|
| text |
VIRTUAL versus REALITY
this is a first-edition text. When I get some hard data (like names and
years and stuff) it will be updated.
Museum Insel Hombroich is a rather exceptional museum in Germany. It lies
in the proximity of Neuss. Basically, it is a nature reserve, within which
are placed with extreme precision buildings. These buildings contain art
and essentially one walks through them as though walking through the parc.
There are doors, but when the weather is good, they are open. This
creates a very informal relation between nature, culture and visitor. All
over the grounds are placed works of art.
All buildings are made with the same materials and the same details. The
outside is predominantly brick and the inside is smooth white stucco. Light
usually comes from the roof. The buildings are simple geometries. They
appear to be larger inside than on the outside.
The collection is very diverse. It ranges from Khmer-sculpture to Mondriaan.
This rather exotic mix makes for a nice walk because it is always unexpected
what you are going to see next. Not only are the pieces of art worth noting,
also the surrounding nature makes for much splendour. As with art, one does
not have to be a botanist to take pleasure in the carefully kept surroundings.
There are some rare species about and therefore one can find little signs
warning visitors to keep away from them.
Because the buildings display such great clarity about their geometric origin,
they were chosen to use as examples in rendering techniques. The buildings
were modelled and made ready for use in 3DStudio (Rob Robbers, LAVA-researcher
did all this outstanding work!!!). In 3DStudio, students had to render
pictures, applying materials and textures themselves, choosing cameras and
position, placing light-sources etcetera. In order to evaluate their work,
and of course also to evaluate the quality of computer-rendered images, we
present here the various buildings of Museum Insel Hombroich as
computer-images and as photos.
Although photo and computer-image are in a sense much related to each other,
they do differ quite a lot. This is best exemplified by the "artistic photo"
where the photographer tries to capture a specific revealing image. One might
argue that this is not possible by computer just because of the lack of
detail in the surroundings. But that is a mute argument: it will never be
possible to model a "world" as rich as the real world. But then again, that
specific reduction of the world (literally the "model") is the strength of
the computer. Computer-rendered images focus on the essential, and it is
possible to concentrate on a few things only. Apart from the obvious
advantage of being able to place the camera where one usually can't come,
the computer-rendered image therefore has its own very specific qualities.
This obviously influences architecture, as does any medium in which we can
represent our thoughts. How it does so, and what the consequences might be,
is less clear, and it is a very intriguing subject. It should be a point of
debate in every place where computers are used to render images of virtual or
real architecture, but until now discussion focuses much more on technical
questions (can we get better results with raytracing or radiosity etc). Of
course this is important (SPEED MATTERS!) but in the end what you end up
discussing is the difference between two kinds of pencils.
OK, enjoy the pics that are included. Right now, only photos are here, my
own to be precise, but as soon as I get them, rendered images will be put
here as well.
Henri Achten (20-2-1994)
Reactions, comments, propositions, debates, remarks, related work by other
people, etc. can all be mailed and mentioned to: lava@aidem-media.com
|
Copyright notice: You are hereby granted to copy and distibute
this material for non-commercial purposes, provided you credit the lava-
team. (lava@aidem-media.com)
|
