On Friday, March 30, 2018, PhD Student Vincent Longo and Associate Professor Matthew Solomon previewed two works-in-progress at the Duderstadt Center on North Campus that reimagine material from the Orson Welles archives for the digital age. The first of these projects is a virtual-reality model of the Susan Alexander Kane Xanadu set constructed digitally by staff and students in the University of Michigan 3D Lab at the Duderstadt Center that allows users to explore the space of the room. With generous support from LSA ISS, students currently enrolled in FTVM 236 will get a chance to do just that on Wed., April 18. This VR environment will eventually include an animated 3D avatar that mimics the action of a scene from Citizen Kane that occurs in this space in the film.


The second of these projects is a digital book in development with the University of Michigan Press that will include the complete script of Welles's legendary un-produced adaptation of "The Heart of Darkness." A team of twelve undergraduates supervised by PhD student Vincent Longo have been hard at work on the project for more than a year. Pictured above at left are group leaders Jordan StantonSydney SimonciniElijah Segraves, and Erin Ringel, all sophomores.