Greater Cultural Understanding Through Realtime 3D Visual Simulation

Through a grant awarded by The National Endowment of the Arts, Metagraphical Interactive was tasked by New York's Environmental Simulation Center to construct a photorealistic model of NYC's Chinatown to be used as part of an installation fusing together a museum's unique archival collection with pioneering, multi-faceted technology to create a new platform for community documentation, interpretation and reflection in an innovative new way. The rich history of New York's Chinatown and the people and memories within its community will be made accessible to its expanding constituency by linking a database of statistical and biographical data with historical photos and other documents and artifacts together with Geographic Information System (GIS) data, resulting in a context-rich, photo realistic real-time 3D model of Chinatown.

The project stimulates a cross-cultural and inter generational dialogue with the Museum's repository of collective recorded memories and cultural artifacts, all through a user-friendly environment that encourages visitors to explore and contribute their own knowledge of Chinatown, enabled with coupled information and graphics technologies. MoCA's Chinatown Mapping Project will serve as a model for other small museums seeking to develop new ways to present social histories and to reach out to larger audiences nationally and internationally.

Metagraphical Interactive
1721 Village Blvd., Suite 202
West Palm Beach, Florida 33409
Tel: 561-762-4343
www.metagraphical.com
www.moca-nyc.org
www.simcenter.org

Team:
Matthew Hyner of Metagraphical Interactive and Roy Chan of The Environmental Simulation Center