian regime, and the capture and destruction of Palmyra by ISIS; making clear that the ruins were a symbolic battleground for control over the Syrian people. #NEWPALMYRA is freeing Palmyra digitally to return agency over this cultural heritage to the Syrian and global communities, following Bassel’s visionary work of transparency, open internet, and free culture for the advancement of the Syrian people.
- — Preservation Project Uses 3D Printers to Fight ISIS's Destruction of Heritage Sites — Artforum
- — Programmers and artists are fighting ISIL's destruction with 3D printers — Quartz
- — Can we 3D re-print the history we've destroyed? — Quartz
- — Bassel Khartabil post — Creative Commons
- — Bassel Khartabil's Story Proves Online Activism Is Still Powerful — Wired
- — How One Syrian Fought to the Death for a Free Internet — Wired
- — In Memoriam Bassel Khartabil — Lorna M. Campbell Blog
- — 'They Can't Stop Us' — World Mourns Execution of Palestinian-Syrian Activist Bassel Khartabil Safadi by the Assad Regime — Global Voices
- — Bassel lived for a peaceful and open Syria, so they killed him — Irish Independent
- — Man who created 3D version of Palmyra before it was destroyed by ISIS killed by Assad regime — Evening Standard
- — Disappeared Palestinian-Syrian software developer reportedly executed — Electronic Intifada
- — Reconstruir la ciudad de Palmira gracias a Internet — ABC
- — Bassel Khartabil: Missing Syrian-Palestinian 'Executed' — Malaysian Digest
- — Bassel Khartabil executed October 2015 — Inverse
- — New Palmyra Project — HuffPost
- — Missing Syrian internet activist Bassel Khartabil executed in 2015, wife says — CNN
- — On the death of Bassel Khartabil — MIT
- — Bassel Khartabil: Missing Syrian-Palestinian executed — Al Jazeera
- — L'exécution en 2015 du Syrien Bassel Khartabil confirmée — Reporters Without Borders
- — Syrian activist Bassel Khartabil reportedly killed by Assad regime — Al Bawaba
- — Syrian Internet activist executed — Haaretz
- — Statement on the death of CC friend and colleague Bassel Khartabil — Creative Commons
- — Creative Commons announces death of Bassel Khartabil — The FADER
- — Bassel Khartabil, In Memoriam — Electronic Frontier Foundation
- — How Virtual Reality Could Change the Art World — JSTOR Daily
- — Against a Pile of Ashes — Victoria and Albert Museum
- — Artists and Writers Celebrate the Work of Missing Syrian Developer Bassel Safadi — Global Voices
- — ISIS recaptures Palmyra: A fresh assault on heritage sites — Christian Science Monitor
- — Armas 3D desde Murcia contra las bombas del ISIS — El Mundo
- — When All Roads Led to Palmyra — History Today
- — Honouring Bassel Khartabil, Syrian digital activist — Index on Censorship
- — Erasing Isis: how 3D technology now lets us copy and rebuild entire cities — The Guardian
- — Technology and Cultural Heritage Preservation — Display At Your Own Risk: An experimental exhibition of digital cultural heritage
- — Story of cities #28: how postwar Warsaw was rebuilt using 18th century paintings — The Guardian
- — The problem with rebuilding a Roman ruin destroyed by ISIS — Washington Post
- — What's the Value of Recreating the Palmyra Arch with Digital Technology? — Hyperallergic
- — NewPalmyra Crowdsources the Majestic History that ISIS in Syria Destroyed — Global Voices
- — Should we 3D print a new Palmyra? — The Conversation
- — The Heroic Effort to Digitally Reconstruct Lost Monuments — Smithsonian Magazine
- — Wikipedia: Information beats oppression — CNN
- — Bassel Khartabil: Disparition prison Syrie — France 24
- — Bassel Khartabil: fears for man who brought open internet to the Arab world — The Guardian
- — Global Voices Arabic coverage — Global Voices (Arabic)
- — Tech world takes on icon-smashing Islamic State with a virtual Palmyra — Christian Science Monitor
- — Internetaktivister genrejser Palmyra — Politiken
- — Help Fight ISIS by Rebuilding Palmyra in 3D — The Creators Project
- — MIT Media Lab Joins New Palmyra Project — Boston Magazine
- — Disappeared Syrian Activist's 3-D Models Could Save Palmyra — Voice of America
- — Archaeologists armed with cheap 3D cameras hope to rebuild ancient sites razed by Islamic State — News.com.au
- — Free 3D Printable of the Week: #NewPalmyra — 3D Printing Industry
- — An Open-Source Project to Rebuild Palmyra — Architect Magazine
- — MIT Media Lab Research Position for Bassel Khartabil — joi.ito.com
- — A Jailed Activist's 3-D Models Could Save Syria's History From ISIS — Wired
- — Bassel Khartabil, prisonnier syrien d'Internet — Slate France