Theatre of Pompey
Available
Directors
- Richard Beacham
- James Packer
Summary
The King's Visualisation Lab team (formerly a unit at King's College London) created a series of 3D reconstructions based on previously known scholarly studies of the Theatre of Pompey in Rome. The nineteenth-century architect, Luigi Canina, created a series of hypothetical plans and artistic impressions based on his own investigation of the theatre structure.
The team created an accurate 3D reconstruction based on Canina's plans and also generated a detailed, real-time navigable version of the model.
Much, but not all, of the KVL team's work is still archived at the Department of Digital Humanities at King's, although the Lab was closed down in 2015.
Description
Taken from the King's Visalisation Lab site (Accessed 2017-10-03):
The Pompey Project, directed by Prof. Richard Beacham and Prof. James Packer is the first scientific study of Rome’s first permanent theatre. Recent excavation results and the creation of a definitive series of site-plans, sections, elevations keyed to a complete photographic record have been compiled into an extensive archaeological register recording the details of every known artefact discovered on the site of the theatre complex. The Project has produced a highly detailed computer visualisation of the site and Martin Blazeby from KVL has also modelled in 3D earlier 2D reconstructions by 19th and early 20th century scholars to create a comparative study of earlier interpretations.
The site of the project is rich in information, given generally by James Packer. The home page deals with the site in which the Theatre is. Then, there are various sections about the History of the Theatre from the Antiquity to the Modern Era, about the escavations and the early studies on it, with the reconstructions made by Canina and Victoire Baltard, about the site documentation and a new excavation made between 2001 and 2003. There is also a list of publications, followed by a section devoted to the 3D reconstructions both of the 19th century and of the 21st century. Then, we can find a section about Italian theatres by Hugh Denard and, finally, another one about the Project news.