Saydnaya - Rituals of resistance 

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Saydnaya - Rituals of Resistance will be a virtual reality experience narrating and visualizing the memories and musical practices of former prisoners of the Syrian prison Saydnaya. Using the methods of interactive, immersive storytelling, the project brings to life stories that the prisoners have from their experience in Saydnaya and operates as a medium for preserving their experience in collective memory.

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Saydnaya, also known as the “human slaughterhouse”,  was a notorious military prison operated by the Syrian government, located close to Damascus. Saydnaya initially became known for the cruelties leading to the death of several detainees, following the riot in 2008. Journalists, activists, students, university professors, lawyers, and others suspected of opposition to the regime are at risk of being sent to Saydnaya and other similar detention centers. These detention centers are known to impose severe, inhumane treatment and torture on detainees. Estimates suggest that over 104,000 individuals died in regime detention centers, with 30,000 deaths occurring in Saydnaya alone. Due to restricted access for journalists and monitoring groups, information about events within Saydnaya used to be severely limited.

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This project is part of the academic project of  Musical Remains in Prison and Exile by Dr. Eylaf Bader-Eddin.  In close collaboration,  VR artist/developer Julia Sand and Dr. Eylaf Bader-Eddin are creating a VR experience popularizing the data collected by Bader-Eddin in his research.  Dr. Bader-Eddin is a Syrian activist and researcher whose project delves into the memories and musical practices of the detainees held in Saydnaya between 1987 and 1996. Bader-Eddin’s research, as well as this work, aims to record and visualize some of the stories and music created by the detainees in this notorious prison. The Assad regime has silenced the songs created by prisoners for the past decades.  The former prisoners, in collaboration with Dr. Eylaf Bader-Eddin, are now documenting the musical practices that took place in Sadnaya.
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Rather than focusing on the horrors endured by survivors, this work emphasizes the themes of hope and resilience. As stated in the research by Dr. Bader-Eddin “And imprisoning the body does not mean submission to the situation, and the detainee is not just in a hopeless position, unable to interact and respond to surveillance and torture techniques. They always use spiritual techniques that affect the body and soul to resist and confront the experience of detention.“ This project seeks to research these subtle acts of resistance in impossible conditions - the survival strategies that have enabled Dr. Bader-Eddin's research participants to endure Saydnaya for years, in some instances nearly a decade.

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This work advocates for human rights and brings understanding of the type of conditions the asylum seekers arriving in the EU flee from. The shared stories individualize the collective cases of Syrian and other political prisoners. Additionally, this work operates as a form of digital record of the experiences of the ex-prisoners of Sednaya.  

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See a sample of the experience showcasing the instruments the prisoners crafted from materials available in prison conditions here: 

https://jusanddd.github.io/GameTesting3/

Instructions for viewing:

• Open the experience with a smart phone by opening the link above 

• On the bottom right of the screen, click the button "AR" 

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