Global Village (die Konferenzen)
Global Village 1993
Global Village 1995
Global Village 1996
Global Village 1999
1999 waren wir beteiligt an der NGO Internet Fiesta und - in neuer Zusammensetzung - an "Global Village 99" Das geplante 4. internationale Global Village Symposium mußte leider abgesagt und auf unbestimmte Zeit vertagt werden.
 
 

3rd International Symposium GLOBAL VILLAGE

 

Global Networking and Local Development
Using Cyberspace to Build Sustainable Living space

 
February 13 - 16, 1997, Wappensaal, Vienna City Hall
 

Hypermedia and new Approaches to World Cultural Heritage

Kim H. Veltman

University of Toronto (CAN)

Hypermedia introduce a series of new possibilities for world cultural heritage. In terms of cartography, one can change scales to go successively from a world map to a local view. This material can be made accessible on line. Animations can show how the boundaries of a given province or cultural movement change with time, can trace the travels of a particular artist or humanist, follow the influence of a specific motif, or style such as the Romanesque or Gothic. The advent of high level Computer Aided Design (CAD) packages, Quick Time VR, Virtual Reality Modelling Language (VRML) and virtual reality means that one can reconstruct galleries, churches and other cultural monuments and do virtual walkthroughs. High level virtual reality permits one to create completely realistic simulations of historical buildings and trace how these change over time. Hence one can, for example, see a reconstruction of Saint Peter´s Basilica as it exists today and then switch to see what the ancient, no longer existing basilica looked like.

The same technology can be used to create virtual museums. If one consults the Uffizi home page on the World Wide Web, one is able, already today, to "walk" through the rooms electronically with the help of Quick Time VR. Given the low bandwidth available to most users, the versions currently visible are in low resolution. However, high resolution versions already exist. The term "virtual museums" has multiple meanings. It can refer also to a reconstruction of an earlier version of a great gallery such as the Louvre. Or it can bring together in one virtual space all the paintings of a single artist such as Botticelli - the originals of which would normally never be found in a single space.

Some fear that the developement of new technologies with its quest for standards inevitably leads to new kinds of cultural imperialism. This is not necessarily the case. A recent conference in Sevilla sponsored by the W3 consortium stressed emerging standards in both internationalization (across all the borders) and multilingualism (in order to reflect the unique expressions within borders). This seemingly elementary distinction offers an important model for future developements. Some periods have emphasized the universals of culture. The widespread use of computers means that local villages can put the particulars of their culture on-line. The advent of networked computers means that persons throughout the world can study, compare and receive inspiration from this diversity.

Companies such as Autodesk have extended the notion of object-oriented programming to the building blocks of the man-made world through what they term industry foundation classes. Hence a door is now treated as a dynamic object which contains all the information pertaining to doors in different contexts. Hence if one chooses a door for a fifty storey skyscraper, the door object will automatically acquire certain characteristics which are very different from a door for a cottage of for a factory warehouse. This concept can readily be applied to local cultures both at present and historically, thus adding an enormous richnesse to our awareness of doors, such that the variety of the particular becomes an incentive for global variation.

 

 

 

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