White Water Shaker Village: Transitions in Time
Iara Kozan, USA
Jose Kozan, University of Cincinnati, USA
http://www.cerhas.uc.edu/whitewater
White Water Shaker Village: Transitions in Time is a prototype program which presents a small part of the White Water Shaker Village, established in 1824 in Southern Ohio. Today, only a reduced number of the original buildings remains, and even these surviving structures have been altered and used in diverse ways since the Shakers left in the early 1900s. This project developed an accurate digital reconstruction of three historical buildings and the local landscape, generating photorealistic imagery of the village as it was about 1850. Extensive research in old photographs, plans, maps, and contemporary measurements retrieved the architectural features of these buildings, and the further use of photogrammetric processes enhanced the precision of the results.
The program introduces the village history and current site conditions using multiple media formats and delivering the content through a layered, choice-based sequence which makes use of images, text, video, Quicktime VR panoramas, and models for navigation in real-time. This interactive experience aims to explore the potential of virtual reconstructions for understanding the architectural evolution of the village, and provides the user with an interface that enables the visualization of the buildings in different periods of the community's history.
Three buildings are featured in the program: the exterior and interior of the Meeting House; the North Family Dwelling House with its nearby Woodshed; and the Sister's Shop, now destroyed. A digital model with wintry surroundings provides a dramatic view of the context prior to any registered image, inviting the user to enter the environmental and cultural world of the Shakers and to explore aspects of these people's rich but little-known Ohio heritage.
Demonstration: Demonstrations [Close-Up]
Keywords: 3D model, reconstruction, heritage, historical photographs, Shaker
