Digital iconography, conflict heritage, and the teaching of history: The case of the Spanish Civil War

Abstract

Computed-generated imagery (CGI) generates diverse views and perceptions of the past. These new experiences impact, directly or indirectly, the teaching and learning of history. This article presents didactic iconographic works on the Spanish Civil War created by the DIDPATRI (Didactics of Heritage and New Technologies) research group at the University of Barcelona. The didactic approach to this conflict reveals various problems that make it an interesting testing ground for new iconographies that contribute to an understanding of it. The proposal looks at the generation of “virtual” iconography to facilitate the teaching of content in formal and non-formal spaces. It is argued that CGI opens up possibilities to researchers, teachers, students, and technicians for the generation of comprehensive communication elements of history. The attractiveness of this new “virtual” iconography of the past lies in the possibility to create integrated ensembles where the facts, concepts, situations, and representations of materiality that the creators want to represent can appear. The resulting iconographic product can be applied for use in various environments, such as teaching, heritage, tourism, and cultural industries, and via different media, such as panels, apps, web, audio-visuals, museography, games, books, and notebooks.