Representation Of Monuments Research Articles

Design of Virtual Reality Based Game for Dual Enhancement of City Monuments and Brand Image

The increasing accessibility of Virtual reality (VR) technology presents an opportunity for enhancing human immersion in several domains (Industrial, Social, Media, Cultural heritage, etc.). Moreover, it has huge impact to leverage its interaction and engagement; to un-dominate person on live, work, and diversion. The development of innovative VR-driven method is a sign of evolvement witnessed by the interaction design industry. In this respect, the work presents a complete framework for the design of virtual reality-based game; offering features, mechanisms, and 3D models that facilitate the development of interactive scenes, which reveal of the city’s historic monuments reality. The main research question focuses on empirically establishing the impact of virtual reality on video game design, including its influence on in-game cultural placement and its potential to enhance the retention of legacy game experiences within players’ memories. The results show that the game experience is felt original, enjoyable, and appealing for the user’s target group. Also, participants appreciate the use of VR technologies to explore cultural scenes and product; and to enhance empathy within a virtual experience. Furthermore, our research extends recent studies, proposing a VR-based design methodology, as well as, an assessing process. It guides the creation of visual representation of monuments, artifacts, and culture. Moreover, it improves user’s point of view and knowledge of the place they visit, within playing the WallysCar Crash Team Racing (WCTR) game. Our project intended to achieve a twofold purpose related to the Tunisian context: discovering the popular “Sfax City” with historical and patrimonial monumental heritage, while promoting the local industry creation.

Co‐temporality and Sovremennost': Late Imperial and Early Soviet Photographs

Co‐temporality and <i>Sovremennost'</i>: Late Imperial and Early Soviet Photographs

Anton Martin Lublinský, that is Karl Dankwart : a few words about the painting Martin Středa as defender of Brno and its author

The painting Martin Středa as defender of Brno (Moravian Gallery in Brno) is the most monumental representation of the Jesuit Martin Středa / Stredonius (1587–1649), who won fame and the eternal gratitude of the citizens of Brno for his active participation in the defence of the city during the four-month siege by the Swedish army in 1645. Older authors saw Michael Willmann as the author of the painting. However, Milan Togner attributed this work to Anton Martin Lublinský (1636–1690). As it turns out today, the author of this monumental work was Karl Dankwart († 1704) – the author of numerous fresco decorations and oil paintings and court painter to the Polish king John III Sobieski. The authorship of this Silesian artist of Swedish origin is supported both by formal analogies and the provenance of the painting from the former Jesuit conventin Brno. Dankwart's painting of Father Středa was probably a part of the gallery of full-figure portraits of the founders and benefactors of the convent. We can assume that the picture was not the only work that Dankwart produced for the Jesuits of Brno.

Виртуальное измерение памятника и его репрезентация в цифровую эпоху

The process of transformation of communicative practices of interpretation and popularization of cultural heritage in the framework of the accelerating dissemination and integration of digital technologies in all spheres of human activity is considered. The rhizomorphism of modern digital culture is analyzed, which inevitably aff ects the nature of the representation of monuments in virtual space. It is hypothesized that, despite the variety of approaches presented for creating digital avatars of cultural institutions and cultural heritage objects in a virtual environment, none of the currently existing solutions for Saint-Petersburg makes it possible to represent a cultural heritage object in the context of its retrospective visualization and connection with other culturally signifi cant objects, such as events and personalities. Conceptual grounds are proposed for a deeper understanding of the cultural monument as a subject of representation. An attempt is made to comprehend the representative capabilities of digital instruments, moreover, the question of the need to develop a full-scale and multi-functional digital platform for representing cultural heritage sites is raised.

An integrated VR/AR framework for user-centric interactive experience of cultural heritage: The ArkaeVision project

The ArkaeVision project is aimed at enabling a new way of enjoying Cultural Heritage through a more engaging and culturally-qualified user experience. The main goal is the creation of a technological infrastructure for the permanent enhancement of cultural resources. Hence, ArkaeVision represents a user-centric integrated system able to offer different modalities of exploitation of Cultural Heritage assets, including virtual representations of monuments, works of art and objects, as well as the stories associated to them. ArkaeVision therefore introduces a new communication paradigm, made of game-alike exploration of a 3D environment, virtually reconstructed, with elements of digital fiction and an engaging stortytelling, applied to two case studies: the exploration of the Hera II Temple of Paestum with Virtual Reality (VR) technology, and the exploration of the slab of the Swimmer Tomb with Augmented Reality (AR). The emotional component is fundamental in ArkaeVision, because it generates the motivation and leads people to use immersive viewers, as the HTC Vive, which allow the learning process to be activated more quickly, as many cognitivists and psychologists reported in the latest researches. Also the involvement of users through gamification is well expressed in ArkaeVision. This model of action (and interaction) designed for the public allows to emphasize the role of users through a system that is “guided” by their choices and times, in order to increase users’ engagement within the virtual exploration, and favour the content understanding by direct experience. Evaluations conducted on a preliminary prototype suggested that the communicative approach is very promising for education and engagement into cultural heritage experiences.

