Naim Aburaddi grew up in Gaza but left to pursue his education in the U.S. Years ago, feeling homesick, he crafted an idea to use technology so he could once again walk in the streets, attend a party, go to the beach — and share that experience with others, too.
Inspired by that idea and his knowledge of virtual reality tech, Aburaddi worked with one of his professors and photographers back home on an immersive art experience. Their resulting project, “Phoenix of Gaza XR,” was set to open in October 2023. But before it could, Hamas attacked Israel, and war broke out.
Phoenix of Gaza XR is touring across the country. It has already made stops at MIT and UMass Amherst, and is on display at Tufts University from Feb. 26-28.
“We did not in our wildest dreams or nightmares imagine that a full-fledged genocide would happen in Gaza, and that the majority of places we captured in this project would be totally destroyed and that many of the people we captured would be killed also,” said Ahlam Muhtaseb, Aburaddi’s professor and a Palestinian filmmaker.
Their original idea was to “provide a different image of Gaza than what we are used to seeing in mainstream media: death, destruction, killing, siege.” Instead, they wanted to show resilience and vibrant culture.
“You know, in Gaza, we don’t have nightclubs or bars, but we have pre-wedding parties, which usually people do outside,” recalled Aburaddi. “So it’s like a tradition in Gaza — even if you are not invited, and you are walking by and you see a party, you will just go and start dancing with the people or with your friends, you know?”
For the better of two years, they worked with cameraman Ahmad Hasaballah to collect hundreds of hours of footage from marketplaces, fig orchards, ancient bathhouses from the Ottoman empire, and more.
Once the war started, Hasaballah evacuated south, and the 360-degree camera sat trapped in rubble.
For Aburaddi and Muhtaseb in the United States, the work became very hard, both logistically and psychologically.
“Every day there was the destruction of a new monument,” recounts Muhtseb, “so Naim would call me and say 'Do you remember Hamam al-Sammara?’ You know, it’s a Turkish bath — totally destroyed. 'Do you remember the orthodox church, the Omari Mosque, the Unknown Soldier’s Square … total destruction.’”
One location after another was bombed, and what had begun as Aburaddi’s attempt to feel closer to home evolved overnight into a grassroots cultural preservation effort. Phoenix of Gaza XR functions like a time capsule of what used to be in Gaza, “and now we just try as much as we can to show it to the world.”
The team hired a new photographer in May 2024, dug the camera out of the debris, and went about recapturing as many places as possible. That newer material — the “after” footage as it’s sometimes called — is integrated into the latest iteration of the Phoenix of Gaza XR exhibition.
As an immersive technology, VR represents a simulated reality, enabling embodied experiences that provide new ways of knowing and experiencing stories.
“You put the headset on and there’s this wonderful sense of presence. You feel like you’re in this space,” said Sarah Wolozin, director of the MIT Open Documentary Lab, a research group that incubates new forms of documentary storytelling and emerging technology. “And what’s key is it’s interactive. So you choose what you look at and what you experience and how the story unfolds.”
MIT’s Sarah Wolozin attests to the power of the exhibition.
“I could spend hours in here,” she said. “To be in this space, where this incredible life and beauty and people that’s been destroyed. … It just breaks your heart.”
The current exhibition will continue to tour across the country, but the material collected by Aburaddi and Muhtaseb has wide-reaching potential — as an architectural blueprint for rebuilding Gaza, as potential evidence of war crimes, and as an aid in psychological healing for traumatized Palestinian children.
“They could attack, you know, the places, they could destroy the locations, but they will never attack the memory,” said Aburaddi, “and that’s what you know, we have as Palestinians, our memory. And now with VR, we are, like, safeguarding these memories. Because they belong to the Palestinian people, not for us.”
According to Wolozin, “to see these places that are gone is profound for the people who once knew those places were there, but I also think about generations. This younger generation and kids who aren’t even born yet will never see these places. And now they can — their parents can tell them stories and show them this footage and it’s as if you’re there, and that’s just a beautiful use of VR.”
You can find more information about the project on the Phoenix of Gaza XR website .
