Still image of digital rendering of Notre-Dame Cathedral, courtesy of Ars Electronica
To celebrate next month’s public reopening of Notre-Dame Cathedral after its intense five-year restoration, an exhibition, mounted by the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, brings to life a virtual, three-dimensional model of the architectural icon.
Visitors to the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, are invited to step inside a virtual depiction of Paris as they experience the entry and interior of the cathedral, as well as the extraordinary effort to restore Notre-Dame after the devastating April 2019 fire.
In Paris, the iconic Gothic cathedral will reopen to the public on Saturday, December 7, 2024. The MFAH is celebrating this historic moment with an immersive experience in the Museum’s spacious Cullinan Hall.
The reconstruction of Notre-Dame has involved a team of nearly 2,000–both on site and in workshops across France–including conservators, carpenters, glassmakers, locksmiths, engineers, and scaffolding experts. The MFAH presentation showcases the legendary architectural features of the cathedral, including its famed stained-glass windows, as well as the role of new technologies in preserving and communicating humanity’s cultural heritage.
The MFAH experience is created by Ars Electronica in partnership with French start-ups Iconem and Histovery. The presentation employs point cloud data compiled by the late, renowned Belgian art historian and Vassar College professor Andrew Tallon, who created three-dimensional laser scans of the cathedral in 2010. This information proved instrumental in guiding the reconstruction of the cathedral and was supplemented with additional scans and material by Histovery.
The exhibition is organized by the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and supported by Villa Albertine, Alliance Francaise de Houston, Archaeology Now, Iconem, and Histovery. The videos are made possible thanks to data compiled by art historian Dr. Andrew Tallon, Yann Arthus Bertrand and TSVP. The resulting videos were created by Ars Electronica and their production team: Patrick Berger, Melinda File, Roland Haring, Raphael Schaumburg-Lippe.