Sunday, November 11, 2007

Virtual Spaces in Woolf World






I've been thinking some about what kinds of spaces we need in Woolf World. I started off with practical things:



  • A fairly small meeting space for classes etc. (I immediately think of Gordon Sq.--which was used as a front/back yard by many of its inhabitants. I've got lots of pictures of it in its present configuration... Nice research project to try to reconstruct it pre-WWII.)


  • This is a woodcut Roger Fry did of people walking and sitting and dozing in Gorgon Sq.







  • If we want a private meeting space--Fitzroy Sq is currently still restricted in RL...Big iron fence; residents only...
  • Some kind of larger meeting space for conferences or other presentations--more oriented towards some kind of procenium/ screen
  • A large library space--full of links to on-line libraries as well as web sites and on-line texts, etc. A special scriptorium section of this could include virtual editions of altered books from classes.
  • A salesroom/ display space for products generated. I have already dubbed that Omega Workshop, since that is the name of the collaborative workshop that Roger Fry set up (in Fitzroy SQ) in 1913 to create and sell all kinds of art/craft objects: clothing, fabric, rugs, furniture, ceramics (including tiles), whole interior decorating schemes, including wall murals. For more on Omega see Denise Randle's web site at: http://bloomsbury.denise-randle.co.uk/omega.htm Here's a web site with a facsimilie of the original Omega Workshop catalogue: http://www.fulltable.com/vts/o/om/o.htm
  • A map room or travel agency or tour center where we could collect links etc. to the Mrs. Dalloway walk, Google Earth, virtual London etc..

Beyond these practical spaces, I also am very excited about trying to re-create a certain number of virtual rooms and houses.

  • Chris Reed's wonderful book, Bloomsbury Rooms, provides a lot of black and white pictures of Omega-designed rooms--wouldn't it be lovely to be able to recreate some of these to walk around in?

  • It is also tempting to try to recreate important Bloomsbury residences, such as Monk's House and Charleston... However, we have to be careful about these, as there are security and copyright problems. The Trusts at both places don't allow interior photography for security reasons--don't want too much detail out there-- and also generally want some control over images.



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