Proposal to the Beaulieu Estate – July 2006

Proposal to the Beaulieu Estate

from John Pemberton and Deborah Wilson

The Talking Walls (UK) Ltd  www.thetalkingwalls.co.uk

July 2006

Introduction

This is a proposal to produce a computer-based animated visualisation of Beaulieu Abbey to be used by visitors either: within a portable hand-held guide to the abbey, on a static ‘kiosk’ museum display screen, used remotely as an internet-based display or as a purchasable take-away DVD.  Such visualisation would provide a guide for visitors to Beaulieu and be an educational tool for school and college students.

Background to The Talking Walls®

The Talking Walls® project was founded by Deborah Wilson who has a background in CAD and 3D illustration.  Deborah produced, as a part of a MA in Interactive Production from |Southampton Solent University, an animated visualisation of the National Trust heritage property Dunster Castle in Somerset.  In the process she developed an educational interactive history template which can be expanded to suit any heritage site or historical building.  Deborah was a finalist in the Innoventions 2004 Awards Exhibition, winning the Highly Commended Award for her MA project.

John Pemberton has retired from a career in the computer software industry, although he is active as a director of a handful of companies and a mentor to start-up and early stage technology companies within the Merlin project of the Finance South East (FSE) funding agency.   FSE is the finance arm of the South East England Development Agency, one of the six UK Government-sponsored regional development agencies.  He has a personal interest in the use of computer-based graphics to aid the visualisation of historic sites, currently acting as a consultant to The Talking Walls.  He has also researched the history of his own property Ipley Manor which, because it was owned by the monks of Beaulieu Abbey for some 250 years, has involved research into the history of the abbey itself.

Visualisation

The visualisation will be of the form whereby the exterior of buildings will be shown in fully rendered three dimensional form with the ability to ‘fly around’ the structures using the mouse or pointing device of the computer equipment (hand-held, kiosk screen, desktop or laptop computer).  It will be possible with the mouse to enter the interior of the main buildings, ‘walk through’ them, look up, down and around, and zoom in to view specific features such as: stone carvings, windows, doors, altar pieces and other fixtures.  Textual description of the buildings and their historic use will be provided with audio commentary as appropriate.

The interiors and exteriors of the buildings will reproduce walls, ceilings, windows, roofing, and stone and timber decoration with as much historic accuracy as is practically possible. Animated inhabitants of the abbey (monks, servants, etc) will be incorporated to give a human scale and to generate topical commentary about the abbey.

It is felt also that the project could include a visualisation of another feature of the Beaulieu Estate: Bucklers Hard naval construction yard, active in the 18th century building timber ships for Nelson’s navy, with its village of houses still standing that originally accommodated the craftsmen building the ships.

The National Curriculum for schools states for the subject of History that “Pupils should be taught … how to find out about the past from a range of sources of information, for example, stories, eye-witness accounts, pictures and photographs, artefacts, historic buildings and visits to museums, galleries and sites, the use of ICT-based sources” (www.nc.uk.net).  Beaulieu currently performs a significant role in accommodating parties of school children.  Computer based visualisation, incorporating interactive questions, would add to the facilities available.  It would be available to students visiting Beaulieu and remotely on DVD or on the internet.

The process of selecting the structures to be visualised, the design of the visualisation graphics and the education components, will be undertaken in co-operation with the Beaulieu Estate.  It is The Talking Wall’s intention to base the Beaulieu implementation around the Cinema 4D modelling system from Maxon (www.maxon.net), although other software will be deployed as appropriate.

Of the buildings of the abbey to be visualised, it is suggested that a model of the abbey church could be developed first, being the most significant structure on the site, with the cloisters that link with it second, and then other buildings of the abbey.  In the case of Bucklers Hard naval construction yard, the greatest contribution a visualisation could make is to present the image of a ship under construction towering over the village of houses, with all noise and hubbub of the craftsmen working on it.

A strong benefit of the visualisation of Beaulieu arises from the fact that most of the abbey was demolished many centuries ago.  In the absence of the buildings, as with the ships once constructed at Buckler’s Hard, computer animation can provide visitors with a potent experience not otherwise available.

Historic Research

The visualisation of the abbey will be based on research into the form it took before its dissolution in 1539, as recorded in archaeological research papers and other documents available.

Where the form of the buildings is not known, for example high arches, ceilings, roofs and window glazing, visualisations will be constructed from other standing abbey churches of the same Cistercian monastic order, for example the abbey church of Pontigny in Yonne, France recognised to have a similar size, layout and date.

Preparation of an animated model of an 18th century ship would require research into  methods of ship construction and into available computer-based drawings and any existing animations of ships of this period.

Access to and the co-operation of Beaulieu’s archive will be necessary to undertake this research.

Finance

It is proposed that the method of financing the development of these presentations would be by grant or possibly loan funding.  Examples of relevant grants are the UK Government DTI Research and Development Grant and grants from the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA).  Assistance in obtaining these funds will be requested from Finance South East, mentioned above, or other relevant agency.

This would not leave the Beaulieu Estate totally without cost because it will need to acquire the necessary hardware to operate the visualisation software:  hand-held terminals or static ‘kiosk’ screens, and possibly a computer server and network.

The funding applications, including their man-day and cost estimates, will be drawn up by The Talking Walls project with full disclosure to and agreement of the Beaulieu Estate.

It is proposed that The Talking Walls would receive a royalty for each use of a hand-held guide that a visitor pays Beaulieu to use, and a royalty for each DVD purchased, or chargeable use of the software on the Beaulieu website.  This is to reimburse the project for the cost of developing and maintaining the software, although it is not realistic, nor is it the intention of the principles to earn more from the project than the recovery of its costs.

Intellectual Property

It is The Talking Walls intention to continue developing the libraries of graphical features and techniques in order to be able to deploy those libraries at other heritage sites and for other implementations.  Thus the libraries will remain the intellectual property of The Talking Walls.

The specific design developed for Beaulieu will be licensed to Beaulieu, and will be unique to Beaulieu.  An escrow arrangement will be put in place whereby, if The Talking Walls were unable to provide a satisfactory service, Beaulieu would be able to obtain the code and libraries of their implementation.

Project Steps

The project steps envisaged at this stage are:

  • Overall design of the visualisation graphics and education components,
  • Apply for grant and possibly loan funding,
  • Plan and specify the software development in stages with regular milestones in terms of specification and delivery date,
  • Undertake a pilot development,
  • Develop the implementation in measured stages.

The Proposal

The Talking Walls project gives its commitment to:

  • Seeking to raise the funds necessary,
  • Develop the software,
  • Deliver the software in planned stages.

It is requested that Beaulieu Estate give their commitment to:

  • Cooperation with the historic research,
  • Cooperation in the design of the visualisation graphics, textual and audio commentary, and the educational components,
  • Agreement to and support of the funding applications,
  • Subject to satisfactory progress of the software development on a basis to be agreed between the parties, Beaulieu will not commit to displace The Talking Walls product by visualisation software from another vendor,
  • Subject to satisfactory delivery of the software development, purchase of the necessary hardware to operate it,
  • Operate a royalty payment for units of visualisation software purchased, rented, or otherwise used by fee-paying visitors.