IFF Director Margaret Wertheim is delivering a seminar at Monash University’s SensiLab.
Seminar Title: Being There – Virtual Reality from Giotto to Today
We are used to thinking of virtual reality as a technology of the computer era, but in this talk Margaret Wertheim will trace its roots to the Middle Ages. In the thirteenth century, Franciscan friar Roger Bacon championed a new form of representation he called “geometric figuring” and argued for artists to adopt this style. Soon Giotto was painting the Arena Chapel, a medieval environment consciously designed to make visitors feel they had been projected into a 3D simulation of Christ’s life. Following the development of what later came to be called “perspective,” Wertheim will discuss a lineage of visual verisimilitude from Giotto to Grand Theft Auto.
Location: SensiLab
Building H, Level 6
Monash University
900 Dandenong Road
Caulfield East, 3145
Melbourne, Australia
SensiLab is a research group and experimental laboratory at Monash University specializing in the development of virtual reality environments and other new media tools.
Seminar Flier: pdf