Browsing by Author "Jaskot, Paul B"

Vernacular architectural studies are an integral part of the world’s cultural heritage research. Compared with other tangible or intangible cultural heritage, the physical properties of vernacular architecture and its site-specific nature make it difficult to be physically exhibited in museums, thus limiting the dissemination of vernacular culture and impeding the potential conservation awareness of its audiences. The development of new media technology in the 21st century, represented by virtual reality in particular, has helped to alleviate this cultural communication deadlock. This thesis focuses on the traditional architecture of Huizhou, and consists of a written paper and a digital project. The written paper explores the origins of Huizhou culture and discusses how long-term developments in ethnography, social history, and the natural environment have influenced the unique appearance and design concepts of Huizhou architecture. Moreover, based on the spatial affordances of digital media, the paper discusses how virtual reality (VR) technology can enhance the experience of, accessibility to, and interactivity with Huizhou architecture as represented through 3D reconstruction. The digital part of the thesis is a VR application called “Virtual Huizhou,” and was developed in Unreal Engine 5. This application is a 3D reconstruction of Yin Yu Tang. It will also demonstrate the role of VR in enhancing visitors’ interests and evoking cultural and emotional experiences through the following aspects: 3D models, interface design, and user experience functionalities.

As the largest cave of Buddhist art with thousands of murals spanning ten dynasties, the Dunhuang Mogao cave has been described as a “peerless cave” because of its fabulous frescos and handcrafted delicate sculptures. However, tourism and in-cave human activities had damaged the frescos; only a few caves are now open with limited accessibility for global visitors and the public. In addition, Dunhuang Cave authorities set strict rules to exclude some people, such as people in wheelchairs, to protect the murals and sculptures from possible damage. This thesis project aims to address this problem by modeling how digital environments might provide universal access to the cave by marginalized and excluded groups. The thesis project includes two separate digital sections: a Unity VR (Virtual Reality) immersive experience and a web-based Story Map with a three-dimensional view of selected murals. The thesis project not only provides an immersive experience for worldwide visitors but also unlocks the door for the possibilities of preserving cultural heritage by using innovative digital methods. Through the use of Maya and Steam, the Unity game engine can be used to curate a virtual space by placing the audience into well-textured 3D cave models, while the web-based story map can be used to contextualize basic background knowledge and provides a comprehensive text explanation of the Silk Road and Buddhist culture to inform the user’s understanding of what they are seeing. Overall, this thesis demonstrates endeavors to discover more possibilities and opportunities for historical and cultural heritage protection while not losing access.

Hilma af Klint, an oft-cited but underresearched Swedish artist, is often included in art historical literature on art and spirituality. And yet, the assumed art world affinity between Swedish artist Hilma af Klint and other leading voices on the topic – above all, the Austrian philosopher and esotericist Rudolf Steiner and Russian artist Wassily Kandinsky – demonstrates an urgency to place af Klint within a framework she doesn’t quite belong. This has subsequently led to a misunderstanding of her complexity as an artist and the broader question of spirituality and art. A lack of thorough visual analysis of her early works in much of the secondary scholarship, in addition to the absence of archival research, allows for these speculative claims. However, attending to a closer analysis of her visual imagery as well as available archival information questions the supposed affiliation of af Klint in particular to the assumed work of Steiner. The accepted narrative of af Klint’s relationship to Steiner claims he negatively impacted her works between the years 1908 and 1912. I employ analog, digital, and historical methods to explore this interesting albeit problematic encounter between af Klint and Steiner. These methods afford the opportunity to consider these connections in new and different ways. Analog, digital, and historical methods establish that the Steiner narrative in much of the secondary literature can only be understood as speculative. In addition, digital methods afford an opportunity to analyze this particular moment anew with the assistance of interactive data visualization software and text analytics systems. These systems not only indicate that there was no shift in her iconography before 1908 and after 1912, but also demonstrate the importance of re-evaluating this particular moment in af Klint’s life.

The purpose of this thesis is to visualize the economic system (supply, production, and transportation) and the logistics of the movement of marble in the Roman Empire in an effort to better understand the larger system of material movement in Imperial Rome. This will be accomplished through a digital case study on the largest surviving bath complex in Rome, the Baths of Caracalla, for which we have evidence of the types of materials used in its construction and speculative observations on the quarries from which this material was procured. In order to effectively demonstrate this system and to accurately locate the Baths of Caracalla within the imperial trade network, a detailed visualization of the marble quarries and the web of transportation routes using ArcGIS Pro mapping software was created. Using ArcGIS Pro as a heuristic tool, this map will show the quarry sites and reconstruct the transportation routes by which marble was moved over long distances for the Baths of Caracalla in Rome. While the digital humanities have used the city of Rome as a site for experimental mapping projects on various subjects, this map on the stone quarries in the Roman Empire in relation to the Baths of Caracalla will be the first digital humanities mapping project of its type.

