Event Summary:

Talk: What Can You Do with a 3D Reconstruction of Ancient Rome?
by Dr. Bernard Frischer, DIRECTOR of the Virtual Heritage Track, and PROFESSOR of Informatics at the School of Informatics, Computing, & Engineering at Indiana University Bloomington
DIRECTOR of the Rome Reborn Project

When: Thursday, March 14, 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Where: Rooms C201/C202, The Graduate Center, CUNY
365 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10016

RSVP HERE.

What Can You Do with a 3D Reconstruction of Ancient Rome?

The Rome Reborn project is an international initiative, launched in 1996, to create a 3D reconstruction of ancient Rome in AD 320, shortly before the capital of the empire was moved to Constantinople. This year was chosen because it represents the peak of the urban development of the ancient city. The model took 22 years to complete. In August 2018, it was finally made available to scholars and to the general public through the VR publisher Flyover
Zone Productions (see: www.romereborn.org).

The Rome Reborn model has the potential to enrich K-16 curricula, making it possible for newcomers to the subject of Roman topography and urban history to obtain a quick visualization of the monuments in their context in the city. The purpose of this talk is not to explore these instructional applications of the model but to draw out its scientific uses as a tool of discovery. The point of departure is the claim that a reconstruction of a complex city like ancient
Rome (with ca. 7,000 buildings covering 14 sq. km. of space within the late-antique walls) is a case in point of Aristotle’s famous idea (Met. 1045a8-10) that “the whole is not a heap but something other than the sum of the parts.” Until now, Roman topographers have approached the imperial city by concentrating on a specific monument or on the prestige building projects of an individual emperor of dynasty. Now, thanks to the availability of the interactive city model, we can look at the city in a more holistic, synchronic and dynamic way. Like all new scientific instruments, Rome Reborn allows us to make observations and to run experiments—experiments and observations that in the case of a historical discipline such as Roman archaeology would have been impossible without true time travel. This talk will illustrate the validity of the claim with three case studies at different scales and from three
different perspectives or vantage points: the alignment of two monuments seen from a fixed position (the relationship of the Montecitorio Obelisk to the Ara Pacis); the dynamically changing viewsheds available to the visitor in the densely-packed Roman Forum (the visit of Constantius II to Rome in AD 357); and, as noticeable in a series of bird’s eye views, the application of organic, as opposed to geometric, urban planning and land use in the entire cityscape.

Rome Reborn VR: A demonstration of the recently published applications

The Rome Reborn project is an international initiative, launched in 1996, to create a 3D reconstruction of ancient Rome in AD 320, shortly before the capital of the empire was moved to Constantinople. This year was chosen because it represents the peak of the urban development of the ancient city. The model took 22 years to complete. In August 2018, it was finally made available to scholars and to the general public through the VR publisher Flyover Zone Productions.

In this demonstration, you will be able to use the Oculus Go headset to try out the project’s recently published applications, including “The Roman Forum,” “The Basilica of Maxentius and Constantine,” “A Flight over the Ancient City,” “The Pantheon,” and “The Colosseum District.”

For more information about the speaker, please see: https://bernardfrischer.academia.edu/

RSVP HERE.