The virtual environment of the Via Appia in 3D can be seen live and interactively in the exhibition. The camera flies through that environment on six different beamers. Six monuments located close to each other along the road have been used to show more than a hundred points of view from historical image makers. Where did they really stand when they took a photo or a sketch or drawing? From viewpoint to viewpoint on the road gives a picture of how the Via Appia has changed over time and how the road has been seen.
The interactive 3D environment can also be visited and used live on the internet. Walk along the road from monument to monument and from viewpoint to viewpoint. Look at where image makers have stood in the past and in the present. Marvel at the changes over time. From ruins to reconstructions, from bare land to a green park.
Each monument has different viewpoints, referred to in the web app as ‘stories’ that are listed and played in chronological order. As a visitor you can follow that order, but you can also deviate from it and go from one to the other yourself. The camera flies to a viewpoint and shows the exact ‘field of view’ of the historical image maker’s eye. A video animation shows in an artistic way how the past merges with the present.
Two Roman funerary monuments, ‘Tomba a Piramide’ and ‘Tumuli degli Orazi’, have a scientific reconstruction, which has been incorporated into the 3D environment as a special point of view.
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