During the Late Antique and Early Byzantine periods, women were fundamental to the expansion and development of the Christian religion. While many sources detailing the lives of these individuals have been lost, the objects owned by elite women may provide answers where text cannot. A collection of lead flasks belonging to Theodelinda (c. 570-627), a seventh century Lombard queen, present an opportunity to study how women exercised power through patronage.The Monza collection has been analyzed extensively as the remaining material culture of early Christian pilgrimage. Although the material, creation, and decoration allude to the Holy Land, the flasks have been housed in northern Italy since their acquisition by the Queen Theodelinda. Art historical and archaeological works have mostly sought to tie the visual traits of individual objects to their role in pilgrimage. Other aspects, such as the collection’s relation to space and role in patronage, are less apparent and therefore have been under investigated. Until we understand these facets, knowledge of the flasks and their owner, Theodelinda, will remain limited. This thesis aims to reconsider the spatial significance of the ampullae through Theodelinda’s perspective. Building from previous literature, the project combines analog and digital approaches to form new perspectives on the collection. Maps created with ESRI’s ArcGIS contextualize the ampullae within the larger spheres of seventh century Holy Land pilgrimage and medieval queenship. A model constructed from images of ampullae of the Aedicule in the Holy Sepulchre using SketchUp and Unity visualizes one way that the symbolic iconography may have been viewed by Theodelinda. Through this multi-dimensional, visual approach to space, a better understanding of the affordances of digital and analog methods may be achieved, as well as a greater comprehension of the power of the Monza Ampullae and, in turn, their owner, Theodelinda.

The Kraków Ghetto was created in March 1941. Thousands of Jews lived in the blocks of the ghetto before it was liquidated two years later. Studies of Nazi ghettos often focus on the ideology behind ghettoization policies or the exceptional responses of individuals by means of covert action and resistance. There has been a lack of attention paid toward understanding the lives of those who lived in the ghetto or even investigations into developing a methodology for studying experiences of such space. Testimonies from survivors are rich sources of evidence that allow those who witnessed the ghetto to describe their own memories and perceptions. They are evidence of tough ethical situations that are otherwise difficult to imagine or capture.

Digital methods offer ways to explore difficult spaces and to ask spatial questions about a ghetto that no longer exists. I use historical research and digital methods to create visualizations that might help us better understand experiences of the Kraków Ghetto. While testimonies dictate the narratives shown in each of my visualizations, an understanding of the specific media of audiovisual testimonies, and the mediating presence of collecting institutions and databases is critical to engaging with this body of evidence. In this project, I use ESRI’s ArcGIS Pro to create a map of the ghetto and 3D buildings from point-cloud data. Models are animated in Autodesk 3ds Max to visualize specific audio narratives from testimonies. While the Kraków Ghetto is the focus of study, this project argues that digital visualizations have the potential to capture the affective qualities of testimonies and illustrate ambiguous bodies of evidence. Developing a digital methodology is crucial to future studies into spaces of confinement.

The Paris Temple is a monument that has been lost since the start of the 19th century. This thesis aims to digitally reconstruct this monument in a new virtual environment in order to explore the value of digital modeling and mapping. Asking: can we consider these tools effective or not when attempting to reconcile incommensurable historical evidence on spaces that have been either destroyed or transformed? The thesis first reviews the current state of scholarship, in conjunction with the use of digital techniques, surrounding both the Order of the Knights Templar and medieval architecture as a whole.

Through a synthesis of both analog and digital methods a new perspective can be reached. Mapping in this project is only used to contextualize the Paris Temple in the entirety of the Templar Network that spread across Europe. ESRI’s ArcGIS was the mapping tool used to make this map, and a combination of Vectorworks and Autodesk Fusion 360 were used to make the Paris Temple’s model. With these digital techniques the scale of the historical evidence is able to be manipulated in three different ways: in its capacity, temporal qualities, and proximity to the object. Through this manipulation and essential modeling a more holistic understanding of the site was reached.

After the Great Fire of 1666 decimated London, Sir Christopher Wren was commissioned to oversee the reconstruction of parish churches, St. Paul’s Cathedral, and numerous infrastructure and architecture projects in the city. Though his plan for the city’s layout was rejected, Wren’s work on parish churches and the city cathedral stamped his mark on the urban fabric of London. His steeples, towers, and domes elevated English Baroque architectural features into the skyline. Wren is one of the most well-known and biographed British architects; yet while his London parish churches have been extensively studied by architectural historians, there is little scholarship of how his churches were spatially situated and observed from the ground level in the early modern period. The Wren parish churches have instead been discussed within the historical context of the arrival of Renaissance treatises and knowledge in England, as well as the urban history of London’s reconstruction after the Great Fire. This project is localized to St. Bride’s Church, Fleet Street, and asks how its steeple was viewed and experienced in the early modern period. To this end, the neighborhood around St. Bride’s was schematically recreated in ArcGIS Pro to enable spatial analyses. The results of these analyses indicate that the visibility of St. Bride’s was impeded along Fleet Street in the eponymous parish by the ad hoc spatiality of in the early-modern period, as it continues to be in the contemporary day; instead, St. Martin and St. Paul’s were visible. Furthermore, the spatial analyses revealed that the steeple of St. Bride was observable from Ludgate in the neighboring parish of St. Martin. This thesis discusses these results as interparish visibility, and evaluates what these analyses suggest about the early modern neighborhood surrounding St. Bride’s.

Life in Cuba is largely defined by el Partido Comunista de Cuba’s (PCC) tradition of governance. Since the ratification of Decree 349 in 2018 – a law that punitively curtails freedom of expression – Cuba has witnessed an upsurge in publicly staged resistance. The emergence of several artist-led, non-partisan civic groups, united by their fight for human rights, exemplifies this. Two prominent examples are el Movimiento San Isidro (MSI) and 27N. This thesis investigates how the artistic interventions of MSI, 27N, and their members can be understood as decolonial praxis. To navigate and convey this argument and its associated logics, this thesis employs a two-part methodological approach: exploratory mapping in digital and analog forms, as well as critical feminist and queer phenomenological analysis that is woven with Doreen Massey’s relational spatial theory.