WORLD HERITAGE BENRATH CASTLE IN DüSSELDORF, UNDERWATER
Underwater VRs of Dusseldorf’s Benrath Castle, by Peggy Stein.
by Michelle Bienias
The 18th century Benrath Castle (Schloss Benrath), located 10 km (6 miles) from the center of Dusseldorf, was built between 1756 and 1773 near the former village of Benrath – made a part of Dusseldorf in 1929 – and sits in the middle of a vast park, surrounded by woods and meadows facing the Rhine, and complete with pond and gardens where concerts are regularly held. It was once the residence of Theodor zu Pfalz and was designed by Nicolas de Piagage, who was also a landscaper by trade and designed the 156 acres the castle sits on. It was built to be the private summer residence of Elector Carl Thiodor but ultimately became a hunting lodge and summer resort for the wealthy. The castle has an east and west wing, carved stucco ceilings and a great domed ballroom. The inside is filled with precious artifacts from the 18th century, including chandeliers, mirrors, rare paintings and old clocks.Benrath Castle is also a World Heritage site and in 2000, Peggy Stein of steinzeit-mediendesign chose the castle to demonstrate the possibilities of QTVR. She made 30 nodes inside and outside the castle with a Seitz-Rounchschot Camera, an Elmar Super VR 16mm and middle format film. A year later, while lecturing at Dusseldorf’s University of Applied Science, Peggy Stein and her class joined a project called ‘surpriXmedia’ to be presented at ‘Boot 2002’ – a famous exhibition for water sports, sailing, diving, motor boats, etc. She and her class wrote a fictional story about a group of scientists living 30 m underwater undergoing exceptional experiences due to a lack of oxygen. The results were shown at the Boot 2002 fair in a virtual tour. Stein used her Schloss Benrath VRs (with cylindrical projection) and transformed them into an underwater castle with cubical projection via digital retouching. “The most important reason for the conversion from cylindrical to cubical projection was that we wanted to use a mask similar to diving goggles. With that mask you can’t see everything in a cylindrical pano but you CAN in a cubical,” she says. “So finally at the fair the visitor could make the virtual-tour through the castle and explore the world of the scientists.”
Email: mail@steinzeit-mediendesign.de
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