Posted on Mar 29, 2006

Two years ago, Nixi Cura led a group of three computer science students on a field trip to Beijing, where they did a computer modeling of a Chinese emperor's tomb. “It was a cool task for them, and it helped me in my research. We didn't have a computer science-arts arrangement then. Every spring, the computer science department used to invite professors to propose projects that the following year's computer science majors could help with. Three students were interested in working on my project-Michael Losure, Bryce Levin, and Steve LaPlante, who all graduated in 2004.
The students used 3D programs now used in movies such as “Lord of the Rings.” The project was a way to introduce themselves to three-dimensional modeling.
One version of the tomb rendering has a fly-through-as if the viewer is flying through the inside of the tomb. (See http://www.vu.union.edu/~losurem/tombweb/View_Manchu_WalkThrough.swf
.)
Explains Cura, “It's the tomb of the most famous Chinese emperor ever. And it's the only tomb that's been opened that's entirely filled with Tibetan iconography. Naturally, this is a touchy political issue. The Chinese haven't been able to translate the text. The text is in Sanskrit, transliterated into Tibetan, and so far, nobody knows what it says.”
The findings of the team will be published in the journal Artibus Asiae. Aware that further research will represent a huge project, requiring the cooperation of the Chinese government and/or a major museum, she'll be applying for grants “to make official my research on the tomb- and to do a full-scale archeological report of this tomb.”
Some people, including some archeologists, wonder about the utility of creating a model like this, says Cura. “First of all, not everyone can actually visit the tomb, and besides, as a pedagogical tool, it's unparalleled.”