Monuments in the Structure of an Urban Environment: The Source of Social Memory and the Marker of the Urban Space

The major research objective was to analyze the role of monuments in the formation of local residents’ and guests’ representations about the city, its history and traditions. The authors consider the system of monuments’ location in the urban space as a way of its social construction, as the system of influence on citizens’ aesthetic feelings, as the formation of their attitudes towards maintaining of continuity in the activities of different generations for the improvement of the territory of their permanent residence.Methodology. An urban monument is considered in two ways: as a transfer of historical memory and as a social memory transfer, which includes the experience of previous generations. One of the main provisions of the study is the idea that monuments can lose their former social value, transforming into “simple” objects of a public place. The study was conducted in the city of Yekaterinburg, one of the largest, cultural, scientific and industrial Russian megalopolises in 2015. The primary data was collected using standardized interviews. Four hundred and twenty respondents at the age of and above 18 were questioned on the basis of quota sampling. Interviews with respondents were conducted in order to identify key problems involved and reasons for shaping respondents’ representations of monuments in the urban environment typical for the population of Russian megalopolises. The standardized interview guide included 15 questions.Findings and discussion. Our investigation has revealed that different monuments fulfil various functions in an urban environment (ideological, aesthetic, transferring, valuable, etc.). The study has unequivocally confirmed that objects in the urban space have a different emotional colour background: people paint them in accordance with the feelings that arise in their perception. Hence, some monuments effectively fulfil the functions of social memory transfer: they are remembered, they tell us about the events to which they point. Other monuments in the physical space remain in citizens’ consciousness only as a point on the map of the city.It has been found that “old” and “new” monuments as semantic points of the urban space have an ambiguous perception and a significance for the citizen: some monuments are inscribed in mental maps, while others are ignored or their appearance is condemned.

INTERDISCIPLINARY DATA FUSION FOR DIACHRONIC 3D RECONSTRUCTION OF HISTORIC SITES

Abstract. In recent decades, 3D reconstruction has progressively become a tool to show archaeological and architectural monuments in their current state, presumed past aspect and to predict their future evolution. The 3D representations trough time can be useful in order to study and preserve the memory of Cultural Heritage and to plan maintenance and promotion of the historical sites. This paper represent a case study, at architectonic and urbanistic scale, based on methodological approach for CH time-varying representations proposed by JPI-CH European Project called Cultural Heritage Through Time (CHT2). The work is focused on the area of Milan Roman circus, relatively to which was conducted both a thorough philological research based on several sources and a 3D survey campaign of still accessible remains, aiming at obtaining the monumental representation of the area in 3 different ages.

Access to complex reality-based 3D models using virtual reality solutions

Abstract Cultural Heritage is a precious resource that witnesses our past and that should be transmitted to future generations. The creation of digital 3D representation of monuments and sites have been demonstrated to be a reliable method for preservation and historical purposes. In order to preserve a high level of detail, the reconstructed point cloud will typically contain millions of points, which could result in several GB of data when stored on disk. For these reasons, a challenge for the scientific community is to find new ways to visualize and disclose 3D digital contents, obtaining a better access and communication of the Cultural Heritage information. In this paper, Virtual Reality (VR) devices are employed to provide not only a simple visualization but also an immersive experience for digitally reconstructed heritage scenarios. Oculus Rift (VR visualization headset) and Kinect (depth sensor for user interaction) are integrated in order to interact and navigate in a complex 3D or 4D (temporal) archaeological scene as well as to have access to digital media contents of several MB of size. In this way, archaeological sites or fragile environments with forbidden access due the preservation policies can also be virtually visited and inspected.

