Exploreum adds virtual tour of Pompeii to A Day in Pomeii exhibit
21st century technology brings alive the streets and theaters of ancient Pompeii
MOBILE, Ala. – The Gulf Coast Exploreum launches its new and improved Hearin-Chandler Virtual Journeys Digital Theater January 12 with a breathtaking virtual tour through ancient Pompeii’s theater district. The tour will show concurrently with the international exhibition A Day in Pompeii, January 12 to June 3, 2007, at the Exploreum in downtown Mobile. Admission to the Virtual Theater is included with exhibit tickets.
The Exploreum will use the leading-edge imaging technology of its 50-seat digital theater to give visitors to the Pompeii exhibition a bonus “eye-popping, you-are-there” learning experience. “Few museums worldwide are equipped to bring alive the past with digital recreations of an ancient site to complement exhibits of archeological objects from the same place and time,” noted Michael Sullivan, Executive Director of the Exploreum.
The Tour centers on a virtual reconstruction of several city blocks of lost city Pompeii that includes three-dimensional models of the Grand Theater, the Triangular Forum and the Temple of Isis. These were connected by narrow streets lined with small shops and private homes, which are also depicted.
All appear as historians and archeologists believed they did before the city was buried by the volcanic eruption of nearby Mt. Vesuvius in 79 A.D. The Exploreum’s host theater animator, by manipulating the complex digital data sets, “flies” audiences through these areas. No two presentations need be exactly alike; the host selects the route by manipulating the computer’s ’joy sticks’.
The Theater district is one of the most extensively documented areas of the recovered city of Pompeii and provides a considerable range of research and reference materials on which to build accurate simulated environments. In addition, the area is particularly interesting as it housed a variety of activities – religious, commercial and entertainment, it therefore provides good context for enhancing the visitors understanding of daily life in Pompeii – the theme of the exhibit A Day in Pompeii.
High resolution color images are projected on a large screen about the size of a large 18-wheel-truck using 3 projectors.
The tour of Pompeii’s Virtual Theater District is made possible by Jeffrey Jacobson, Ph.D. and the Carnegie Mellon Studio for Creative Inquiry Group at Carnegie Mellon University. The Pompeii project is an open-source, freeware dataset developed for immersive graphics within large projection based theaters and displays. The presentation is also made possible by support of the PublicVirtualReality
Group. The PublicVR Group is a non-profit group dedicated to the free and open-source public domain distribution of virtual reality content with the goal of educating and forwarding history research.
The Virtual Pompeii Project can be referenced online at http://artscool.cfa.cmu.edu/~hemef/pompeii/ or by contacting Jeffrey Jacobson, Ph.D. at jeff@planetjeff.net.
Technical Information
The Hearin-Chandler Virtual Journeys Digital Theater has been providing Exploreum visitors with cutting-edge, digital, 3D (stereo) presentations for two years. It is the only theater of its type in the southeastern United States and one of only a few worldwide.
The Exploreum’s two theaters, IMAX and Virtual Journeys, are different in function and how content is presented. While the J.L. Bedsole IMAX® Dome Theater provides visitors content via 70 mm film, the Virtual Journeys Theater provides its content digitally via high-end computer systems. The differences provide Exploreum visitors two different viewing experiences, both exciting.
The high-end computer systems which run the Hearin-Chandler Virtual Journeys Digital Theater include two Silicon Graphics systems which, when installed in 2005, were considered “super-computers.” However, the digital theater has recently undergone a systems upgrade to new technology, which includes Windows XP64 running on a Hewlett-Packard cluster architecture. The hardware and software upgrades made to the theater will enable the Exploreum to provide a much broader array of educational learning content, from molecular structure to weather phenomenon to human anatomy and much more — all in 3D. In June, the digital theater will unveil a new presentation featuring stars, galaxies, black holes and the “cosmos.” As always, the Exploreum is finding new technology to forward its education mission.
Hours of Operation
Open daily January 12 to June 3, 2007 except Mardi Gras (Feb. 20) and Easter Sunday (Apr. 8). Open Monday – Saturday, 9 a.m. – 5 p.m.; Sunday 11 a.m. – 5 p.m.
Last exhibit entry 4 p.m.; gallery closes 5:30 p.m.
Last IMAX show 4 p.m.
Last Virtual Journey Tour of Pompeii 4:30 p.m.
Ticket Prices: For Pompeii exhibit, Acoustiguide audio tour, virtual tour of Pompeii and all Exploreum science galleries: adult $18.25; senior (60+) and youth (13-18) $17.25; child (2-12) $11. Add the Greece IMAX film to any admission for only $4 more.
For more information, call (251) 208-6873 or (877) 625-4FUN; or visit www.exploreum.net.
