Virtual arts

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Tags: Arts, commercialisation, EMSAH, UniQuest, winter-2009

Professor Joanne Tompkins with an Ortelia screenshot of Our Way in front of the actual exhibition

The Faculty of Arts and UniQuest Pty Limited, UQ’s main commercialisation company, have launched a new arts innovation enterprise.

Ortelia Interactive Spaces offers art galleries, museums and other cultural venues a unique 3D interactive marketing and visualisation tool for attracting audiences to view special exhibitions and collections in both real and online spaces.

Ortelia is also valuable for preservation projects, where access to historically sensitive sites and buildings can be recreated for educational and reference purposes.

Lead researcher Professor Joanne Tompkins, from UQ’s School of English, Media Studies and Art History, said students could view archived versions of original exhibitions and also curate their own artworks.

Ortelia Interactive Spaces can also produce detailed scale models of venues, develop 3D websites and convert exhibitions into DVDs.

Our Way, the internationally acclaimed UQ exhibition of art from Lockhart River in far north Queensland, is one of several exhibitions which have used the technology.

Professor Tompkins’ research assistant Neal Harvey suggested the name “Ortelia” after Abraham Ortelius, the 16th century Flemish geographer credited with compiling the first modern world atlas.

“UniQuest supported the commercial development of the Ortelia technology so that its applications can help to promote Australia’s heritage and cultural assets more widely, especially to global audiences,” UniQuest Managing Director David Henderson said.

UniQuest’s support for Ortelia’s commercial development was complemented by further UQ funding, an ARC Linkage partnership with La Boite Theatre, the Cairns Civic Centre and the Queensland Government.

The Ortelia Interactive Spaces team currently includes Professor Tompkins, Laz Kastanis, Sean Ivermee and Darren Pack.

By Leanne Wyvill

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