Lisbon, 1755

A cool surprise yesterday at Mensageiros das Estrelas, a conference about science fiction in film and literature. In a panel about ficcional Lisbon, Luis Sequeira demoed the Lisbon Pre-1755 Earthquake, a virtual world wich aims to recreate Lisbon as it was before the famous earthquake. It's a Second Life based world and viewable through Kitely, still in construction because of its scope and lack of time. So far the reconstrution includes the old royal palace and the famed Lisbon Opera House, a lavish building inaugurated days before the earthquake. More buildings are being added. Another cool feature that was talked about is the possibility of hosting happenings with real and virtual participants. One idea involved recreating a XVIIIth century opera as it was in the old opera house, and another a virtual recreation of the earthquake itself, with virtual humans as the victims. Apart from the historic reconstruction itself, deep in field of virtual archeology, Sequeira pointed us to the possibilities in thematic events, virtual tours and learning experiences. Links to the virtual world can be found in the project's webpage.

Unfortunately, Luis Sequeira left before I could have the chance to riddle him with questions such as if they had plans to use other web3D technologies, the process of modeling the buildings (in world, inside second life, or exported from a stand-alone 3D program) and other possibilites. Some of those questions are now being answered on facebook, and i will sythetise them soon, because of their relevance to 3D and virtual world building in general. For example, Sequeira shares the idea that Unity is a passing fad and building in SL/OpenSim allows for real-time collaboration in 3D modelling.

The panel was chaired by Luís Filipe Silva, a writer currently engaged in researching the roots of portuguese science fiction, João Barreiros, a science fiction writer with a penchant for razing the city in creative ficcional ways, and Octávio Santos, who wrote about an alternative, steampunk Lisbon.