Reconstruction beyond Representation in Notre-Dame de Paris

Résumé 0

Despite their aesthetic expressivity, realistic images of reconstructed pasts tend to withhold the scientific work of reconstruction and fail to provide scholarly reusable documentation. The contribution examines the operative role of (3D-)representations in the context of archaeological reconstruction. We propose a semiotic framework to look at reconstruction images. A semiotics' analysis (aesthetic, technical and analytical attributes) of practical examples of reconstruction images from the Notre-Dame de Paris arch reconstruction shows that there is a double effect of compression in the reconstruction and its representation. To alleviate these compressions in discourse and meaning, we focus our effort on the argumentation patterns and the conflict of interpretations as foundations of reconstruction scholarship. If we consider the 3D-reconstruction not in its illustrative image of reconstruction, it becomes an inherent part of the reconstruction data. We demonstrate how the argumentation can tie together the visualizations and the reconstruction. The linking of representation and reconstruction is possible through consistent documentation practice using CIDOC CRMinf to elicit the reasoning and the argumentation in the reconstruction process.