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| yna@yna.co.kr 2024-06-13 17:31:21
*Editor’s note: K-VIBE invites experts from various K-culture sectors to share their extraordinary discovery about the Korean culture.
Chapter 1. The Past
Michelangelo Ventures into Augmented Reality
By Noh Seok-joon (Master K-architect engineer)
One of the must-visit places in Rome is the Sistine Chapel (Cappella Sistina). The Sistine Chapel was built over eight years, from 1473 to 1481, under Pope Sixtus IV. It is a sacred place where cardinals from around the world gather to elect a new pope and where major papal ceremonies are held. Beyond its historical significance, there is a more special reason why tourists flock to the Sistine Chapel.
The main attraction that makes the Sistine Chapel a must-visit is Michelangelo's masterpieces, "The Last Judgment" and "The Creation of Adam." The vast walls and ceiling of the chapel, measuring 13.20 meters in height and 40.93 meters in length, feature frescoes painted by Renaissance masters such as Michelangelo, Perugino, and Botticelli. The twelve paintings on the side walls of the chapel depict the lives of Moses and Christ. The central altar wall is adorned with Michelangelo's "The Last Judgment," and the ceiling showcases "The Creation of Adam."
Michelangelo, renowned as a sculptor at the time, was commissioned by Pope Julius II to paint the ceiling fresco "The Creation of Adam," which he completed over four years from 1508 to 1512. This artwork depicts nine major scenes from the Book of Genesis, including "The Creation of Light and Darkness," "The Creation of the Sun, Moon, and Earth," and "The Separation of Land and Water." About twenty years later, in 1535, Michelangelo was again commissioned, this time by Pope Paul III, to paint "The Last Judgment" on the wall of the Sistine Chapel, a task that took six years to complete.
Michelangelo's Creation of "The Last Judgment"
Among the numerous religious structures adorned with murals and ceiling paintings, Michelangelo's "The Last Judgment" and "The Creation of Adam" in the Sistine Chapel are considered unparalleled. The primary reason is Michelangelo’s vivid depiction of the afterlife, one of humanity's greatest fascinations. Michelangelo brought to life the mysterious stories of the Bible, especially the climactic scenes of the Last Judgment and the subsequent realms of hell and heaven, with his imaginative and dynamic interpretation, making them appear almost tangible.
Before Michelangelo, the afterlife existed only in textual descriptions shaped by the imaginations of writers. However, after witnessing Michelangelo's genius in "The Creation of Adam" and "The Last Judgment," people could finally visualize the concrete imagery of heaven. This allowed them to empathize more deeply with the messages of the Bible, experiencing the joy of heaven, the torment of hell, and the figures of Jesus and God.
In creating "The Last Judgment," Michelangelo drew significant inspiration from Dante’s "Divine Comedy." Although their approaches were different—Dante used a grand design to depict heaven, purgatory, and hell from a macro perspective, while Michelangelo approached it with a micro perspective, portraying it vividly. Michelangelo referenced Dante's "Divine Comedy" but reinterpreted it into a different version using his painting techniques.
Michelangelo divided the space where the story unfolds into five sections: the heavenly realm, the angels blowing trumpets, the resurrection of the dead, the ascending souls, and the damned being dragged to hell. In the "Divine Comedy," Dante assigns historical figures to specific locations in hell, purgatory, and heaven. In contrast, Michelangelo visualized this sequence from the heavenly realm to hell with Christ as the central judge.
Michelangelo planned and conceptualized the Biblical stories to fit the space of the Sistine Chapel with his own interpretation and imagination. The depiction of Christ in the center differs significantly from previous portrayals, showing a bold, youthful, and nude man without a beard. Next to him sits the Virgin Mary, gazing down gently at humanity. Saints stand nearly in a circle around them, representing the world of near-divine figures. Surrounding them are the resurrected dead ascending to heaven or falling into hell.
Additionally, Michelangelo is known for his incredibly detailed and lively portrayal of the actions and expressions of the Biblical figures, transcending time and place. "The Last Judgment," covering a 167.14-square-meter wall, features 391 figures, each showing the full range of human expressions and actions. The suffering of those in hell is depicted so vividly that it feels palpable, drawing current and past audiences into Michelangelo's created world, allowing them to experience it indirectly.
Michelangelo effectively utilized the architectural space left blank when creating "The Creation of Adam." He edited various scenes from the Bible like a collage, considering the viewer's movement through the space. When visitors follow the intended path, they experience Biblical events as if participating in them, akin to logging into Michelangelo's analog-designed virtual reality.
Michelangelo's "The Last Judgment" and "The Creation of Adam" represent the pinnacle of creating an imagined world in their era. Using Dante's "Divine Comedy" as a foundation, Michelangelo exercised his greatest imaginative power, descriptive skill, and technical mastery with paint and pencil to produce the most perfect virtual reality possible at the time.
