Kirk Alexander
Managing Director, Educational Technology and Faculty Support
University of California, Davis
IET Mediaworks
One Shield Ave.
Surge II
Davis CA
95616 USA
http://mediaworks.ucdavis.edu

Kirk Alexander has been interested in both computers and art history since his first years in college. At the time the first computer graphics laboratory was formed at Princeton University during his senior year, Kirk was already working on computer analysis of gothic cathedrals. Shortly after the lab was formed, Kirk was working with the engineering school to help a professor in Art History analyze data from his archaeological dig. Shortly thereafter, work started on putting art images on-line with database and Web browsing technologies. In addition, graphics work started on a virtual walk through of the chapel in the church of San Francesco in Arezzo, Italy, which contains Piero della Francesca’s famous fresco cycle, The Story of The True Cross. Kirk’s largest project came in support of a course taught by art history Professor John Pinto at Princeton, “Rome, The Eternal City.” This project has been expanding for a number years and has now been used by students in several separate offerings of the course. The goal of the project has been to provide students with visual, geographic, historic and literary context related to the architectural history of Rome. With the paper presented at Museums and the Web 2004, a new, more elaborate and interactive interface to the Rome database is presented. It provides an example as to how rich interrelated visual and geographic data can be presented and explored by an on-line observer.

Kirk will present From Virtually Impossible to the Virtual: Building a Dream Exhibition.