Projects: Curved Video Wall Brings Cathedral’s Famed Frescoes Down To Eye-Level In Italy
May 5, 2017 by Dave Haynes
The museum curator language of this case study is damn near impenetrable, but if you hang in there, you learn that a big, curved video wall is being used in a cathedral in Piacenza, Italy to celebrate the work of a baroque artist known as Guercino.
The video wall, which is running on SpinetiX players and software, allows people to get a better sense of the frescoes that are painted in the great dome of the cathedral, but down at ground level.
Says the study:
The entrance of the room almost suggests the entrance to another space and another time: that in which Guercino worked on the frescoes of the dome. Inside, the wall becomes polygonal and an ample sequence of screens embraces the visitors and conducts them virtually to the times of Guercino. The video wall is composed of 12 screens of large dimensions placed vertically, and becomes a sort of large window on the history of the frescoes, or more, an overlooking glimpse of the landscape of Piacenza, that with the passing of seasons marks the time of the creation of the work.
The emotion created by the up-close viewing of the frescoes, made possible by the ascent to the dome, is very strong: the challenge was to recreate or at least suggest this perception through technology and the management of the exhibiting space. This is the reason for the extreme care in determining of geometry of space and in the choice of the materials of the exhibit that determine the right atmosphere for the projection of the film, also thanks to a correct regulation of ambiance lighting. The idea to be able to reproduce the sensation to be at the center of the dome is conveyed by the presence of 12 screens and by the definition of the architectural volume. The spectator finds himself in the center of the scene and is surrounded by the images of the fresco, just as if he were suspended in midair a few centimeters from the colors and the features painted by the artist.
The screens, coordinated in a network through special instruments, reproduce and manage images of the frescoes at extremely high resolution and perfect chromatic fidelity: precise and refined details flow at full screen size and we can clearly distinguish the artist’s brush strokes. The extension of the video wall allows a noteworthy perceptive experience through the immersion in the photographic moving images of the inner spaces of the Cathedral. This is a sophisticated post-production process that transforms the 360° navigable photo frames into film, and is obtained with a large number of picture frames interconnected through specific software.
The exhibit, using the screens, runs through mid-June.
Follow-up: Marco Stucchi, the author of the “Guercino in an up-close view” multimedia project, got in touch and provided additional links:
If you want you can see unpublished images and article about great show in Piacenza (Italy), below there are some link directly from my web site. Some articles are in Italian, some also in English.
Under all projects:
-> La Sala Multimediale (English version)
Under Virtual Reality projects
The Whole dome
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