Waverley: What Would Sant’Elia Do? A Reflection on An Attempt to Imagine The Futurist Train Station by Sarah Dargie

One of the most exciting and perplexing aspects of the animation and visual effects industry is its potential to present an audience with a comprehensive reality based on the impossible, the unachievable, on what might have been and what could yet be. Yet in the realm of architectural visualisations, the potential of animation is often unrealised.

After comparing uninspiring architectural visualisations such as that of the Dundee Waterfront with architectural contexts in award winning animation films such as Roman's 'The Third and the Seventh', it is arguable that this frequent disappointment is due, not to constraints of available budget, time or talent, but to the mechanical approach taken by architects towards visualisations.

I am aiming to create a short film that combines CAD and live-action footage to portray the Futurist architect Sant’Elia’s vision at Waverley Station, Edinburgh. By doing so I am experimenting with narrative’s role in the commercial field of architectural visualisation, using the Futurist model as a framework for theoretical debate to illicit an emotional response from the audience. The narrative utilises site research and extensive 3D techniques, whilst drawing inspiration from the strong architectural elements in successful films such as ‘The Third and The Seventh’. This study also discusses the conflicts that arise when attempting to use a storytelling approach to re-establish creativity in a generally unimaginative environment. As Venturi argued: “Architecture is the most fragile of all the media – it has a practical application as well as an artistic application”[Venturi 1984: 121].

See Sarah's blog here

Low Altitude Aerial Photography of Heritage: Capturing Context by Kieran Baxter

While methods such as laser scanning offer unprecedented levels of detail and accuracy and go some way toward meeting a desire for objectivity in archaeological survey, this paper will tackle the documentation of other aspects surrounding heritage sites which remain subjective. Considerations such as atmosphere and context within a broader landscape have a prominent effect on the relationship which the modern day visitor may have with a site, and may also help us to associate with, and better understand the minds who built and used a site throughout it's history.

The symbolic and practical significance of spatial arrangements for example may only become apparent when the surrounding landscape is taken into consideration, such as where a location might have strategic advantage or where there are celestial or geological alignments. These often intuitive considerations are of particular importance in prehistoric sites where ritual spirituality and everyday practicality may have been closely integrated. As such we can consider that when documenting a historical site it is important not to separate our search for objective understanding with our emotional response and intuition but rather to integrate these where possible.

In order to generate a balanced and representative impression of a heritage site an approach should be developed which exploits a broad spectrum of documentation tools and methods which take into account and triangulate different aspects of the site. This paper will demonstrate the potential of low altitude aerial photography to form part of this toolkit for both documentation and interpretation.

See Kieran's blog here

Reflection on Practice Module

Reflection on Practice is a module within the MSc Animation and Visualisation course at the University of Dundee.

http://www.dundee.ac.uk/djcad/programmes/postgraduate/mscanimationvisualisation/

One of the outcomes of this module is for the students to present their work in a conference / symposium style environment. We are calling this event:

Animation & Visualisation: Reflection on Practice Mock Symposium

and it will be held on Wednesday 25th April at the University of Dundee.