As part of eight chosen projects funded by the VolkswagenStiftung the Naumburg Kolleg will be presented in a short film format on Science Movie. Ten short films about the subprojects of the Naumburg Kolleg will be produced by the end of the year 2010. The scientists stage their research project at Naumburg Cathedral by themselves. The basic idea of the project is that the scientists produce three minutes long videos illuminating different aspects of their research. The short films will be shown in a sort of scientific series on the homepage of the VolkswagenStiftung.

The TV project tends to communicate scientific topics through the medium film to a general public and to open new ways of communicating science. Science Movie is based on the idea of Science TV which is an existing scientific series of the German Research Foundation (DFG). Science Movie will be produced as well by Prestel filmproduction.

The VolkswagenStiftung make available all necessary gear for the shooting. Furthermore the involved scientists participated in a one week workshop about camera work and cut. The shooting started already and will end foreseeable by the end of the year. Particularly successful short films should be presented also on TV in the future.

The PhD students Bernadett Freysoldt and Daniela Karl during the shooting | photographer: Daniela Karl

This offers visitors the opportunity to see the statues of the founders Gerburg, Konrad, Hermann and Reglindis, Dietmar and Syzzo from a new, very interesting perspective.

At Saturday, 01^st May 2010 and Sunday, 02^nd May 2010 the United Chapter Foundations of Merseburg and Naumburg and of the Kollegiatstift Zeitz offers special guided tours at the scaffold exclusively with reservation in advance. Further information is found at www.vereinigtedomstifter.de or contact 0049 (0)3445.23 01-10.

scaffold in the west choir | photographer: Tino Simon

The low temperatures, partly below the freezing point, challenge people and technology. Work clothing for cold store facilities provide pleasant warmth to continue the microscopic investigation of the sculptures and reliefs, to measure with raman spectroscopy and to continue the building measurements taken by hand. Also it is necessary for the Raman spectroscopy to warm the highly sensitive Raman microprobe.

In spring the temperatures also in the Naumburg Cathedral will increase and facilitate the work for people and technology.

Measurement with the Raman microprobe | photographer: Daniela Karl

Equipped with work clothing for cold store facilities, the PhD students continue their studies on site. Dipl.-Rest. Bernadett Freysoldt, Dipl.-Ing (FH) Ilona Dudziński M. A., Dipl.-Chem. Jacqueline Menzel and Dipl.-Rest. Daniela Karl | photographer: Jacqueline Menzel

Interdisciplinarity means working together beyond the limits of the respective discipline. In this way the six disciplines within the Naumburg Kolleg give up their specialist views where the cooperation offers a more comprehensive result and new impulses for scientific points of view. In the beginning of an integrative research project it is useful to define the researching problem in the well-known field of theories and methods in the own discipline. After this first step interdisciplinary competence has a solid foundation to increase. This implies that all participants show the willingness to put own prospects for discussion and formulate own interdisciplinary competences.

The intersections between the partial projects are various. Art technology, building archaeology and natural sciences are closely linked also in projects beyond the Naumburg Kolleg. Overlaps with the sub-project Economic Geography and Tourism Research are less obviously. Besides analysing the Naumburg Cathedral’s touristic offers, its integration in regional and nationwide cooperation as well as showing possible prospects for a sustainable quality management and quality improvement, the tourism research describes itself as a link between scientific and non scientific actors. Based on the analysis of the tourists` needs the results of the partial projects can be brought in a “tourist-friendly” context. Thus the tourism research contributes to the preservation of Naumburg Cathedral, because it significantly generates its revenues by tourism. The satisfaction of the visitors and the positive image resulting is a supporting pillar of sustainable touristic valorisation.

The result of this ambitious project, which requires creative work and established knowledge, is a holistic view of the different scientific issues based on a common argumentation. If it succeeds, the Naumburg Kolleg will be far more than the sum of its parts.

Conference "Tourism, Religion and Culture" with Prof. Yoel Mansfeld (University of Haifa, Israel), Prof. Jürgen Schmude (University of Munich, Germany), Prof. Fiorella Dallari (“Alma Mater” University of Bologna, Italy), Prof. Anna Trono (University of Salento/Lecce, Italy), Dr. Kevin Griffin (Dublin Institute of Technology, Ireland), Prof. Alison McIntosh (University of Waikato, New Zealand | photographer: Philipp Namberger

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02.12.09 | Susanne Frank: Interdisciplinary research on churches – the graduate programme of the Naumburg Cathedral “Naumburg Kolleg”

After having recorded all details of the sculptures of the founders and the reliefs of the rood screen for more than 6 weeks, Hendrik Fischer and Andreas Harlander from Dipl.-Ing. Josef Linsinger ZT - GmbH have completed their on-site work at the south side of the west choir of Naumburg’s cathedral.

The usage of most modern surveying technology and equipment such as a light stripe scanner and a laser line scanner allowed for high-precision and high-resolution scans of the artistic and intricate sculptures and reliefs. Eventually, each model will be composed of a multitude of individual scans. Thus, the complete scan of one statue of a founder alone will be comprised of more than 100 individual scans. The data acquired by scanning was simultaneously converted into a dense point cloud, intermeshed to form triangles and covered with a surface.

Subsequent to the acquisition of the crude data on site, its analysis, interpretation and utilisation follows, which can be estimated to require the quadrupled expenditure of time that was needed for the data collection. The surveyed three-dimensional structures of the objects are eventually processed into precise 3D-models. Due to the high quantity and accuracy of the measuring points a realistic reproduction of complex three-dimensional structures is possible. Each individual scan is processed in the highest resolution, measurement errors are corrected and ultimately the whole model is calculated. Remaining gaps without scan data are filled logically to generate the final complete model.

Finally, further image information about the texture of the sculptures and reliefs, taken from photographs in medium format, are added to the models which have been generated from information about the surface structure only up to this point.

The three-dimensional geometric models are used within the partial projects of art technology and conservation sciences as well as building archaeology as the foundation for the findings, mapping and reconstructions as much as for the preparation and generation of elevations and sections. Only in the form of three-dimensional models which can rotate freely and can be presented in any desired scale can the mappings and reconstructions do justice to the complexity of the three-dimensional sculptures.

application of the light stripe scanner | photographer: Ulrich Schießl

textured 3D-model, small: surface, triangular meshing, point cloud | model: Linsinger

3D-modell of the statue of the founder Syzzo | model: Linsinger

For this reason the southern side of the west choir and the rood screen are scaffolded. However, the view of the statues of the founders in the west choir is only slightly blocked. A banner at the west rood screen shows the reliefs which are partially covered in the original size. Especially the extensive research of the statues of the founders, the west choir, the west rood screen and the rood screen reliefs in the fields of art technology, conservation science and building archaeology required the erection of a scaffold.

Nevertheless, visitors shall not experience the cathedral as a building site, but as a researching site. Monitors at the west rood screen and in the west choir show the statues of the founders and the reliefs of the rood screen from various points of view. Moreover, via video screens visitors are offered information about the research project Naumburg Kolleg and its partial projects. The art-technological investigation of the sculptures of the founders and the rood screen reliefs as well can be watched in real time as the view through the stereomicroscope is transmitted to monitors. Thus, visitors are given the opportunity to see fascinating details up to a 50-fold enlargement.

Visitors of the Naumburg Cathedral are very welcome to discover the west choir anew this way!

scaffolds in the west choir | photographer: Tino Simon