Rebuilding History: Technology could help restore architectural masterpieces
“It’s incredible, our history is going up in smoke,” said Benoit, a 42-year-old man, who arrived on the scene by bike. A sunny day in Paris ended up being overshadowed by a great column of pure black and grey. Notre-Dame Cathedral caught up in fire, and what Benoit said was so accurate that the roof and spire collapsed taking with them centuries of history in a disconcerting day for Paris.
Experts pointed its restoration could last as long as 20 years, but the generous donations could shorten this period to a fourth according to Macron. 5 years is the time that the President has given to rebuild the Cathedral. However, there could be another important factor that might play an important role in helping to shorten the time.
In Notre-Dame’s interior, thousands of past relics talk about the human evolution; a mix between what society was and what is now. Recently, this unique synergy has been on everyone’s lips since a proposed by Ubisoft caught newspapers’ attention. «Assassins Creed Unity», the company’s video game that takes place in 1800’s Paris, portrays the Cathedral with such a detail that could help with the restoration of the roof and spire of the now burned monument, according to some. But, to which extent has been technology preserving the cultural patrimony of artistic and architectural masterpieces?
This is not the first time a videogame invades the territory of art. Michael is an American guy that travels to Naples to recover the lost memories of his dead father who worked for the National Archeological Museum of this city, where the adventure takes place. According to the museum, the video game
«Father and Son» has attracted tourists into the place to the extent of some of them alleging that they know beforehand the artworks that are exposed inside.
However, when it comes to Notre-Dame, the restoration of missing parts is what is at stake. A clear example that has being functioning since 2013, is the video mapping that projects on the apse of Sant Climent de Taüll which recreates with accuracy the original paintings. Astonishingly, it goes beyond by replicating the complete artwork with the missing parts. Moreover, in the Iberic Field of Ullastret an immersive room creates a representation of how the ancient Iberic city would have looked like.
A closer case of hard work that can be found in Catalonia is The Vic Cathedral. In 2017, the Episcopal Museum of Vic announced that they will be doing a replication of the old cathedral whose bell tower and crypt are the only original architectural structures that exist to this day. If done, this would represent a unique exposition that would set a before and after in the reconstruction and preservation of art, according to Miguel Ángel Marzal, member of the Agustín Millares Institute in Madrid.
A more evident syncretism between classic structures and the digital era hides in Mid Europe. The Cologne Cathedral was built in the XIII century, and just like Notre-Dame, has a strong gothic design. After being declared World Heritage by UNESCO in 1996, destroyed stained glasses decided to be restored by new ones through crowdfunding. The council voted for the proposal of the modern artist Gerhard Richter, whose artwork Symphony of Light was presented in 2008. A kaleidoscope with clear intentions of looking like pixels brought the digital aesthetic to a sanctuary of classical longevity.
Video games might not be the answer for the recently burned Cathedral, experts say. Ph D. Andrew Tallon, a fan of scanning architectural structures, made a surprising job at scanning Notre-Dame’s skeleton in 2015, compiling the dots in a 100GB file ; a slightly more compelling resource to rebuild the Cathedral . The popular Assasins Creed-hero of restoration- hypothesis will be probably dismissed just as Enrico Din’s dream of finishing the Sagrada Familia Cathedral with a huge 3D printer. But if the digital era keeps embedding art with new techs the future could look a lot like the past.
