Glance of the European Heritage Days Exhibition in 2008

The European Heritage Days, also known as Doors Open Days and Open Doors Days, is an European cultural action which is held once a year in 49 signatory states. During these days, people can benefit from valuable opportunities to visit the cultural places, such as monuments and history sites; as these places are normally inaccessible to the public. This programme provides visitors a great chance to encounter different cultures though different exhibition methods. I feel grateful to have attended this amazing programme in 2008 with another 5 classmates in France.

The theme of the European Heritage Days 2008 in France was “Heritage and Creation”. Regarding this theme, our exhibition focussed on the digital reconstruction and reconstitution of “L’égilse Conventuelle” (Monastery Church) of the Chartreuse du Val de Bénédiction of Villeneuve-Lès-Avignon (Carthusian monastery). We set up 4 shows with different multimedia technologies to present our work. All the shows were directed by Mr. Michel BERTHELOT, the director of laboratory MAP. Mr. Livio De Luca (Research and Project Manager at CNRS) was the pedagogical coordinator and the programming developer of all the works.

1) Combination of the real and the virtual

Concerning the collapsed apse of the east part of the Monastery Church, we set up a real-time video to present a super-position view of the actual state and the 3D reconstruction model. According to the research of the historic document and the existing architectural feature, we realized an approximate 3D model of the collapsed apse part. The virtual video program was scripted by software Virtools which combine the video signal from the surveillance camera and the 3D model animation.

2) Spatial placement of the antique painting

The virtual interactive visit is built in the panorama scene with 9 station views of the Monastery Church. Based on the research of the historic narrative and evidence, we realized a state of the church near 1791 and virtually replaced the antique painting with the hypothetic position in this 3D reconstructing model. These antique paintings are currently conserved in different museums. The panorama system connected the data base of the paintings by means of the software Virtools programming. Throughout the virtual interactive visiting, the visitor can access the information of these paintings and their high definition pictures.

3) Virtual visiting of the Tomb and the Recumbent Effigy of Pope Innocent VI

As one of founders of the Carthusian monastery of Villeneuve-Lès-Avignon, Pope Innocent VI wanted to be interred at his church. His sacred tomb is now installed at “la Chapelle de la Sainte-Trinité” (Saint Trinity Chapel), which is protected by the grill that keeps it inaccessible to the public. The conception of this virtual visit is to create an interactive guide to understand the complex structure of this tomb in all aspects. Therefore, we acquired 3D data by Trimble GX 3D Scanner for the general feature of the tomb and by KONICA MINOLTA VI-910 scanner for the Recumbent Effigy of Pope Innocent VI. The point-cloud data was principally treated by Ms. Micheline KURDY (actually PhD candidate of laboratory MAP) and Mr. Florian MORENO (actually research assistant of the same laboratory). They realized all of the structure of the tomb and the Recumbent Effigy in around two months. Finally, the virtual visiting was programmed by software Virtools, which provide two paths for the manipulator: The first path is an automatic visit. It provides direct access to different details demonstrated by the key word of the architectural descriptive legend. The other path is an interactive visit by which the manipulator can control the lever to freewheeling.

4) 3D printing of the Recumbent Effigy of Pope Innocent VI

This show presented the smaller-scale physical models of the Recumbent Effigy of Pope Innocent VI and the video on how to process them. After treating the 3D mesh from the MINOLTA scanner, one lifelike effigy model was reconstructed in high-precision detail. Ms. Céline BOURDIER (actually research assistant of laboratory MAP), principally executed the prototyping technology by using a 3D printer. The 3D printer basically functions like the Inkjet printer but it jets the special adhesive onto the powdery material which later is concreting into extra-thin layer. Consequently the physical model is built with millions of extra-thin plaster layer. The producer introduces the 3D scaled mesh model into the computer which connects with the 3D printer. Afterward, the 3D printer quickly produces an emulational physical model in a few hours. Compared with the traditional archaeological reproduction, this new technology provides an effective and accurate way to quickly re-produce the physical model in a different scale without contacting the original object.