The Virtual Reality Experience of a Maya Monument in London

The podcast episode discusses how a virtual reality (VR) experience allows people to view and interact with a scan of a Maya stone monument, called Stella E, that was made by the Maya civilization in Guatemala. The monument is the largest freestanding carved monument from the ancient Americas, and the VR experience was created using plaster casts made in the 1880s. Although it is a copy of a copy, the VR experience provides a convincing illusion of being in front of the monument. The episode explores how VR technology can recreate distant artifacts and the parallels between Victorian VR and modern VR.