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From: Gilles Tran
Subject: Infinite spire and fallen headstones
Date: 8 Dec 2003 19:15:47
Message: <3fd51433$1@news.povray.org>
http://infinitespire.weblogger.com/

This proposal for the WTC memorial competition
(http://www.wtcsitememorial.org/), one of the 5200 that were eventually
submitted, is the brainchild of telecom entrepreneur/author and SETI
part-time worker Brian McConnell, from San Francisco. At the beginning of
2003, Brian, who sometimes dabbles with POV-Ray, recruited some people (pro
bono) to help with the visualisation of this project. Robert Becker, a
professional illustrator, did the watercolors, and I did the CG renderings
in POV-Ray, with some Rhino and Xfrog help. The site features a few of these

about this project at Oyonale in the near future, with some details. Note
that the main objective of the renders was to look good on the presentation
board: they needed to be clean, clear and not too detailed or realistic.
For obvious reasons, this project didn't make it in the final stage of the
competition, as the last thing New York needs is a 600m-high obelisk (the
"fallen headstones" part, however, could have been a starting point for a
real memorial). It was more meant to be an object of debate. The unfortunate
thing, however, was that there was a gag rule (to prevent self-promotion,
particularly from "big names" entrants) which meant no room for discussion
during the competition. The 8 finalists are more realistic/humble/low
key/appropriate than Brian's ambitious design (which seems to belong to the
tradition of unfeasable visionary architecture like the one from

http://expositions.bnf.fr/boullee/expo/7/indexacc.htm), but they also look a
lot like each other.
In any case, there were many interesting things and challenges in this
project, one of them being that the main building could be defined by a
single equation and rendered as an isosurface (it was finally created in SDL
as a mesh for speed reason). Actually, a lot of this project was
mathematically defined, and was ideal for POV-Ray. I spent a lot of time
looking at the map of Ground zero too. And if we had run out of render time,
we could have used some SETI machines!

G.

-- 
**********************
http://www.oyonale.com
**********************
- Graphic experiments
- POV-Ray and Poser computer images
- Posters


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From: Jim Charter
Subject: Re: Infinite spire and fallen headstones
Date: 8 Dec 2003 21:52:34
Message: <3fd538f2$1@news.povray.org>
Gilles Tran wrote:
> http://infinitespire.weblogger.com/
> 

Man, I just made reference to "monument or gravestone" in another post. 
  I didn't steal it, really.

Gilles you get involved in some pretty interesting stuff.  Beautiful 
renders!


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From: Christoph Hormann
Subject: Re: Infinite spire and fallen headstones
Date: 9 Dec 2003 04:52:22
Message: <p2iga1-u53.ln1@triton.imagico.de>
Gilles Tran wrote:
> http://infinitespire.weblogger.com/
> 
> This proposal for the WTC memorial competition
> (http://www.wtcsitememorial.org/), one of the 5200 that were eventually

> submitted, is the brainchild of telecom entrepreneur/author and SETI
> part-time worker Brian McConnell, from San Francisco. At the beginning 
of
> 2003, Brian, who sometimes dabbles with POV-Ray, recruited some people 
(pro
> bono) to help with the visualisation of this project. Robert Becker, a
> professional illustrator, did the watercolors, and I did the CG renderi
ngs
> in POV-Ray, with some Rhino and Xfrog help. The site features a few of 
these

> [...]

Congratulations, the 'infinite spire' concept seems an interesting idea 
for such a memorial although i completely agree that it would be 
somewhat unrealistic and exaggerated to build it.

For

http://infinitespire.weblogger.com/museum

i would have loved to see a POV-Ray render...

Christoph

-- 
POV-Ray tutorials, include files, Sim-POV,
HCR-Edit and more: http://www.tu-bs.de/~y0013390/
Last updated 25 Oct. 2003 _____./\/^>_*_<^\/\.______


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From: ABX
Subject: Re: Infinite spire and fallen headstones
Date: 9 Dec 2003 06:17:46
Message: <9dbbtv0uhnfo4e8uvqatceng2c7ldphr88@4ax.com>
On Tue, 9 Dec 2003 01:15:10 +0100, "Gilles Tran" <gitran_nospam_@wanadoo.fr>
wrote:
> http://infinitespire.weblogger.com/
> This proposal for the WTC memorial competition

Interesting. I hope that 'Gilles Tran x154' will give you next benefits from
being 3D artists.

ABX


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From: Gilles Tran
Subject: Re: Infinite spire and fallen headstones
Date: 9 Dec 2003 17:36:28
Message: <3fd64e6c$1@news.povray.org>

news:p2i### [at] tritonimagicode...
>http://infinitespire.weblogger.com/museum
>
>i would have loved to see a POV-Ray render...

