As part of a ChronoPoints internship project focused on documenting and reimagining Florida’s cultural heritage, graduate researcher Kylee Encarnacion has been experimenting with 3D scanning as a tool for digital storytelling. Using an iPhone Pro LiDAR scanner and Scaniverse software, she recreated two significant statues at Blue Jacket Park, the Lone Sailor and the Blue Jacket Recruit, which stand behind the Navy History Wall at the park.
Both statues commemorate the Navy’s presence in Orlando (the former Orlando Naval Training Center) and by recreating them as 3D models, Kylee continues to explore her focus on how digital technology can extend public memory beyond physical places to deepen our understanding of sacred and commemorative spaces. For the Blue Jacket Park scans, a DJI Osmo Mobile SE smartphone stabilizer was used to circle each statue in steady motion with different light conditions. Techniques such as maintaining a consistent distance, scanning in circular motions, and manipulating software settings were evaluated to determine how lighting, motion, and environment affect the final 3D model.
This work offers an interactive and accessible way to engage with Orlando’s layered past. The observations and resulting models from these scans help to refine methods for future scans of other possible cultural heritage sites in Orlando. Kylee’s ongoing experiments with the smartphone’s capabilities offer a cost-effective and portable method for capturing such objects of significance with enough detail to help preserve not just the physical form of monuments, but their emotional and communal significance as well. At Blue Jacket Park, this experiment in 3D preservation invites readers to consider how digital recreations connect Orlando’s landscape with the Navy’s historical and cultural impact on the region.
The Lone Sailor Artist – Stanley Bleifeld – 1986
Blue Jacket Recruit Artist – J. Don Reynolds – 2016