Stuart Jeffrey and Sian Jones
Paper presented at Computer Applications in Archaeology Conference 2014, 22nd - 25th April 2014, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, Paris as part of Session 12: Community Archaeology and Technology. Session organisers: Nicole Beale and Eleonora Gandolfi. Session blog: http://blog.soton.ac.uk/comarch/
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• AHRC Funded, 2013/15 (15 Months)
• Connected Communities theme, Digital Transformations
programme
• Partners:
• Digital Design Studio, Glasgow School of Art
• University of Manchester
• Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical
Monuments of Scotland
• Archaeology Scotland
•Investigators:
• Dr Stuart Jeffrey, Prof Sian Jones, Dr Alex Hale
• Dr Mhairi Maxwell – PDRA
• Cara Jones – Archaeology Scotland
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• Over 2 decades of research and
development of digital
visualisation technologies in
archaeology and heritage
• Expert forms of knowledge
and/or professional priorities still
dominate
Images DDS/HS/CDDV
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Some Traditional Activities &
Audiences:
• Erosion/Damage monitoring
• Management
• Research and analysis (malleability)
• Teaching and learning
• Recontextualisation, landscape scale
• Monuments in use
• Virtual tourism
Technical and cost barriers to wider adoption and
re-use?
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Ubiquitous 3D printing – additive
manufacture drops in price.
The “new” technology checklist:
• Moral panic – guns for all
• Economic panic
• Lawyers engage – IPR
• Mass production
vs production by the masses
• Provenance
Images: Makerbot/3dprintingera/Adobe
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Yesterday* marked the expiry of
US Patent 5597589, "Apparatus
for producing parts by selective
sintering." This is one of the core
patents in the 3D printing world -
- the patent that allows 3D
printer companies to charge
more for fine nylon powder than
Michelin-starred restaurants
charge for filet mignon.
*28th January 2014
Cory Doctorow – Boing Boing
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Issues of public engagement with the
digital: the opposite of real
• No substance*
• No location*
• No cost in replication*
• No degradation*
• Infinitely reproducible/reproduced
• Ownership vs licensing
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Orthodox approaches to authenticity in
Heritage Conservation & Management
• Traditionally authenticity has been seen
as something intrinsic to the thing itself,
and its fabric, form, and setting.
• “It is our duty to hand them [historic
monuments] on in the full richness of
their authenticity” (Venice Charter,
Preamble)
• Authenticity in the World Heritage
Convention (1972) depends on the
degree to which information sources
about the value of heritage “may be
understood as credible or truthful”
Turner’s Tintern Abbey,
1794
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Challenges & new approaches
to authenticity
• Authenticity is culturally
constructed
• Authenticity is increasing
defined in terms of setting, use,
ongoing social value, and
intangible dimensions
• Nara Document: “It is … not
possible to make judgements of
value and authenticity on fixed
criteria. On the contrary the
respect due to all cultures
requires that the heritage
properties must be judged
within the cultural contexts
within which they belong”
Skung Gwaii World Heritage Site,
Haida mortuary poles:
www.museevirtuel-
virtualmuseum.ca
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“I know it’s just stone [a
little embarrassed], but I
think it absorbs things,
it’s like its alive […] It’s
absorbed the presence of
the people who’ve been
here in the past […] Just
remember, stone
speaks.”
(Interview with
Margaret, 2011)
Glasgow Cathedral Choir. Photo: S. Jones
Relational aspect of authenticity – networks of
relations between things, people and places
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The Hilton of Cadboll reconstruction, with sculptor Barry
Grove, and associated community ceremonies
Reconstructions, replicas and
the migration of authenticity
Photos: S. Jones
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Digital objects
• So what about digital records and models?
• Is their authenticity simply a matter of the
degree to which as information sources they
“may be understood as credible or truthful”?
• Or are social relationships with digital objects
important to the migration of aura or
authenticity?
• Does community participation in design and
production create authenticity and value?
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ACCORD Research Aims
• To examine the opportunities and implications of digital
visualisation technologies for community engagement and
research through the co-design and co-production.
• To embed contemporary social values in the resulting digital
records and 3D objects, as well as the associated contextual
metadata
• To explore whether community co-design and co-production
increases the significance and authenticity of digital
visualisation objects
• To reflect on the nature of the relationships between
community groups, digital heritage professionals and the
outputs they have created.
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ACCORD Activities:
•Co-design and co-production of 3D
documentation
• Photogrammetry, LiDAR, RTI, 3D printing
•Integration of contextual user generated content
and statements of social value with digital and
physical outputs
•Consumer level technology
•Management of longevity, access and ownership
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Group Location
Friends of G. Necropolis Glasgow
Castlemilk (Glasgow Life) Glasgow
Ross-shire Women's Aid Ross-shire
Glendaruel Bute
Bressay History Group Shetland
Ross of Mull Mull
NoSAS Dornoch
The Kilallan Preservation Trust Renfrewshire
Friends of Keil Chapel Oban
Cromarty Med. Burgh project Cromarty
Dighty Connect Dundee
Ardnamurchan Community Ardnamurchan
Dumfries and Galloway Geophysics Dumfries and Galloway
Uist Uist
Dumbarton Rock Dumbarton
Springburn Glasgow
Rhynie Rhynie
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Assessing value and authenticity:
• Qualitative methodologies
• Focus group/interviews/participant observation
• Phasing
• Base line – nature of group/interests; value and
authenticity; familiarity with technologies
• Intermediary/ongoing evaluation – changing/emerging
value/attitudes in practice
• End phase – final focus group assessing value and
authenticity of co-produced digital object