Alan Carrillo, a doctoral candidate in Art History and recipient of the Graduate College’s Post-Comprehensive Research Fellowship, uses digital modeling to reconstruct seminal medieval architecture lost to time. It was his interest in the Middle Ages that brought him into the field of Art History.
“Because the Middle Ages are painted as the Dark Ages, as a time of civil collapse between antiquity and the Renaissance, it gets a bad rap,” Carrillo says. “I like the sheer innovation that comes with the structure during this epoch. It represents a clear departure from anything that came before.”
Currently, Carrillo’s research focuses on Saint-Denis, an abbey church north of Paris, which is considered to be the first Gothic church. Carrillo describes the importance of Saint-Denis as the culmination of previously disparate Gothic elements into one 12th century building.
“Structurally, we've seen these different features that define the Gothic canon appear around the region of Western Europe, but we don't really see them united in one building until Saint-Denis,” Carrillo explains.
Given the architectural significance of Saint-Denis, it poses a problem for scholars that the original top half is missing because the church was reconstructed in the 13th century. For this reason, Carrillo’s advisor, Dr. Robert Bork describes Saint-Denis as complicated to study.
“We have this key building that we can't really see with our eyeballs,” Dr. Bork explains. “And so, what Alan is proposing to do is use his skill at 3D modeling to recreate what it might have looked like back in the 12th century.”
Dr. Bork derives geometrical hypotheses about the structure of Gothic buildings, like Saint-Denis, from the surviving aspects of the buildings. Carrillo’s three-dimensional digital modeling complements this research, illuminating new aspects of what might have been there.
“This original building of Saint-Denis that defined the canon of the Middle Ages is lost to us,” Carrillo says. “We don't really know what it looked like. My project aims to reconstruct it, so that we can visualize the space.”
To do so, Carrillo examines existing archeological and historical research on Saint-Denis, including various attempts to reconstruct what it might have looked like. This body of research includes a variety of perspectives on iconic aspects of the church, which are represented through two-dimensional drawings. In this way, Carrillo’s skills in 3D digital modeling distinguish him in the field, adding dimensionality to the existing research.
“I will create models that draw from the different versions and iterations that have been posited before and then compare and contrast them to figure out what Saint-Denis actually might have been like,” Carrillo says.
Dr. Bork describes Carrillo’s knowledge of 3D computer modeling as a special skill that complements the work happening in the Art History department at the University of Iowa. Specifically, Dr. Bork notes the impact that Carrillo’s research could have on the field.
“His skills allow him to fill what really has been a hole in people's understanding of what this crucial building would have been like,” Dr. Bork explains. “Then people can understand the stakes of different hypotheses and different claims that have been made beforehand about what might have been there.”
Carrillo began constructing digital models of medieval architecture as an undergraduate student at UCLA. As a first-generation college student, Carrillo did not initially see himself continuing education past an undergraduate degree, but his mentor at UCLA, Dr. Meredith Cohen, encouraged him to continue graduate level research.
“She’s the one who pushed me saying, ‘No, you should really pursue this. You should pursue graduate school,’” Carrillo says. “From there, it has been this series of supportive mentors introducing me to one another. Honestly, I would not have gotten this far without them.”
Carrillo’s undergraduate work led him to Duke University where he received his master's degree in digital art history and computational media while working in Duke’s prestigious Wired Lab. “While I was at Duke, I started to really specialize in modeling, reconstructing, and visualizing destroyed or transformed spaces,” Carrillo narrates.
Because of the influence his mentors have had on him, Carrillo wants to be a professor and guide students in the same supportive way. Carrillo values the collaborative nature of his experience working with his advisors and hopes to continue research alongside a team in the future.
“I love the dynamic bond that you build with an advisor while working on a project together,” Carrillo says. “I want to be a mentor to someone the same way that my advisors were mentors to me, and I want to work with students in the same collaborative way my advisors have worked with me.”
This summer Carrillo has the distinguished opportunity to present his research in England alongside Dr. Cohen and represent the University of Iowa at the International Medieval Congress at Leeds.