Indeed, the museum interior would be a good excercise in radiosity,
mathematical modelling and lighting. Brian McConnell wanted me to do this
too but I didn't have the time.
Note that if people are interested in making additional renders for this
project, I'm sure Brian won't object to it if the images are nice.

G.


-- 
POV-Ray tutorials, include files, Sim-POV,
HCR-Edit and more: http://www.tu-bs.de/~y0013390/
Last updated 25 Oct. 2003 _____./\/^>_*_<^\/\.______


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From: Gilles Tran
Subject: Re: Infinite spire and fallen headstones
Date: 9 Dec 2003 17:49:16
Message: <3fd6516c$1@news.povray.org>

news:3fd538f2$1@news.povray.org...
> Gilles you get involved in some pretty interesting stuff.  Beautiful
> renders!

Oh the renders could have been much better. There are lots of constraints in
a project like this because it is a real place.  The lighting was
particularly tricky, as I wanted it to be honest (unlike in other
architectural renders). So I spent a lot of time tweaking things that I
wouldn't care about in a personal project. The butterflies, for instance,
were Brian McConnell's idea to give a more surreal twist to the presentation
board. There were many of them, until we realised that it looked like they
were attacking the spire, which wasn't exactly a good idea given the
context... So only a few monarchs were left in the image eventually. This
sort of experience is always interesting, though too much time-consuming.

G.

-- 
**********************
http://www.oyonale.com
**********************
- Graphic experiments
- POV-Ray and Poser computer images
- Posters


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From: Tom Melly
Subject: Re: Infinite spire and fallen headstones
Date: 10 Dec 2003 04:28:30
Message: <3fd6e73e$1@news.povray.org>
"Gilles Tran" <gitran_nospam_@wanadoo.fr> wrote in message
news:3fd51433$1@news.povray.org...
> http://infinitespire.weblogger.com/
>

Interesting - I took the various VR tours as well. IMHO the 'gimmick' of the
design would swamp the symbolism of the design, but waddaiknow? Still, it got me
thinking about the whole memorial thing...

I dunno - is it me or is the whole thing getting a little fetishistic? I can't
help feeling that the best memorial would have been to leave ground zero alone,
perhaps with a simple stone memorial recording the names of the dead, rather
than trying to perform some kind of spiritual graft onto history. Would anyone
advocate knocking down Auschwitz and building a huge monument in it's place? Why
try and erect a symbol to something that's already symbolic enough,
thankyouverymuch?*

* once again, I'm reminded of Pink Floyd performing "The Wall" in front of the
recently demolished Berlin Wall, and describing it as "symbolic". As one
commentator noted, the symbolism was pretty redundant...


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From: Gilles Tran
Subject: Re: Infinite spire and fallen headstones
Date: 10 Dec 2003 07:36:44
Message: <3fd7135c$1@news.povray.org>

news:3fd6e73e$1@news.povray.org...

> I dunno - is it me or is the whole thing getting a little fetishistic? I
can't
> help feeling that the best memorial would have been to leave ground zero
alone,
> perhaps with a simple stone memorial recording the names of the dead,
rather
> than trying to perform some kind of spiritual graft onto history.

Agreed. As far as I'm concerned, a simple children's playground with bright
coloured games would have been symbolic enough, with a small memorial area
(a stone, some trees and benches) on the periphery.

G.
-- 

**********************
http://www.oyonale.com
**********************
- Graphic experiments
- POV-Ray and Poser computer images
- Posters


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From: Jim Charter
Subject: Re: Infinite spire and fallen headstones
Date: 10 Dec 2003 09:08:20
Message: <3fd728d4$1@news.povray.org>
Gilles Tran wrote:


> news:3fd6e73e$1@news.povray.org...
> 
> 
>>I dunno - is it me or is the whole thing getting a little fetishistic? I
> 
> can't
> 
>>help feeling that the best memorial would have been to leave ground zero
> 
> alone,
> 
>>perhaps with a simple stone memorial recording the names of the dead,
> 
> rather
> 
>>than trying to perform some kind of spiritual graft onto history.
> 
> 
> Agreed. As far as I'm concerned, a simple children's playground with bright
> coloured games would have been symbolic enough, with a small memorial area
> (a stone, some trees and benches) on the periphery.
> 

I heartily agree with both of you.


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From: Jim Charter
Subject: Re: Infinite spire and fallen headstones
Date: 10 Dec 2003 09:14:42
Message: <3fd72a52$1@news.povray.org>
Tom Melly wrote:


> 
> I dunno - is it me or is the whole thing getting a little fetishistic? 
> 

I think it was for the "Gardens" round, the entry I never completed in 
time, was of a garden filled with giant topiary sculptures of women's 
shoes standing on their toes.  It may have been an even better idea than 
I realized at the time.


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