Siddique Motala
Storytelling, Heritage in 3D, and Counter-Surveying
Wednesday 12/11/2025, 14.00-16.00
Amphitheater, Department of Architecture, School of Engineering,
Pedion Areos
Volos GR
ABSTRACT: This presentation briefly introduces and explores several interrelated themes: (1) the use of storytelling in geomatics education, (2) 3D heritage documentation and research conducted by Global Digital Heritage Afrika, and (3) community work that has been done in areas of apartheid forced removals. In South Africa, geomatics education is an extension of the old land surveying education developed during the apartheid era. A critical intervention involved introducing storytelling into the geomatics curriculum. This then inspired the ongoing work of Global Digital Heritage Afrika, a research group dedicated to the digital documentation of heritage sites. Siddique will then describe his work in documenting the intangible heritage of communities who have experienced apartheid forced removals.
Bio
Siddique Motala is an associate professor in the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Cape Town (UCT) and the academic lead of Global Digital Heritage Afrika (GDHA), a research group dedicated to the digital documentation of heritage sites, monuments and museum collections. He has a BSc in land surveying, an MSc in digital photogrammetry, and a PhD in Education. His research interests are spatio-temporal mapping, storytelling, posthumanism, transportation, socially just pedagogies and decolonization in engineering education. For the last 15 years, Siddique has been mapping and researching District Six and other sites of apartheid forced removals. He conducts transdisciplinary research with a diversity of disciplines such as history, film & media studies, computer science, education, museum studies and archival studies.
The lecture forms part of the program of the international meetings South-South Dialogues: Spaces, Cultures, Languanges, Sciences realized in the framework ofErasmus + Mobility Program agreement betweenthe University of Thessaly, Greece and the University of Cape Town, South Africa.
Download the program and the poster.