Thomas Dabbs speaks with John Wall about the completion of the Virtual St Paul's Cathedral Project. This project is a digital reconstruction of St Pauls Cathedral before Christopher Wren and during the time of John Donne and Shakespeare. It provides architectural and acoustic models for Christian worship in the early decades of the Church of England and also a view of the nave and and bookshops of Paul's Cross Churchyard, where Londoners came to hear the news and to shop.
[LINKS]
Virtual John Donne Project: https://virtualdonne.chass.ncsu.edu
Virtual St Paul's Cathedral Project: https://vpcathedral.chass.ncsu.edu
Virtual Paul's Cross Project: https://vpcross.chass.ncsu.edu
[SEGMENTS]
00:00:00 - Intro
00:03:04 - Panoramic views of St Paul’s
00:06:38 - Virtual St Pauls, architecture
00:13:44 - John Donne and cathedral spaces
00:18:38 - Cross-disciplinary team, visual/acoustic models
00:25:50 - Materializing the ephemeral, the people, project history
00:30:09 - Seeing and hearing cathedral worship
00:34:05 - John Schofield’s contribution as architectural historian
00:39:03 - Paul’s Cross churchyard, transatlantic connections
00:47:50 - Paul’s Cross sermons, Donne, Gunpowder Plot, Old Pronunciation
00:53:00 - Auditory technology, the churchyard from bone to book
01:01:03 - Literacy and hearing
01:04:00 - Sounds of worship, the anechoic chamber, the choir and recording
01:15:55 - The nave of the cathedral, space and noise
01:27:18 - The ‘Book of Common Prayer’ - daily and Easter service
01:39:27 - Trinity Chapel and John Donne
01:45:00 - Closing remarks, ‘Is there sand enough in the glass?’