Automation in heritage – Parametric and associative design strategies to model inaccessible monuments: The case-study of eighteenth-century Lisbon Águas Livres Aqueduct

This paper discusses a methodology used in the 3D virtual representation of monuments whose characteristics and function make them unsuitable for an integrated survey and modelling study. We therefore analysed the potential of Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) tools, which combine geometry with alpha numeric metadata.Parametric and associative geometry allows updating the automatic model so that whenever there is a new survey or new findings emerge, the whole model does not need to be reworked, except for the relevant components, which renders unnecessary its complete reformulation in future updates. This makes the modelling process applicable to any inaccessible monument. Moreover, it is also possible to explore the potential of these strategies for heritage management.We chose an extensive monument, the Águas Livres Aqueduct, a Portuguese national monument in and near Lisbon, of which we present the first outputs in this paper.

On the threshold of certainty: The incredulity of Thomas in the narthex of the katholikon of the Hosios Loukas monastery

The katholikon of the Hosios Loukas monastery, built around the first quarter of the eleventh century, has a narthex with a mosaic decoration on its west side. The Incredulity of Thomas is included amongst the scenes of the Passion. This paper examines the iconographic, liturgical, and dogmatic roles of the Incredulity within the context of the overall program and the liminal space of the narthex. This monumental representation evidences how depictions of the Incredulity engaged with changing beliefs concerning the senses and faith. In particular, I focus on the implications of the believer?s bi-directional movement through the narthex on entering and exiting the church. Iconographically, the representation of a door behind Christ and His wound are understood as symbolic conformation of His divine nature and a marker of the path believers should follow to attain salvation. As a confirmation of Christ?s dual nature, the Incredulity of Thomas is read in relation to funerary and Eucharistic contexts as relating to the narthex of Hosios Loukas.

Evolution of the architectural and heritage representation

Since the 16th Century, the construction of monuments and historical sites has undergone a significant change, due to the constant developments in measuring techniques and tools. Old world travellers returned with detailed descriptions on distant cultures, many of them including illustrations and representations of monuments and settings. Since the 19th Century, research on these ancient cultures claimed for detailed and accurate architectural representations, and heritage started being catalogued. The sketches were complemented with topographic surveys and illustrated reports. Discrete and subjective techniques to acquire information led to other massive data acquisition techniques, including space and theme-related. Digital photogrammetry or laser scanning reproduce characteristics far beyond mere geometry or spatial position. Currently, a 3D representation divided into 2D planes is inadequate with the availability of 3D virtual models, including colour and texture information. Geographic information systems (GIS) that link alphanumerical information to graphic representations simplify the analysis and data access for cataloguing architectural heritage. A historical review of all the above-mentioned techniques is made stressing the main advances achieved in architectural heritage management.

Angel of Empire: The Cawnpore Memorial Well as a British Site of Imperial Remembrance

Angel of Empire: The Cawnpore Memorial Well as a British Site of Imperial Remembrance Stephen Heathorn At the centre of the north Indian city of Kanpur1 sit fifty acres of urban green space. Surrounded by a brightly painted iron railing, this city-owned oasis within the bustling industrial metropolis is Nana Rao Park. Like many civic spaces, it contains a commemorative statue: in this case it is a likeness of the brilliant leader of Sepoy rebels during the 1857 uprising, Tantia Topi. This statue is relatively new, barely fifty years old; the park is much older, first laid out over 145 years ago. The statue is surrounded by four marble frogs, and stands overlooking a large, empty, sandstone circle.2 Without prior knowledge, a visitor to this park today, and indeed perhaps most of the current residents of the city,3 would have no inkling that the blank sandstone circle within this pleasant but otherwise non-descript civic oasis was once the most venerated locale of the British raj. Nano Rao Park was, before 1949, the Cawnpore Memorial Gardens, and the sandstone circle overlooked by the Tantia Topi statue is all that is now left of the memorial well monument, built on the site of the final resting place of over 125 British women and children killed in Cawnpore on 15 July 1857, amidst the upheaval of the 1857–58 “Mutiny.”4 The well monument was removed, and the site leveled by the British themselves a year after India achieved independence, an act necessitated by the financial and political inability of the British to protect the site from defacement, and the vain – as the subsequent placement of the Tantia Topi statue indicates – attempt to prevent the site from being appropriated by Indian nationalists.5 This article examines the significance of the memorial well for the British imperial project and the history of the raj, and provides an indication of why, ten years after its demolition, the site retained enough potent symbolism that politicians in the city thought it necessary to erect a nationalist counter monument on what was an essentially empty space. For the Cawnpore memorial well was, for much of its 85 year existence, the iconic site of imperial remembrance in the British raj: a site that during the last third of the Nineteenth Century was reportedly more often visited by Europeans in India than was the Taj Mahal.6 In his seminal edited collection, Les Lieux de mémoire, Pierre Nora argued that a variety of French objects, places, and concepts have become the fixed, externalized “sites” of what was once an internalized, social memory.7 The move from “living” collective memory to the deliberate preservation of memory in historical ways – what a number of theorists have suggested as the characteristic project of modernity8 – developed because spontaneous social memory no longer functions as it once did. Nora’s project was to subject such sites of memory to rigorous analysis, examining them, largely, as self-referential signifiers of French national identity.9 While the argument pursued here shows that the paradigm of “sites” of memory also works in a colonial context, it also demonstrates that a memorial monument such as that at Cawnpore cannot alone convey transparent expressions of intended (or even accreted) social and political meaning: the object does not, nor ever did, speak for itself. To determine significance we must examine the intermediaries between the social and political worlds and the monumental representation; how observers have perceived and interpreted the meaning of the object and transmitted that perception to others. If, as is suggested by Nora, particular sites becomes the locus of collective memory, then we should conceptualize not only who keeps that memory – who, in other words, remembers and why – but also how a particular site keeps its association with a particular memory, which is “the result of the interaction among three types of historical factors: the intellectual and cultural traditions that frame all our representations of the past, the memory makers who selectively adopt and manipulate these traditions, and the memory consumers who use, ignore, or transform such artifacts according to their own interests.”10 Only if we use this “hermeneutical triangle” – a...

