March 19 Nabokov Museum based in St. Petersburg hosted a roundtable discussion and a presentation of the project “Nabokov’s House” funded by the Russkiy Mir Foundation.
In his welcome speech Sergey Bogdanov, member of the Board of Trustees of the Russkiy Mir Foundation and Dean of the Faculty of Philology and Arts of St. Petersburg State University, said that the project “Nabokov’s House: Virtual World” was based on the latest museum-oriented multimedia technologies: virtual reconstructions and the augmented reality.
The project focused on a virtual reconstruction of the Nabokovs’ home interior, which is achieved through the method of augmented reality (AR). This state-of-the-art technology enables to view a physical real-world environment whose elements are augmented by virtual computer-generated imagery. It is widely used by television and cinema production companies, in the medical and the military industries. During a presentation based on this method, the audience saw a reconstructed library of the Nabokov family, which used to be the most important part of the house.
Among the discussion members was Chairwoman of the Board of Trustees of the Russkiy Mir Foundation and President of St. Petersburg State University L. Verbitskaya; Director of the State Hermitage Museum M. Piotrovsky; Chairman of the Committee of External Affairs of St. Petersburg City Administration A. Prokhorenko; and representatives of various St. Petersburg museums and educational institutions, experts on Vladimir Nabokov, history experts etc.
Apart from introduction of the latest technologies, there has also been created a new DVD “House and Museum of V. Nabokov” featuring new facts on the history of the museum and the Nabokov family, a virtual exposition of the museum items, and a virtual library of rare publications. Two versions of the DVD and booklets will be distributed between all Russian Centers.
The project was handled by the Faculty of Philology and Arts of St. Petersburg State University under the support of the Russkiy Mir Foundation.
