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Mapping Gothic FranceVisual Media Center &#38; Columbia University LibrariesWhereas pictures can be represented in two-dimensional digital images  conveyed on the computer screen as thumb-nail or full-screen images,  Gothic cathedrals demand a different mode of representation.  Mapping  Gothic France will establish a map of northern France, locating the  major cathedrals and monasteries constructed between the mid-twelfth and  mid-thirteenth centuries.  The user will be able to move the cursor  over the map and each building will identify itself with a short text  and images that present themselves in a way that corresponds to the  dynamic spatial experience of the visitor.  The spatial character of the  edifice will be conveyed in spherical panoramic virtual reality nodes  and three-dimensional models.  All plans and sections will be rendered  on the same scale, so that the plan of the Amiens choir, for example,  can be superimposed upon the plan of the Beauvais choir.  Just as in our  previous web-based mapping project (www.learn.columbia.edu/bourb) the  user will be given tools to facilitate a comparative study of the shapes  and dimensions of buildings.Our task is not just to develop a more appropriate way of  representing the spaciousness of individual monuments, but to provide  the user with new ways to understand the relationship of hundreds of  buildings conventionally described as “Gothic.”   This phenomenon is  understood in terms of sameness and difference found in the forms of  multiple buildings within a defined period of time and space that  corresponds to the emergence of France as a nation state.  The telling  of the story of France tends to project the illusion of manifest destiny  with the apparently inevitable development of “Gothic” seen as the  visual corollary.  Mapping Gothic France will employ animated maps to  correlate the architectural and geo-political dimensions of the  emergence of the nation state.The interactive database will  become a vital educational and  research tool for students and scholars, as well as non-professional  lovers of Gothic architecture.Accédez au site InternetLes notices sur les églises Saint-Quiriace de Provins, Notre-Dame de Moret-sur-Loing, Saint-Maclou de Pontoise, Notre-Dame de Noyon, Marie-Madeleine de Vézelay ont été réalisées par Arnaud TIMBERT (IRHiS)