Creating historical Stereograms from scratch :)
Here's a project that can be seen in the Kate Sheppard House in Ilam, Christchurch.
As you may know, Kate was the most prominent member of the women's suffrage movement that enabled New Zealand to be the first country in the world to grant women the vote. 127 years ago, this building was the Kate's home, and the place where much of the suffrage campaign was orchestrated.
Between the 1890s and now, there had been many modifications and alterations to the building. The team at Story Inc contacted me to produce a stereoscopic view of the interior, as it would have appeared at the time.
A visitor to the newly restored house would have the opportunity to look through a traditional wooden Stereoscope (A), onto a Stereogram image (a paired set of photos that give the perception of 3D depth). You can read more about Stereograms here.
You can see from the view of the existing space (B), that an extension had been made to the lounge. A hallway had been altered and door heights and trim had changed.
The first step was to discover where the original wall would have laid pre-extension (C) by referencing historical plans of the building.
Next, some historical image research and loose sketches helped to lay out where furniture and objects would have sat within the room. This was a fun back and forth with Story Inc during this phase getting placement just right (D). I have to say the interior aesthetic of the period was mad - think lots of wafty lace and visual clutter overload. Marie Kondo would have had an aneurysm!
A rough 3d virtual block model of the space was created to scale, and the collage of period wallpapers, paintings and furniture was projected onto the geometry within the scene (E)
Two virtual cameras were placed within the scene either side of the viewpoint (F) and a pair of images were rendered from each of these to create the stereogram pair. The trick here is to place them the same width apart as a real pair of human eyes.
Finally the stereogram photo (G) was printed and mounted into the stereogram in the physical Stereoscope viewer, within the room! Voila!
This gif simulates the 3d-ness of the final result, but be sure to make a visit to the restored house in Christchurch to see it in the flesh.
I really love projects like this where you get to saturate yourself in the period, piecing together bits of knowledge and doing your best to recreate a moment in history.