Against Forgetting: Notes on Revision and the Writing of History

Against Forgetting: Notes on Revision and the Writing of History

The Biography of a Memorial Icon: Nathan Rapoport's Warsaw Ghetto Monument

ion, in addition to the ways it diffuses a work's sense of mimetic witness, may frustrate as well the memorial's capacity as locus for shared self-image and commonly held ideals. In its hermetic and personal vision, abstraction encourages private visions in viewers, which would defeat the communal and collective aims of public memorials. On the one hand, the specificity of realistic figuration would seem to thwart multiple messages, while abstract sculpture could accommodate as many meanings as could be projected onto it. But in fact, it is almost always a figurative monument like the Warsaw Ghetto Monument that serves as point of departure for political performances. It is as if figurative sculpture like this were needed to engage viewers with likenesses of people, to evoke an empathic link between viewer and monument that might then be marshaled into particular meaning. In referring to the general condition of the world, an inner state of mind, broken trust in mankind, or even art's inability to represent the real, abstract forms still offer artists the widest possible variety of expression. Maya Lin's succinctly abstract Vietnam Veterans Memorial, for example, commemorates the nation's ambivalence toward the Vietnam War and its veterans in ways altogether unavailable in figuration.8 Instead of merely condemning the figurative mode as archaic and out-of-touch, however, we might also acknowledge the need in public audiences for figuration, even as we recall the constructed nature of figurative iconography. In this way, we can keep monumental figuration from naturalizing itself, from putting a finish on its significance. By breaking the figurative icon into its performative parts and reinvesting the memorial text with the memory of its own constructedness, we might thus remember the essential abstraction of figurative iconography. Through this attention to the activity of memorialization, we might also remind ourselves that public memory is constructed, and that there are worldly consequences in the kinds of historical understanding generated by monuments. Our questions have not been, Can a monument witness events? or How do monuments distort history? but rather, How have monuments like this organized historical memory? What are the social, political, and aesthetic dimensions comprising the monument's public life? What is our role in it all? and finally, What are the consequences for our current lives in light of the ways our past is memoThe Biography of a Memorial Icon 101 This content downloaded from 157.55.39.78 on Wed, 22 Jun 2016 06:10:50 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms rialized? In these questions, we find that the performance of the Warsaw Ghetto Monument depends not on some measured distance between history and its monumental representation but in the conflation of private and public memory, in the memorial activity by which minds reflecting on the past inevitably precipitate in the present historical moment.

Signs of the Cross: Cruciform Symbolism In Wolfram Von Eschenbach’s Willehalm

(1983). Signs of the Cross: Cruciform Symbolism In Wolfram Von Eschenbach’s Willehalm. The Germanic Review: Literature, Culture, Theory: Vol. 58, No. 1, pp. 33-39.

The Column Figures of the Chartres Northern Foreportal and a Monumental Representation of Saint Louis

The Column Figures of the Chartres Northern Foreportal and a Monumental Representation of Saint Louis