This January, Public Digital Humanities for Lunch (PDH4L) gives users a free tour of 3-D modeling software.

Cory Taylor kicks off this year’s PDH4L series with “(Re)creating the World: Modeling for Google Earth with Trimble SketchUp." The presentation takes place from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 24, in the University of Iowa Main Library, Room 1015A. Computers will be available for interested users to participate.

Rather than giving a presentation, this PDH4L will be a hands-on tutorial. Taylor plans to introduce audiences to the basics of 3-D modeling software and help participants master tools they can use to create their own models of real-world sites for display in Google Earth.

Taylor’s presentation will use free software. According to Taylor, Trimble SketchUp is “Far more intuitive (and 100 percent more free!) than other 3-D modeling software. Trimble SketchUp is remarkably easy to use and has a very short learning curve.”

Using local buildings, participants will learn SketchUp’s basic drafting tools, how to position their models on a map and give them photo textures, and how to submit their models to the Trimble 3-D Warehouse for inclusion in Google Earth.

Taylor is a first-year doctoral student in the Department of Religious Studies in the UI College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. His research interests are Deutero-Isaiah in its cultural and political setting, form criticism of the Hebrew Bible, Persian-period Judaism, early Christianities, evolutionary religious studies, and the use of digital tools within archaeology and epigraphy. He explores all of those topics in depth on his blog Ex Libris.

Taylor’s “demo presentation” is the first PDH4L event of the semester. The PDH4L series will move to a new location in the University Capitol Center in Feb. All lectures are free and open to all interested individuals. Lunch is not provided, but participants are welcome to bring their own.

PDH4L talks throughout 2013 will focus on the nature and role of public digital humanities in contemporary culture. Over the course of this series, audiences will interact with prominent public digital humanities researchers to gain understanding and shape the discussion of this rapidly rising field of study.