April 19, 2017: Lynn Ramey, “Learning Medieval Culture through 3D Immersion: Problems and Possibilities”
Vanderbilt Center for Digital Humanities
Wednesday, April 19, 4:10 pm
Learning Medieval Culture through 3D Immersion: Problems and Possibilities
3D modeling has become commonplace in certain academic fields like archeology and art history because of the ability to safely explore and share fragile or inaccessible artifacts and environments. However, literary and language studies have not embraced the use of 3D media to the same degree. A 3D game engine can allow virtual immersion in a now inaccessible time, but immersion in medieval life would not simply mean navigating the space and society of a time where people spoke differently and lived in a different landscape and used different tools. While that is a part of what we can try to reproduce, the very meaning and experience of “medieval space” was likely very different 1000 years ago. This talk will look at the exciting promise of 3D immersive environments for the study and research of the culture of the Middle Ages, while also touching on some of the technical and ethical problems these models raise.
Lynn Ramey is Associate Professor of French at Vanderbilt University where she specializes in medieval French literature and media studies. Ramey is the author of Christian, Saracen and Genre in Medieval French Literature (Routledge, 2001) and Black Legacies: Race and the European Middle Ages (Florida, 2014), and co-editor with Tison Pugh of Race, Class and Gender in “Medieval” Cinema (Palgrave, 2007). She is currently working with recreations of medieval literature and culture in video games. Ramey is one of the Andrew J. Mellon faculty fellows at the Digital Humanities Center this year.