International Film Festival Digs UC s 'EarthWorks': Project to Receive a 'Silver'

For more than 50 years now, The Columbus International Film and Video Festival has annually recognized the world’s best works of film and video from throughout North America, Europe, Asia and Australia. Entries for the awards come from the largest of entertainment, news and educational film and video content providers, including ABC News, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, CBS News, the Discovery Channel, the History Channel, MSNBC, National Geographic Television and Film as well as PBS.

A University of Cincinnati project more than 10 years in the making is one of this year’s winners: the

“EarthWorks”

project headed by John Hancock, professor of architecture in UC’s

top-ranked

College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning. Partnering with Hancock on the project has been the Center for the Reconstruction of Historical and Archaeological Sites (

CERHAS

) at the University of Cincinnati

“EarthWorks” is an extensive effort to digitally restore the mammoth earthen structures (earthworks) that dotted the Midwest some two millennia ago. The works were built with astonishing geometric precision and sophistication – perfectly symmetrical ovals, circles, octagons and rectangles as well as animal effigies. These ancient earthworks by Native American peoples once rose as high as 20 feet and stretched for miles throughout the Ohio Valley but have since been lost to plow and pavement. A few examples are still extant: Serpent Mound in Adams County, Ohio, for example.

The specific portion of “EarthWorks” winning in the Columbus International Film and Video Festival is titled “EarthWorks: Virtual Explorations of Ancient Newark, Ohio.” It will receive a Silver Chris (Best of Division) during this year’s awards ceremony to be held in Columbus on Nov. 11.

The prestigious Silver Chris Award is not the first recognition given “EarthWorks.” During its development process, the project has received attention from

The New York Times

,

Popular Science

and other national media.

“The reward that has kept me going all these years has been being help to tell people about and show them these amazing Ohio ruins by highly creative cultures that have not received the credit they deserve,” said Hancock. “I get to tell an amazing story about architecture.”

Thanks to UC’s Hancock and a large, multidisciplinary team of specialists, the region’s lost heritage has been reclaimed in the form of virtual reconstructions of 39 sites. One part of the project, a segment related to virtual reconstructions and explorations of the earthworks in the vicinity of Newark, Ohio, won this year’s Chris statuette.  

Archaeologist Brad Lepper of the Ohio Historical Society has researched and written extensively about the earthworks once centered near Newark, Ohio. He also provided archaeological and archival assistance to the UC project in the form of unpublished 19th century maps.

Said Lepper, “I remember when I first sat down to use ‘EarthWorks. I felt like I was a hawk up in the sky, swooping over the works and seeing them as the Hopewell dreamed of seeing them 2,000 years ago… . John [Hancock] presents the earthworks in a way that is immediate, that is food for the imagination. Before, our tools [for visualizing the mounds] were maps drawn in the 1800s that seem quaint to modern sensibilities. With ‘Earthworks,’ we literally see that there’s nothing quaint about the Hopewell’s achievements. We appreciate their power.”

UC’s electronic reconstructions of the region’s earthworks sites represent nearly ten years of work by an extensive team of architects, archaeologists, historians, technical experts and Native Americans. The entire project – not just the portion receiving the Chris Award – is now a traveling exhibit titled “EarthWorks: Virtual Explorations of the Ancient Ohio Valley.”

The next stop for the exhibit is Columbus, Ohio, where “EarthWorks” will open at the Ohio Historical Center on

Oct. 7

. Later venues include Dayton, Ohio, and Cleveland, Ohio, while a portion of “EarthWorks” will go on permanent exhibit at Chicago Field Museum in 2007.

“EarthWorks” is built upon archaeological data gleaned from such modern technology as sensing devices and aerial photography as well as frontier maps and other aids provided by archaeologists to re-establish the location, size, shape and appearance of many of the region’s earthworks. Then, using architectural software and high-resolution computer modeling and animation, the UC-led team virtually rebuilt these massive structures and further created animated, interactive, narrated “tours” among them.

Funding for the traveling exhibit has been provided by the National Endowment for the Humanities. In all, the NEH has provided close to $500,000 for the project. Additional development support over the years has come from the Ohio Board of Regents, the Ohio Humanities Council, the Ohio Arts Council, the George Gund Foundation, and in-kind donations from the University of Cincinnati. Add up all funding and in-kind donations, and project support totals around $1.5 million.