{"id":549,"date":"2020-10-26T09:42:48","date_gmt":"2020-10-26T09:42:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/vpcathedral.chass.ncsu.edu\/?page_id=549"},"modified":"2022-09-10T16:07:45","modified_gmt":"2022-09-10T20:07:45","slug":"future-work","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/vpcathedral.chass.ncsu.edu\/?page_id=549","title":{"rendered":"Future Work in Modeling"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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St Paul’s Cathedral, the South Side.<\/em> Rendering by Austin Corriher<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The Virtual St Paul’s Cathedral Project remains, inevitably, a work in progress. As such, the Visual Model represents a stage in that work. To bring together in one model the things we know or believe we know about the structures in Paul’s Churchyard requires drawing a line at some point in the process of our research. We have done this in the full knowledge that there is more to know, that new information will appear; indeed, we hope that our work will inspire other people to continue it by looking for new sources of information about the buildings inside Paul’s Churchyard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Potential New Uses of the Model<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Technology moves ever onward, especially in the area of display. During the years of developing the Virtual Paul’s Cross and Virtual Cathedral Projects, this has been especially true. Each new development opens the possibility of new uses for our visual models.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Augmented Reality<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One potential use would be to create an augmented reality version which would enable the user to move around Paul’s Churchyard with a viewing device that would enable the user to see our model from the perspective of the position in which the user happened to be standing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, one could stand along and see Wren’s Cathedral in front, but see on the viewing device our model of St Paul’s and Paul’s Churchyard from the same position, (The two images below do not line up exactly, but one can still get a sense of the experience that an augmented reality use of the model might provide. )<\/p>\n\n\n

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St Paul’s Cathedral from the Southeast. Image courtesy Google Maps<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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St Paul’s from the Southeast. Image rendered by Austin Corriher<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

With an augmented reality version of our model, the user could wander around Paul’s Churchyard and inside the Cathedral itself, comparing past and present along the way. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Virtual Reality<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Virtual Cathedral Project includes a VR version of the Choir area of the Cathedral, go here https:\/\/vpcathedral.chass.ncsu.edu\/?page_id=2322 <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n

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St Paul\u2019s Cathedral, the Choir.<\/em><\/strong> From the Virtual Reality model, realized by Grey Isley.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Inside this rendering of the Visual Model, one can move about the Choir at will. Still in the works is an enhanced version which will include access to the recordings of the worship services at the center of the Cathedral Project, which will change in sound as the user moves about the space. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With world enough, and time and money, we will complete the VR experience to include the rest of the Cathedral’s interior as well as the Churchyard around the Cathedral. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adding Human Figures<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The observant user of the sites and models clustered under the Virtual Donne umbrella will notice that the visual images on the Paul’s Cross site and the Trinity Chapel site contain human figures to suggest the relative size of spaces and to clarify how people used these spaces for worship. However, fewer of the images on the Cathedral site are populated by human figures. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some are.<\/p>\n\n\n

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St Paul’s Cathedral, the Choir<\/em>. Rendering by Austin Corriher<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

But many, including some of the most important ones, are not. <\/p>\n\n\n

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St Paul’s Cathedral, the Choir<\/em>. Rendering by Austin Corriher<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

This is a limitation of our work, the consequence of the need to address more pressing visualization needs at the end of our funding period. It can, of course, be remedied. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Documenting the Models<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another feature of our Visual Models still to be developed is a way to document for each image the sources we drew on in creating a model of a specific building or creating a specific space between buildings. We hoped to create a system which — if one hovered a mouse pointer over a specific image of St Paul’s or any other structure in our models — would link the user directly from an image to the source data for that image and to a discussion of what kind of representation this image creates. We thus hoped to clarify whether any particular model uses highly specific or concrete data or whether it draws on our knowledge of what a building of this age and this function would have generally looked like, thus demonstrating whether this specific image is highly accurate or more or less generic or representational.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All the models on view in this website are based on data gathered from a variety of sources. Some of the buildings draw on specific images; others are more generic, based on visual records of buildings from the 16th and 17th centuries of the same scale, or built for the same use, or As discussed here on this website (https:\/\/vpcathedral.chass.ncsu.edu\/?page_id=122), part of this data comes from archaeological excavations. The foundations of St Paul’s and of the Paul’s Cross preaching station are still in the ground in London and have been excavated at various points since the Great Fire. For dimensions of width and the specific location of the building itself there is truly hard data, for the stones speak for themselves. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the height of the building — and of the windows and various levels of wall sections — we can thank Christopher Wren, who, before the Great Fire, created a design for renovating the Cathedral which he embodied in a scale drawing which shows an unfortunate dome to replace what was left of the medieval tower. For our purposes, however, we are grateful to Wren for including a scale drawing of the medieval interior walls. <\/p>\n\n\n

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\u00a0Christopher Wren, Scale Drawing of pre-Fire St Paul\u2019s Showing Proposed Dome (1665-6). Image courtesy Warden and Fellows, All Souls College, Oxford.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Other data contemporary with the building comes from the visual record, most notably the drawings and engravings of Wenseslaus Hollar for William Dugdale’s History of St Paul’s<\/em>, published in 1658. As we discuss elsewhere, these images differ in both large ways and small, calling for careful review. For other buildings, we might note a general location and roof style from an image and depend on the historic record to help us fill in the details. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Again, this work still lies in the future. Substituted for it is an extended discussion of kinds of data, how we used it, go here: https:\/\/vpcathedral.chass.ncsu.edu\/wp-admin\/post.php?post=122&action=edit<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Polishing the Eagle<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, we have recently become aware of a document that indicates that a member of the Cathedral’s custodial staff received payment for “polishing the eagle.” What this means is not clear from the document, but it might mean that St Paul’s had a brass lectern with an eagle on it used in the Choir to hold the folio copy of the Bible — in the 1620’s, the Authorized, or King James Bible of 1611 — from which the Lessons appointed by the Prayer Book Lectionary would have been read during services. <\/p>\n\n\n

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Eagle Lecterns. Images courtesy Wikimedia Commons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These brass lecterns were common in cathedrals and churches in the 16th and 17th centuries; the one pictured above is c. 1500. We considered making the one in our model a lectern like this but opted for a simpler design since we had no specific evidence that St Paul’s lectern was of this design or materials. Future versions of our model may well want to adopt this design so that the custodians of our model may be able to earn extra money by polishing this eagle.<\/p>\n\n\n