I can imagine creating something like this with students about the city of Venice. The link is to The Virtual Lawn produced at the University of Virginia. There’s a great deal here that focuses on Jefferson and his architecture at UVA, but also the Renaissance architect Palladio, Humanism, ancient and Renaissance villas, and much more.
I also really like Frederic Kaplan’s Ted Talk on building an information time machine on the city of Venice. This would be a challenge here.
My original proposal for participation in the Digital Media Commons Initiative at UMW:
“My seminars on Venice include an online exhibit; these are vehicles for art history majors to present research on the art, culture, history, and environment of this extraordinary city. (The exhibit from 2011 is available here.) The exhibits attract attention online, and this is rewarding for students. Nevertheless, there is no contact between our students and students elsewhere in the US or in Italy. This project aims to remove barriers by establishing connections with colleagues and students beyond UMW in the creation of a website on which students from several institutions could collaborate. My current Venice seminar and May study abroad program to Venice and Croatia can initiate these connections.
Art history is the study of visual communications over time. While art historians often work alone and in archives, we also work collaboratively and with the newest technologies. Art history at UMW supports both approaches. This project connects on-site archival study with online collaborative discoveries, and establishes connections that currently do not exist. I have not identified an online project like this elsewhere; its uniqueness and innovativeness would draw students to UMW, to the ITCC, and to the interdisciplinary study of art history. It is a natural fit for the ITCC because it speaks to the Center’s mission to “imagine, create, share, and learn.” The project re-imagines teaching and learning here at UMW as both a classroom and a global liberal arts experience. The ITCC will be an actual building, but it will also be a virtual space open to a global community with its heart at UMW.”
