Crafting research communication in building history

Abstract

This research is presented through an interactive application. A virtual reconstruction based on the remains from a medieval stave church is used as a case study to re-establish the historic building as a tangible place and assemblage. Augmented by virtual reality, the research focuses on the sensuous aspects of the stave church as a whole—where architecture, artefacts, light, and materials interact—through the movements of approaching, entering, and dwelling. The research output is a virtual reconstruction, or a virtual diorama, that “re-members” the stave church elements and re-contextualises contemporaneous religious artefacts that have been dismembered and diffused in various exhibitions and deposits. The contribution in this research is methodological, seeking to test and provide a case to discuss how non-traditional research outcome can be crafted to elicit the sensuous aspects of research and still attend to the rigor of science. We seek to methodologise the digital artefact as a research output but also as a means for testing hypothesis and observing the effects when enacting the environment. The connection to the craft sciences concerns both the empirical material, the wooden stave church as a crafted object, and the exploration of an interactive application as a research output or hermeneutic device in the research process.