Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp
.
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of
content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms
of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.
Springer is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Computers and the
Humanities.
http://www.jstor.org
The PompeyProject:DigitalResearchandVirtual
Reconstructionof Rome'sFirstTheatre
The Challenge
Much of the actual theatrestructurestill survives. The legacy of entropy and re-
use of the physical remainsof the edifice has in fact determinedmuch of how we
perceive the Campo Marzio area of Rome today. In the Middle Ages, the local
inhabitantsbuilt theirhouses, palaces, and shops onto and into the structureof the
theatre,buildingswhich even today preserveits remainsin theircellars and walls.
The monument cannot thereforebe extensively excavated. Consequently,in the
absence of new studies, questions of majorimportanceremainentirely open, and
highly controversial.
The archaeologicalhistoryof the Theatreof Pompey is a long and curiousone.
So manyothermonumentsof the imperialage have been "liberated"fromobscurity
or from the encrustationsof post-antiquestructuresover the years, and yet, despite
radical plans drawn up in the Fascist period (which would have dismantledthe
post-antiquestructuresto revealthe honey-combof the theatreincorporatedwithin
them), the Theatreof Pompey has been reluctantto relinquishits acquiredarchi-
tecturalclothing. The resultis that,today,the visible remainsof the theatreconsist
of numerous scatteredarchitecturalelements in basements of various buildings
between the Campo dei Fiori and Largo Argentina.The upper storeys of these
buildingscontain furtherextensive ancient structure,concealed behind their walls
and floors. The task of interpretingthese remainsis made much more difficultby
the fact that the ruins- albeit extensive- do not themselves offer a visibly unified
object. This presentsan intriguingchallenge: the knowledge and felt-presenceof
so massive and importanta monumentleave a void which imaginationstrives to
fill. For this reason, perhaps,the history of scholarshipon the theatrehas been
particularlycharacterisedby attemptseither graphicallyto reconstructthe theatre
complex as it might have been in antiquity,or at least to representthe extantruins
themselves as a unified image. Yet it is astonishingto learn that, despite its great
historical and architecturalimportance,and the interest shown in visualising its
existence, therehas neverbeen a modernscientific surveyof the theatre'sremains.
Most studies in this century are based on the limited excavations and site-plans
of Victoire Baltardof the Ecole des Beaux-Arts,working in the first decades of
the 19th-century,who himself was partlyworkingfrom the earlierstudy by Luigi
Canina.
VirtualReality-EnhancedResearch
Whenwe beganourwork,we tendedto view VirtualRealitytechnologiesprimarily
as a means of enhancing essentially traditionalresearch methods. While our
thinkingand methods have undergoneconsiderableevolution since then - giving
rise to some new perceptionsaboutthe natureof VR-basedknowledge (which we
discuss below) - these advantagesremainpersuasivereasonsfor undertakingsuch
research,and are exemplifiedby the Pompey Project.They include the ability to
process and manipulatehuge datasetsof severalinformation-typesin 3-D, leading
to better analysis and hypotheses; for example in calculating and documenting
degrees of probabilityin architecturalreconstructions.3-D models share certain
of the properties,demandsand advantagesof CAD drawings:both rely on precise
sets of coordinates,and requirean absolutedegree of exactitude- they are unfor-
giving in this respect. Consequentlythe dataused to inform such models must be
vigorously evaluatedand coordinated.In addition,because 3-D models requirethe
spatialrelationshipbetween objects to be calculatedin 3-D, problemsof relation,
proportion,measurement,and design, which are difficultor impossible to identify
duringthe creationof 2-D representations,become immediately,and persistently
apparent.
Furtheradvantagesbecome evident in addressingthe very problemsand ques-
tions encounteredwhen an attemptis made to constructa coherentmodel based
on existing data and hypotheses. These problemslead to constantre-examination
and reinterpretationof data, and such analysis is supportedby VR in ways previ-
ously difficult or labour-intensiveto the point of impossibility. Unlike manual
drawings or solid models, virtual models can easily and quickly be altered to
incorporatenew data, or to representalternativehypotheses. The consequences
in turnof such modificationfor otherelements in the model can instantlybe seen.
Through assessing knock-on effects, or by analysing comparativedata visually,
rival hypotheses can quickly be evaluated,and/ormultiplehypotheses eventually
made availablefor disseminationas partof the final model.
Furthermore,3-D modelling enables differentforms of model to be produced
accordingto differentmodes of enquiry:e.g. CAD drawingsfor the calculationof
volumes and measurementsof a building,or cut-awaymodels to enable the user to
investigatearchitectonicdataandhypotheses,light, acoustics,levels of probability
in the reconstruction,and the historicaldevelopmentsof space. Models prepared
of other cognate sites greatly facilitate detailed analysis of possible architectural
antecedentsand descendentsof the building, identifying and delineatingin effect
an architecturalgenealogy.Anothermajoradvantageof this type of workis thatthe
researchadvancesbroughtaboutby 3-D modelling,can enablearchaeologistsmore
precisely to determinethe locations in which minimallyintrusive,and maximally
New Possibilities
For archaeology and theatre research, the unique textuality of Virtual Reality
offers unprecedentedpossibilities. VirtualReality can enablethe formationof new
knowledges: by making knowledge visible (for example, by translatingarchaeo-
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to acknowledge the grant support given by the British
Academy to enable this joint paper to be given at the ACH/ALLCConference.
Portions of this article have previously appearedin Denard, H. (2002) Virtu-
Notes
1 Pliny, in fact, claimed it sat 40,000 (N.H. 36.115) but this has long met with critical scepticism.
2 For an account of the theatresee R. Beacham (1999) Spectacle Entertainmentsof Early Imperial
Rome. Yale UniversityPress, New Haven, CN, ChapterTwo.
3 Dio Cassius 62.29.1; Suetonius Vitellius4; TacitusAnnales 16.4.
4 CassiodorusVariae4.51.
5 Vitruvius,DeArchitectura,5.9.1.
6 For a recent survey of work, see R. Beacham (1999) "'Eke Out Our PerformanceWith Your
Mind': Reconstructingthe TheatricalPast Withthe Aid of ComputerSimulation."In TerryCoppock
(ed.), InformationTechnologyand Scholarship:Applicationsin the Humanitiesand Social Sciences.
OxfordUniversityPress, Oxford,for The BritishAcademy,pp. 131-154.
7 There are some limitations, however: the extraordinarilyhigh detail of these models by John
Burge is such that nothing is merely "paintedon" - every contourof every capital and frieze is fully
modelled in three-dimensions- with the result that a single Corinthiancapital currentlyoccupies
some 50 Megabytes. Although Burge uses Silicon GraphicsOctanecomputerswith dual Pentium3
processorsrunningat 850 Mhz, assistedby 2 Gigabytesof RAM, even at these high (in today's terms)
specifications,it takes about an hour to renderone of these images at screen resolution (72 dpi). It
will be some time, therefore,before the average desktop computer will be able to navigate these
colossal models in real-time.In response to this loss of interactivity,VR-ResearcherDrew Baker at
the University of Warwickhas created a fully-interactiveVRML model of the theatre.The entire
VRML model occupies just 119k (20k compressed),enabling readersto walk or fly - in realtime-
to any position.