Marco MONTANARI | Lucia MARSICANO
(OpenHistoryMap, Bologna, Italy)
Keywords: 3d; virtual reality; bologna; unity;
Abstract:
Bologna 1116 is the result of a study conducted by an interdisciplinary team composed archaeologists and engineers. The research is focused on the history of the city of Bologna during the middle ages and the final result is an application of immersive virtual reality.
The presentation will cover the experience of the creation of the “Bologna 1116” application and the good and bad aspects of a complex archaeological reconstruction in a situation lacking of documents and artifacts due to architectural stratifications and building reuse.
The choice of the timespan and the area is crucial for a very complex period and location when Bologna was not yet the city we know today and was assisting to very important social and political changes, both on a local and a global level. Bologna sees an enormous growth in the period between 1080 and 1150.
The result is a 3D reconstruction of the city as it looked like after the death of Matilda di Canossa when Bologna was different and not characterized by its famous skyline.
The towers were rare, the Asinelli Tower was the first one in the city outskirts and the Garisenda was still in construction next to Asinelli.
The application shows a city with several construction sites and it’s possible to discover how construction work was done during the XII century. This reconstruction was possible thanks to studies and comparisons with other contexts mostly in northern Italy.
There are also showed the daily activities in the city during the day and the night and it is possible to see characters interacting in the streets and buying goods in the marketplace.
The result is pleasant to see but not photorealistic and the standardization of some buildings is a choice to allow the users to understand that the reconstruction is largely hypothetical.
Relevance for the conference: Experience from the field trying to create an interesting edutainment tool keeping in mind the many issues from the world of gaming.
Relevance for the session: Within the session we will propose solutions for the entertainment part of edutainment.
Innovation: Choosing gaming approaches for a CH reconstruction helps easing the users into non obvious educational systems
References:
• http://www.progettocaere.rm.cnr.it/databasegestione/open_oai_page.asp?id=oai:www.progettocaere.rm.cnr.it/databasegestione/A_C_oai_Archive.xml:931
• http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/7419502/