Digital Crossroads: New Directions in 3D Architectural Modeling in the Humanities—Overview

Abstract

This special issue of Visual Resources examines disparate methodologies and approaches to integrating innovative technologies with research and pedagogy in archaeology and art history. Over the past decade, technology, art history, and archaeology have combined their respective disciplines to develop digital models of ancient monuments and civic spaces. The results range from Web‐based panoramas and static two‐dimensional models to interactive reconstructions of urban environments in three dimensions. Virtual reconstructions allow scholars to consider theoretical issues including sight lines, the function of space, urban interaction, and experimental architectural and engineering problems, including lighting, drainage, and ventilation. Virtual models also provide extraordinary opportunities for collaborative interdisciplinary research among teachers and students in the humanities with computer science, graphic design, and Web design.

Keywords:

• Digital Models
• Archaeology
• Pedagogy
• Virtual Environments
• Digital Humanities

Notes

1 Paul Reilly, “Towards a Virtual Archaeology,” in Proceedings of Computer Applications in Archaeology 1990, British Archaeological Reports, International Series S565, ed. Kris Lockyear and Sebastian Rahtz (Oxford: Archaeopress, 1991), 133–39.

2 Mark Gillings, “Engaging Place: A Framework for the Integration and Realization of Virtual‐Reality Approaches in Archaeology,” in Archaeology in the Age of the Internet– CAA 97–Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology: Proceedings of the 25th Anniversary Conference, University of Birmingham, April 1997, British Archaeological Reports, International Series S750, ed. Lucie Dingwall, Sally Exon, Vince Gaffney, Sue Laflin, and Martijn van Leusen (Oxford: Archaeopress, 1999), 247–54.

3 Maurizio Forte and Alberto Siliotti, Virtual Archaeology: Re‐Creating Ancient Worlds (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1997); Bernard Frischer and Anastasia Dakouri‐Hild, eds., Beyond Illustration: 2D and 3D Digital Technologies as Tools for Discovery in Archaeology, British Archaeological Reports, International Series S1805 (Oxford: Archaeopress, 2008).

4 Most recently: http://www.caa2009.org/; http://www.vsmm2009.org/; http://www.rgis.lt.ritsumei.ac.jp/cipa2009/; http://conference.collegeart.org/2009/; http://webwise2009.fcla.edu/ (all accessed 20 July 2009).