Fabrizio Agnello

Multimodal virtual navigation of a cultural heritage site: The medieval ceiling of Steri in Palermo

The advance of information technology has enabled in recent years new fruition scenarios for cultural heritage sites. Multidisciplinary approaches integrate survey techniques with multimodal interfaces to allow enhanced fruition for larger group of users. In this paper we propose a multimodal interface to a virtual representation of a medieval ceiling, built in the XIV century, which covers the “Sala Magna” of Steri, the historical headquarters of the University of Palermo, in Italy. This research deals with the definition of a process for the integration of surveying techniques, modelling processes and communication technologies for the documentation of such artifacts. This is a two-stage process: in the first stage, a 3D digital document is produced that describes the artifact; in the second stage, a multimodal guide interacting with the 3D model is developed. A prototype multimodal guide has been implemented to narrate the Trojan Cycle, depicted on two of the rafters in the ceiling. This prototype was demonstrated to the general public and is detailed in the paper.

The Cathedral of Palermo: From survey to historic interpretation

The Norman kings built the Cathedral of Palermo at the end of the XII century, in the same place where an older Christian church and then a mosque were sited. Many features of the Cathedral echo the Norman churches in northern France and in England, whilst some others belong to the peculiar mixing of Norman, Muslim and Byzantine culture that characterizes the art and architecture of medieval Sicily. At the end of the XVIII century the church underwent huge and extensive transformations, that deeply altered its original shape. The historic sources that document the Medieval church are some XVIII century perspective drawings, and a textual description. The Cathedral has been surveyed with topographic and laser scanning devices; some decorative elements have been surveyed with a structured light scanner. In this study survey, 3D modelling and historic sources have been integrated for the purpose to detect the elements that survived the transformations and propose a virtual reconstruction of the state of the Cathedral before the end of the XVIII century.

Ruined Archeological Heritage. Survey, 3D Modeling, Virtual Anastylosis

The study focuses on the use of 3D surveying and digital representation tools for the purpose of documenting archaeological monuments whose restoration involves the disassembly and repositioning of blocks. The case study in question is a building at the west end of the San Biagio archaic sanctuary, located within the archaeological site of Agrigento.The monument is a rectangular building encompassing two pools, whose foundations are suffering from deep decay and there are large spaces between the walls which have become disconnected. Surveying and 3D modelling have been used to illustrate the existing state of the building. Plans, sections and orthophotos have been created to support the indexing of ashlars and to evaluate the structural decay. A 3D model of the most dilapidated part of the building, the north-eastern corner, has been constructed in order to document the direction of the ashlars and where they are positioned in relation to each other. Finally, a restoration model of this building been built.