Bernard Lane
The Australian
July 19, 2006
ATHENS, Egypt and Angkor. Why shouldn't Angkor Wat, the old temple city of Cambodia, have the same enduring power to fascinate?
"It's getting Australian teenagers interested in Angkor which is a challenge; to get Generation Y interested you really need images," Tom Chandler explains.
A teacher of 3D animation at Monash University, Chandler has been conjuring up images -- computer visualisations and simulations -- of what life might have been like in the sprawling 13th century capital of the Khmer empire.
Today he will present his work at a Sydney conference billed as the largest gathering of Angkor experts outside Cambodia.
Staged at the University of Sydney, the Angkor: Landscape, City and Temples conference shows scholars from disparate disciplines working together.
Mr Chandler collaborates painstakingly with archeologists to give his images authenticity. "Without that, we'd just be fantasists, we'd just be making it up," he says.
He hopes the stimulus of an image will enrich the archeological conversation and encourage fresh ideas.
His early images show the broad sweep of landscape and architecture -- "almost like an impressionist painting, where you don't focus on precise detail" -- but he plans sharper images of life in the marketplace, in military processions and religious festivals.
Mr Chandler's purpose is scholarly -- his PhD supervisor is the University of Sydney's Roland Fletcher, co-ordinator of the multinational Greater Angkor Project -- but there are other angles.
He and John Weeks, an expatriate Australian and a fan of Cambodian comics, plan to open the first school for computer animation in the capital Phnom Penh. It would take in maybe a dozen local artists.
"It will give the Cambodians the chance to visualise their own history in their own way," Chandler says.
He has rediscovered Cambodia his own way. Although his father David is a well-known specialist in the country's history, it was often too dangerous for childhood visits. As a student Tom was attracted by ancient Egypt and archeology. Now his passion and past have intersected.
The Australian
July 19, 2006
ATHENS, Egypt and Angkor. Why shouldn't Angkor Wat, the old temple city of Cambodia, have the same enduring power to fascinate?
"It's getting Australian teenagers interested in Angkor which is a challenge; to get Generation Y interested you really need images," Tom Chandler explains.
A teacher of 3D animation at Monash University, Chandler has been conjuring up images -- computer visualisations and simulations -- of what life might have been like in the sprawling 13th century capital of the Khmer empire.
Today he will present his work at a Sydney conference billed as the largest gathering of Angkor experts outside Cambodia.
Staged at the University of Sydney, the Angkor: Landscape, City and Temples conference shows scholars from disparate disciplines working together.
Mr Chandler collaborates painstakingly with archeologists to give his images authenticity. "Without that, we'd just be fantasists, we'd just be making it up," he says.
He hopes the stimulus of an image will enrich the archeological conversation and encourage fresh ideas.
His early images show the broad sweep of landscape and architecture -- "almost like an impressionist painting, where you don't focus on precise detail" -- but he plans sharper images of life in the marketplace, in military processions and religious festivals.
Mr Chandler's purpose is scholarly -- his PhD supervisor is the University of Sydney's Roland Fletcher, co-ordinator of the multinational Greater Angkor Project -- but there are other angles.
He and John Weeks, an expatriate Australian and a fan of Cambodian comics, plan to open the first school for computer animation in the capital Phnom Penh. It would take in maybe a dozen local artists.
"It will give the Cambodians the chance to visualise their own history in their own way," Chandler says.
He has rediscovered Cambodia his own way. Although his father David is a well-known specialist in the country's history, it was often too dangerous for childhood visits. As a student Tom was attracted by ancient Egypt and archeology. Now his passion and past have intersected.
2 comments:
Soon or later Angkor Wat will be known around the world as much as the Pyramid of Egypt and many other famous ancient sites. Cambodian people should look up to the path of their ancestors as a model of great achievement. If Cambodian work their mind as one and stop the quarrels among themselves, they can achieve great success that can be fear and respect by the neighbors and the world abroad, Cambodian have done it before, it can be done again.
I like to see the video very much!
I don't like the idea of fearing others around us.
I do like the idea of being strong, respectful and equal partner. It's bad to think that other should be below or beneath us.
See: North Korean for example. Is it good to fear Japan or South Korea?
Post a Comment