Created by artist and scholar Christin Washington, 9Night and Good Mourning is an immersive media installation that utilizes Extended Reality to recreate the "Nine Night" Caribbean funerary tradition within a 3D digital model of a Guyanese home. Developed through the African American Digital & Experimental Humanities (AADHum) lab and NarraSpaceXR at the University of Maryland’s College of Arts and Humanities, the project serves as a sensory entrypoint where games, stories, music, and aromatic foods converge to conjure and transition the spirit of the dead. By blending vernacular speech and architecture with spatial media, the exhibition investigates the intersections of African-syncretic spiritualities and immersive technology. Ultimately, it invites visitors to challenge traditional geographies of power and find profound meaning in spaces often marginalized or designated as unlivable.
About Christin
Christin Washington is a PhD Candidate in the Department of American Studies and a Flagship Fellow at the University of Maryland, College Park. She is also the Assistant Director of the African American Digital & Experimental Humanities (AADHum) research and design lab. Christin’s scholarship stretches media and modes of digital storytelling (i.e. photography, photogrammetry, laser scanning, virtual reality) to articulate cultural memory across black geographies. Her current research project, 9Night and Good Mourning, uses speculative mapping to look at Caribbean women’s lives in the context of mourning, space, and digital infrastructure.
She holds an MA in American Studies, a Digital Studies in the Arts and Humanities (DSAH) certificate, and a Museum Scholarship and Material Culture (MSMC) certificate from the University of Maryland, College Park.
Date: Wednesday, March 4, 2026
Time: 3:30-4:30pm (EDT)
Location: Studio X - Carlson Library, First Floor & Zoom
The Voices of XR speaker series is presented by the Center for eXtended Reality, in partnership with Mary Ann Mavrinac Studio X, University Libraries. This series is made possible by Kathy McMorran Murray.
