Virtual Walks
My original motivation for this project was the computer game Myst, which
allows the user to walk around a virtual landscape by clicking on the left,
right, or center of still images. Although Myst portrays an imaginary,
computer-rendered world, I wondered, why not use a similar interface to
portray a real place? I first conceived of this project several years ago
while I was an undergraduate at William and
Mary, but I could not carry it out because the required film and
developing would have been prohibitively expensive, and scanning all of the
photographs would be very time consuming. Since then, digital cameras have
become relatively inexpensive, and I finally have a way to carry out this
project.
My goal is to have a permanent record of what the campuses of W&M and
U.Va. looked like when I was there. Campuses change all the time, with
renovations and new buildings, and that is normal and expected. However,
I'd still like to preserve a snapshot of the way things used to be. These
snapshots are not ideal: various trucks, pedestrians, and pieces of grounds-keeping equipment will
inevitably enter the pictures from time to time. But that's okay, because
I'm trying to capture what the campuses actually looked like day-to-day.
The summer seems to be the best time to work on this, because the weather
is good, the foliage changes slowly, and there are fewer people on campus
to stop and ask me what the heck I'm doing with all of these pictures. And
before you ask: no, nobody is paying me to do this; it's all just for the
fun of it.
The images here were taken using an Olympus 360L, which is a fairly
inexpensive entry-level digital camera. Although the camera can take
higher-resolution images, all images here are 640x480 to save space (there
is also a smaller 320x240 version of each picture for those with low
bandwidth or screen resolution). The HTML was generated using a bunch of
hacked-together Perl scripts and Makefiles. Altogether, there are now over
1500 images, and I'm still planning more. If you find any broken links or
other anomalies that are not already noted, or have any other comments,
please drop me a note at jaw2u@cs.virginia.edu.
The College of William and Mary in Virginia
Most of these images were taken on a trip to Williamsburg in June
2001, although a few were taken later to patch holes that I left out
the first time. Some buildings were being renovated at the time, so
there is visible scaffolding
and construction equipment in some images; I hope to revise these
areas at some point in the future when things are back to normal. I
only have pictures of old campus so far, but plan to add coverage of
other parts of campus on future trips to Williamsburg.
University of Virginia
I took these images on weekends in the spring and summer of 2001. Changing
weather, construction plans, and the destruction of the Lawn after each
graduation ceremony have interfered with my plans, but I plan to add more
next summer.
Other Virtual Walks on the Internet
A few others have done similar things in other places, and their work
influenced the design of this site.
Joel Winstead /
last updated 2 August 2002