Abstract
Maintaining unique traditions and cultures is becoming
increasingly difficult due to the effects of globalisation, combined
with the fleeting nature of intangible cultural heritage (ICH).
The continuation of ICH traditions relies on the awareness
and interest of young people, as it is passed from generation
to generation. This study aims to protect knowledge and skills
– specifically traditional craftsmanship (TC), in the use case of
South African beer (umqombothi) brewing – by exploring how
to digitally represent and disseminate ICH using virtual reality
(VR). In the beer-brewing prototype, participants become fully
immersed in a digital South African community to learn the
practice of brewing and experience the ICH contextual elements such as rituals and togetherness. The results show that shortterm
use of the VR prototype enables novice participants to
learn essential aspects of community ICH and the beer-brewing
practice. Furthermore, we emphasise the importance of
evaluating the dissemination potential of safeguarding solutions
by assessing their transfer back to everyday life. For this reason,
this study also captures and successfully demonstrates an
evaluation in which the participants re-enact what they recall
from the VR playthrough using real lo-fi props used for brewing