Backup Ukraine
Blue Shield Denmark and the Danish UNESCO National Commission2022
Backup Ukraine is a 2022 mobile app and cloud archive for Blue Shield Denmark and the Danish UNESCO National Commission, created by Virtue, Copenhagen.
Why it works
Backup Ukraine gave people in Ukraine a way to save their heritage on a phone. Using the 3D-scanning app Polycam, volunteers photographed statues, churches, monuments and everyday objects threatened by the Russian invasion; the images were processed into detailed models, geotagged and stored in a cloud archive that could guide reconstruction if the originals were destroyed. Launched in April 2022, it was devised by Vice's agency Virtue with Blue Shield Denmark and Denmark's national commission for UNESCO. It is studied as award-winning work that was a functioning tool rather than a message about one: the campaign was the act of preservation, carried out by civilians on their own phones. The Cannes Lions jury gave it the Digital Craft Grand Prix in 2022, its president describing a project that turned citizens into guardians of their national heritage. Reported uptake depends on who is counting: CNN and ABC News cited around 6,000 downloads in mid-2022, while the agency's 2023 Clio entry claimed more than 35,000 captures.
Techniques
- Purpose and cause Rather than a message, the campaign is a working tool that preserves Ukraine's threatened statues, churches and monuments as 3D models for possible reconstruction.
- Participation Civilians do the work themselves, scanning heritage on their own phones so that ordinary people become guardians of their nation's culture.
Sources · 4
- Digital effort to preserve Ukraine's cultural artifacts amid war wins Grand Prix at Cannes
- Ukrainians are using 3D technology to preserve hundreds of cultural artifacts in a digital archive, far away from Russia’s attacks
- Ukrainians using new smartphone app to make precious 3D records of war-threatened historic buildings and monuments
- UNESCO: Backup Ukraine
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