In 1821, the Paduan pioneer archaeologist Giambattista Belzoni opened, at the Egyptian Hall in London, the exhibit “The Tomb”, a life-size “perfect facsimile” of two rooms from the burial place of Pharaoh Psammis (Seti I) meticulously reproduced by Belzoni via a series of drawings, watercolors, plaster, and wax impressions taken onsite.
A 3D model and interactive simulation of Belzoni’s Tomb is now included in the digital monograph “Shadow Plays: Virtual Realities in an Analogue World” (Stanford University Press, 2022) by Prof. Massimo Riva (Brown University).
In this lecture at the Italian Institute of Culture, together with Trinity College Dublin, Massimo Riva will reconnect Belzoni’s Egyptian Tomb to a series of 18th-19th century optical devices such as the “mondo nuovo” or pantoscope, the magic lantern, the phantasmagoria, the moving panorama, and the stereoscope, all foreshadowing the immersive experiences of our digital times.
In English.
Massimo Riva has pioneered digital Italian Studies since the 1990s. His collaborative digital projects include the Decameron Web, the Pico della Mirandola Project, and the Garibaldi Panorama and the Risorgimento Archive. An interactive version of the Garibaldi panorama on the Microsoft Surface was exhibited at the British Library in London, and in various museums and venues in Italy and Brazil. A version of the digital panorama is currently featured at the Museo Nazionale del Risorgimento of Turin, Italy, as part of the exhibit “Hero: Garibaldi Icona Pop.”
Complete bio: https://vivo.brown.edu/display/mriva
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