{"id":7217,"date":"2025-03-25T11:03:26","date_gmt":"2025-03-25T10:03:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uni.lu\/c2dh-en\/?post_type=articles&p=7217"},"modified":"2025-04-28T09:27:21","modified_gmt":"2025-04-28T07:27:21","slug":"history-meets-3d-animations","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/www.uni.lu\/c2dh-en\/articles\/history-meets-3d-animations\/","title":{"rendered":"History meets 3D Animations: A look back at the UNIVERSEH seminar \u201cMankind and the Moon\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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In the winter semester 2024-25 we launched a new UNIVERSEH<\/a> seminar titled “Mankind and the Moon: Mining 400 Years of Space Exploration” which brought together students in history and animation studies to combine historical research with 3D modelling. With a focus on the human perception of space since the early modern period, the seminar produced a 3D virtual museum floating in space realised using the Unreal game engine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As part of the UNIVERSEH course offerings, the seminar was co-organised by Stefan Reiners-Selbach<\/a>, Tobias Winnerling<\/a> (Heinrich-Heine University D\u00fcsseldorf) and Marten D\u00fcring<\/a> (Luxembourg Centre for Contemporary and Digital History (C\u00b2DH)) together with the University of Luxembourg Bachelor in Animation Studies led by Jacopo Armani<\/a> and Sascha Helsper<\/a> (University of Luxembourg MediaCentre).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The seminar was structured in three phases. The initial phase provided students with theoretical foundations and hands-on training in digital source analysis based on a guest lecture by Silke Schwandt<\/a>, training in the usage of Voyant and the Impresso Web App. To help them trace the evolution of cultural narratives about space exploration across centuries, students learned to work with both early modern encyclopedias and digitized newspaper collections and followed guest lectures on premodern moon voyages by Achim Landwehr<\/a> and imageries surrounding the 20th century space race by Sven Grampp<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second phase, onsite in D\u00fcsseldorf allowed students to develop their research projects based on the available sources, alongside methodological research skills and in interaction with the animation artists. A concluding onsite meeting in Luxembourg focused on the translation of historical research findings into virtual world presentations which were recorded in front of the MediaCentre\u2019s green screen and then integrated into the museum.<\/p>\n\n\n

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