Page - 8 - in Analogue Meets Digital - History and Present IT Augmentation of Europe’s Largest Landscape Relief Model in Villach, Austria

MultimodalTechnol. Interact.2019, 3, 44 8of12 ascientificworkof art (cf. [9]), even ifwearenot taking intoaccount themagnificentvalue-addingby meansofmostadvancedITtechnology(seenextchapter). Figure 2. The initial shelter building for the Landscape Relief Model of Carinthia with glass roof around 1925. (a) Exterior view and (b, c) interior views. In (b) and (c), the catwalk gallery can be seen. (c) also visualizes the overly bright illumination of the landscape relief model through the glass roof at noon. Photographs: Municipal Museum and Archive of the City of Villach. The “Reliefgebäude“ or ”Pavillon“ (shelter building) was constructed in 1912, based on the plans of the Villach City Baurat (an Austrian title for municipal construction engineers), the civil engineer Rudolf Müller. Initially, it received natural light through a large glass roof (Figure 2a–c). Since this sort of natural illumination did not prove itself in practice due to interaction with the sun radiation, only a few years later, the building got a roof membrane made of tin and an electric lighting (Figure 3) [4]. Figure 3. Shelter building for the Landscape Relief Model of Carinthia with changed roof membrane made of tin (around 1925). Photograph: Municipal Museum and Archive of the City of Villach. Figure3. Shelterbuildingfor theLandscapeReliefModel ofCarinthiawithchangedroofmembranemade of tin (around1925). Photograph: MunicipalMuseumandArchiveof theCityofVillach. Multimodal Technol. Interact. 2019, 3, x FOR PEER REVIEW 8 of 12 Three weeks after the official opening f the Relief von Kärnten, more than 1000 visitors w re counted [7] (p. 5). Less than only four weeks after the opening, the landscape terrain model had been visited by more than 2000 persons. Accordi g to the local newspaper Villac er Zeitung of 24 August 1913, all visitors were amazed and delight d y the splendid ess of this reation. The author of the article praised the natural appearance and uniqueness of the object and underlined its attractiveness for the local population as well as for tourists. It was predicted that the Relief von Kärnten would, in the future, act as a prominent tourist attraction. The volkswirtschaftlicher Verein (national-economic association) “Oberkärnten“(“Upper” = Western = more alpine “Carinthia”) made it their business to promote this “sculptural piece of art“ in Austrian newspapers and newspapers abroad in order to draw attention to this unique object of interest ([8], p. 5). In 1986/1987, the building got a thorough renovation and the landscape relief model was also refurbished. Two years later, in 1988/1989, the already yellowed terrain painting was restored by the Tyrolian geosculptor Jörg Covi. Within the scope of this renovation, the previously white neighboring regions of Carinthia also got a topographically correct coloring, so that today the whole area of 182 m2 shows a “real landscape” and not only the whitish terrain relief [4]. The large-area Relief von Kärnten owes its existence essentially to an alpinism, educational, and local-history motivation but—to be frank—also, to quite some extent, a patriotic–nationalistic motivation. At times when eidetic cartographic (3D) visualizations did not yet exist, not to mention aerial and satellite imagery or virtual digital panoramas—things that can be taken for granted today, this Landscape Relief Model of Carinthia played a seminal role (Figure 4, cf. [4]). Also today, during a period of ever increasing digitalization, this genuine landscape relief model, following the postulation of the world-fam us geosculptor Toni Mair, h s to be consider b th a piece of excellent handicraft and a scientific work of art (cf. [9]), even if we are not taking in o account the magnificent value-adding by means of most advanced IT technology (see next chapter). Figure 4. Present-day impression of Relief von Kärnten without IT augmentation. In the upper center, the vertical screen for video projection can be seen. From the Internet Presentation of the Municipal Museum and Archive of the City of Villach. 3. The Digitally Augmented Relief Digital Augmentation of the Physical Relief Model Both the landscape relief model and its shelter building are protected monuments. Nevertheless, in the years after 2010, a known Carinthian landscape photographer came up with the idea of Figure4. Present-day impressionofReliefvonKärntenwithout ITaugmentation. In theuppercenter, thevertical screenforvideoprojectioncanbeseen. FromtheInternetPresentationof theMunicipal MuseumandArchiveof theCityofVillach. 3. TheDigitallyAugmentedRelief DigitalAugmentationof thePhysicalReliefModel Boththe landscapereliefmodelanditsshelterbuildingareprotectedmonuments. Nevertheless, in the years after 2010, a known Carinthian landscape photographer came up with the idea of