Digital Humanities Venice Fall School 2014
© 2014 EPFL
The second Digital Humanities Venice Fall School has taken place in Venice from 6 to 10 October and gathered 24 students of Italian, Swiss and American origins, specialised in disciplines like Art History, Literature, as well as Computer Science or Mathematics.
This year, the students worked on a theme at the intersection of history of art and architecture: modelling the coevolution of architectural spaces in relation with artworks display, circulation and gathering. During these five days, fifteen speakers presented aspects of architecture and art history in Venice, as well as softwares and methods to produce 3D representations of interiors of Palace and works of art, or to track movement of such through space and time.
The week organised by Isabella di Lenardo (EPFL) was composed of talks, visits and practical sessions. On Monday, after the introduction by Ca’ Foscari’s rector Michele Bugliesi and DHLAB’s Frédéric Kaplan, Cristiano Guarneri (IUAV) presented the Statuario Pubblico held at the Museo Archeologico. Then, the students visited Palazzo Grimani, were the Statuario was exhibited by the original owners, and followed a talk given by Jan Rössler (Giorgio Cini Foundation) on the architecture and typology of Venetian palaces in 1400-1700. In the evening, all the participants got invited at the Swiss consulate, and enjoyed a jazz concert.
On Tuesday morning, researchers from Ca’ Foscari and EPFL presented the last developments of the Venice Time Machine project and Gillian Crampton Smith (IUAV) spoke about "interaction design”. In the afternoon, students went to see the Statuario Pubblico at the Museo Archeologico, with an introduction from Lorenzo Calvelli (Ca’ Foscari). The following day, Valeria Vitale (King's College London), Olivier Dalang (EPFL), Isabella Di Lenardo (EPFL) and Fabio Pittarello (Ca’ Foscari) presented the concepts of 3D representation and GIS system for cultural heritage. In the afternoon, the students visited Ca’ d’Oro and Ca’ Sagredo, guided by Jan Rössler. Finally, on Thursday, Shelley Mannion (British Museum) talked about “The role of the devices for the museums” and, on Friday, Bernard Aikema (UNIVR) discussed the topic "From private collections of art to public spaces”.
Concurrently, the students got divided into four groups and worked on complementary projects. One group studied the circulation of some particular statues of the Grimani's collection. Another one modelled these statues in 3D. A third group modelled the architectural evolution of Palazzo Grimani. The last group organised a guided virtual tour presenting the results.