The Computer Project consists of three portions:
(1) A textual (hard-copy) description of the architectural history of your house.
(2) A series of graphic (hard-copy) plans of your house.
(3) A textual digital description of the rooms and objects in your house with links to images and Web pages. This description will be entered into the VROMA MOO and its associated Web server.
All components of the House Description Project are due by Monday, April 12.
EVALUATION
All members of each group will receive the same grade for their House Description Project. The project as a whole is worth 30% of each student's final grade. Criteria for evaluation of the components of the project are described below.
(1) Criteria for Architectural History (20% of Project)
The architectural history component will be graded on both content and style. The content should include a full description of the architectural history of the house. Each house should go through at least one major change in its plan over time. This component should consist of ca. 3 typed double-spaced pages. You may study the house descriptions available on the Pompeii CD-ROM for examples of the description of architectural history or look at the descriptions in the Richardson or Wallace-Hadrill textbooks.
(2) Criteria for Plans (20% of Project)
The plan component will be graded on consistency with architectural history, accuracy, and neatness. The plans that you design will be each stage of your house, incorporating the various cumulative changes in the house over time. The plans should be on one page, with an indication of scale and direction. You may study the house descriptions available on the Pompeii CD-ROM for examples of house plans or use the Richardson or Wallace-Hadrill textbooks. You must have at least two plans, an initial one and a final one (after the one major architectural change that your house is required to go through). You may have more, if you decide to incorporate other stages of architectural change.
(3) Criteria for Digital Description (60% of Project)
The MOO description of the rooms and objects within each house will be based on both content and style. Issues to be evaluated in content include: historical accuracy and consistency, realism, and amount of detail. Stylistic issues in writing include clarity, evocativeness, and conciseness. Further explanations of these categories are given below.
a) Content (80% of Digital Description)
i) Historical Accuracy and Consistency (30% of digital description)
One of your primary goals is to make your house and the activities that took place there as accurate as the evidence allows. Evidence comes in many flavors, e.g. texts (including histories, dramas, inscriptions) by ancient writers (such as the readings collected in Shelton). Just as important is archaeological evidence such as artifacts actually found on the sites and of course the architectural remains on the sites themselves. This information is provided on the Pompeii CD-ROM for the five houses we have studied in detail in class. The description of your house should also be consistent with the architectural history that you have written of it.
ii) Realism (20% of Digital Description)
It is important to keep in mind the purpose and function of the house you design and how it was actually used. What went on there? How much time did people spend there? What kinds of activities did they engage in? Can your virtual visitors engage in these activities? What are the most important features, contents, details of the structure? Also, you should keep in mind the realism of the environment. What kinds of sounds, smells, feelings would you experience as you entered each room? Describe these sensations in your text.
iii) Amount of Detail and Objects (30% of Digital Description)
Realism of the experience can also be enhanced by a judicious use of detail. Nothing is more boring (or disappointing) than one "bare" room after another. You should, however, try to limit the main description of a "room" (what visitors see when they enter a place) to half a screen. You can describe the room in the MOO and/or in the Web page description.
To add a visual dimension to your description, you can add images and links to other Web pages. Information about how to do this is provided in the handout on Object Editing. You can find appropriate images in the VROMA database, the Tulane Classical Arts Database, or elsewhere on the Web. You can also create your own drawings, digitize them on a scanner, and upload them as images to the Student Web server. To do this, you will need a student web account, which you may apply for by going to the Tulane home page and following the links to the Student Web. A flatbed scanner is available in the Newcomb Language Lab.
The richness of a room can also be enhanced by the presence of appropriate objects, especially those that a visitor can manipulate in some way. In the vestibule, for example, you may want to have benches that visitors can sit on while waiting to be admitted to your house. Once you have created an object (with the @create command), don't forget to "drop" it in the room where you want it to be and "lock" it in place there (unless you want people to be able to move it). You can describe objects more fully using the Object Editor, and you can also associate images (either ones you "borrow" from the Web or ones you draw yourself) with your objects with this editor.
The final way to add detail is through the ADD DETAIL function of the MOO. There is a separate handout on this function.
b) Style (20% of Digital Description)
The 2 primary criteria for style are clarity and conciseness.
i) Clarity (10% of digital description)
Is this description clear? It helps to let someone else in your group be the judge -- remember that you will NOT be there in person to clarify any misunderstandings that may arise.
iii) Conciseness (10% of digital description)
Is the description concise? It often happens that enthusiastic builders will go overboard in their zeal to describe every aspect of a building or other object in the main description. The result is a screenful (or more) of text, which can very often have the opposite effect -- a would-be visitor skims and misses many of your more subtle details