Augmented Reality Realized through Meticulous Calculation
Michelangelo's murals in the Sistine Chapel have a significant connection to today's metaverse technology. Remarkably, his frescoes and ceiling paintings exhibit a technical attempt akin to modern "Augmented Reality" (AR). AR is a fusion technique that digitally combines virtual objects or information with real environments, making them appear as part of the actual setting. In the case of the Sistine Chapel, the physical space of the chapel merges with the virtual world and spaces depicted in Michelangelo's murals and ceiling paintings, creating a new dimension of augmented reality.
Michelangelo meticulously examined and analyzed various elements to integrate the virtual world and characters he wanted to create within the chapel's physical environment. He considered all physical constraints and elements of the chapel's space, including the planned paths, the size and shape of the walls, and the dimensions of the ceiling. Based on this analysis, he meticulously calculated where and how each painting should be placed, thereby creating the murals and ceiling paintings.
By the time Michelangelo completed his murals and ceiling paintings, the actual physical properties of the chapel building began to fade, leaving only the functional elements of paths and spatial dimensions. In their place, a virtual materiality created by his murals and ceiling paintings took over. The scale and nature of the architectural space were transformed by the virtual scale and space he crafted, surpassing the physical structure's original attributes. This virtual space could even extend to infinite scales beyond the size or structure of the real space. Visitors are completely surrounded by the murals as soon as they enter the chapel.
This immersion is akin to being enveloped by a virtual reality space. The physical attributes of the chapel, such as size, structure, and materials, are transformed into the characteristics of a virtual space. Thus, visitors experience a virtual story within a space entirely different from the real world. The stone walls may become meadows or waterfronts, and the ceiling may turn into the atmosphere of the cosmos. The original physical properties are transformed into augmented reality dimensions.
The fusion of the perfect physical space of the Sistine Chapel with the Biblical stories created by Michelangelo's genius presents an entirely new virtual reality world and space. This provides significant insights for designing the future of the metaverse. Effectively utilizing the physical characteristics, structure, and size of real-world spaces, along with their inherent stories, can enhance immersion in the virtual world and realize diverse spatial applications within the virtual world. As a result, participants can experience the ultimate virtual reality, feeling as though they are actively existing and engaging within that space.
Designing Logins with Augmented Reality
Michelangelo's genius lies not only in the artistic perfection of his paintings but also in his ability to create an immersive experience for viewers through the frescoes and ceiling paintings of the Sistine Chapel. This design allows viewers to enter a virtual world he created, making them feel as though they are experiencing real events. As previously explained, even if the Sistine Chapel loses the scale and nature of its original physical space in the virtual world, the significance of the chapel as a space does not disappear. Instead, the physical elements of the Sistine Chapel serve as crucial mediums that enable people to experience the virtual world created by Michelangelo. Ultimately, the physical space of the chapel acts as a cutting-edge digital medium, similar to modern goggles or Google Glass, facilitating the login to virtual reality.
Michelangelo designed augmented reality by adjusting the physical size and structure of the Sistine Chapel and the scale of the frescoes painted there. The elements of augmented reality were used as devices to help viewers quickly immerse and connect with the virtual space he created. Augmented reality guided viewers to specific points, moved them, and at certain moments, stopped them to immerse them deeply into the virtual world's spectacle, facilitating the login.
Once logged in, viewers become part of the virtual world Michelangelo created, experiencing an analog-style connection. By experiencing the Christian virtual world Michelangelo created, viewers eventually become emotionally involved and sympathetic to the message conveyed by the artist. Viewers participate in the virtual world depicted in the paintings, understanding and communicating the emotional empathy and Christian ideological lessons Michelangelo intended. The frescoes and ceiling paintings also served as memory recall devices, reconnecting people with the Biblical stories stored in their memories from their past experiences in homes, churches, schools, books, and movies.
Through these various devices, viewers logged into the virtual world go beyond simply viewing the paintings and become participants in the virtual world Michelangelo created, indirectly experiencing the events of the Bible. Interestingly, viewers also experience synchronization when they see the characters depicted in the frescoes. They shed tears of joy when they see those rejoicing in heaven and shiver with fear when they see those suffering in hell. Some even think that the characters depicted in Michelangelo's frescoes could be themselves, making the characters in the paintings their avatars.
Virtual spaces in digital worlds such as virtual reality, augmented reality, and the metaverse exist on a different dimensional plane from reality. Therefore, a specific login process is needed to enter the virtual world, a dimension completely different from reality. Michelangelo effectively arranged and equipped the physical space of the chapel and his works to lead viewers to log into the virtual world he created. This login method has existed and evolved in various forms throughout history.
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