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Disclaimer /Notices

This project is a prototype for the testing of the technology and format usefulness for teaching. I am not an archaeologist or an art historian. I have taken several courses in Pre-Colombian Art History. I selected Chavin to test this project mainly because when I was studying the culture I could not find resources myself. My main education and experience is in multimedia design and programming. I teach in those areas, NOT in Art History. I feel that Art History students have a lot to gain from teaching with multimedia and that is why and how this project was started. The main achievement of this project is that it runs on very low end technology and requires nothing more than a web browser and a free plugin.

I have tried to credit all resources I used. Sometimes it was hard to figure out what is public domain and what is not. Please notify me of any misuse and corrections.

Several problems exist with this reconstruction. There are numerous inaccuracies in the archeological data which have resulted in a very approximate reconstrution of the site. I do not have official maps and an intensive collection of photographs from the site and I have never visited the site.

A more accurate reconstruction of Chavin de Huantar can be found in my resources page by Luis G. Lumbreras but you cannot navigate the site in real time like you can with VRML.

The creation and inititation of this project was NOT funded in any way by anyone but myself. I am open to any help and suggestions you have to offer. I received a small fund to assist with my conference registration from the Uiniversity of Illinois Graduate student Council for presenting this paper:

Gotsis, Marientina. "Reconstruction Chavin De Huantar (Peru): Designing an Educational Tool for Art Historians" present at the 7th International Conference on Virtual Systems and Multimedia at the University of California - Berkeley, 25027 October 2001. (2.39MB, PDF FORMAT)

The Concept

An interactive, highly portable, web-based educational product which explores sites of significant cultural importance in Peru and Bolivia which flourished in Pre-Columbian times. Currently the majority of these sites are in bad condition, or they are located in such remote areas that are not tourist-, or explorer-friendly.

Virtual explorations are popular in the last few years because they can immerse the visitor in an environment. The restoration/reconstruction possibilities in VR are endless. Most importantly, no physical damage can ever be done to the original site as is the case with many attempts of restoration in archaeological sites.

Audience
Archaeologists, Art Historians, students and others will hopefully find this project useful in their teaching and learning by being able to see what places looked like in the past and also may be amused with some of the interactivity that will take place.
INTERFACE DESIGN
Navigation
Goals: Minimize travel, minimize depth, minimize redundancy. Feedback and flexibility essential. Navigation options available.
Interaction
Achieved through the virtual exploration, the artifacts and the feedback frame.
Controls
Simple, recognizable text or icon based with feedback.
PRESENTATION DESIGN
Style
Visual theme will define style. Strong colors that reflect the culture's palette are preferred.
Layout
System of frames within a window which will hold the VRML viewer and the feedback window. Controls for pop-up floating windows of help and external navigation are available at all times.
Bugs

If you get a blank frame on the right panel while navigating, you might be using Internet Explorer 5.5 SP2. This is a result of the Browser.LoadURL() command not being able to execute properly with relative URL's on this version. Please usa different browser.

This project has been tested on the Macintosh platform but it is buggy because Cosmoplayer for the Mac is a beta version. Performance is very slow but it runs. Exit times on proximity sensors don't work well. Choosing the Conix Software renderer from the Preferences of the plugin makes the system crash less.

If you are using the Parallel Graphics VRML plugin the background sound pauses when windows pop up or when frames refresh.

Minimum System Requirements

IBM Compatible
Pentium Pro or higher
64MB RAM
4MB Video Card
40MB free Hard Drive Space
56K Modem or LAN
CD-ROM or Zip Drive
Internet Explorer 4+ or
Netscape Navigator 4+
Java/JavaScript Enabled
CosmoPlayer Viewer 2.1.1
800x600 Screen Resolution
(although 1024x768 ideal)
Thousands of Colors+
(16-bit graphics or higher)

Mac
150Mhz or Higher
64MB RAM
4MB Video Card
40MB free Hard Drive Space
56K Modem or LAN
CD-ROM or Zip Drive
Internet Explorer 4.5+ or
Netscape Navigator 4+
Java/JavaScript Enabled
CosmoPlayer Viewer Beta
800x600 Screen Resolution
(although 1024x768 ideal)
Thousands of Colors+
(16-bit graphics or higher)

 

Distribution

This prototype is available at http://www.evl.uic.edu/gotsis/huacas

To request a free copy of the HUACAS prototype, send email to: gotsis@evl.uic.edu

Special Thanks to:

Professor Virginia Miller for her inspirational teaching and help. Professor John Rick for making resources available through his site. The archeology students at the University of California - Berkeley for pointing me to the right direction. Professor Drew Browning for constant technical assistance.