Katharina Möller

Picture This! Community-Led Production of Alternative Views of the Heritage of Gwynedd

Abstract The digital camera has become ubiquitous. Every mobile phone has one built in, almost everyone has a mobile phone, and people use them constantly for all kinds of things, including taking pictures. In a new collaborative project, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), Bangor, Aberystwyth and Manchester Metropolitan Universities have teamed up with Gwynedd Archaeological Trust to develop tools to allow communities to picture their heritage and upload the images to an automated photogrammetry server to create metrical 3D models of the sites and objects they are recording. The data created will then feed into the local Historic Environment Record, providing a valuable tool for monitoring changes to heritage sites, while providing communities with added information and alternative views of their heritage. This paper is not intended to provide a formal research design or a fully developed prototype. Rather, it is intended to outline an experimental and collaborative approach that is situated as both practice and research, with neither enterprise being privileged over the other. The activities outlined here will be developed and evaluated over the next year and a half, after which we will report on whether or how the contingent aims and outcomes expressed were realized.

Alternative Representations of 3D-Reconstructed Heritage Data

By collecting images of heritage assets from members of the public and processing them to create 3D-reconstructed models, the HeritageTogether project has accomplished the digital recording of nearly 80 sites across Wales, UK. A large amount of data has been collected and produced in the form of photographs, 3D models, maps, condition reports, and more. Here we discuss some of the different methods used to realize the potential of this data in different formats and for different purposes. The data are explored in both virtual and tangible settings, and—with the use of a touch table—a combination of both. We examine some alternative representations of this community-produced heritage data for educational, research, and public engagement applications.

Digging Up the Past in Gwynedd: Heritage Research Tourism in Wales

While volunteering is quite popular in the UK already it is not so common in other parts of the world, with the result that many tourists are interested in spending their holiday in the UK as a team member of an archaeological fieldwork project. In this chapter Moller and Karl look at voluntourism in archaeology and provide a summary of heritage research tourism in Wales. Projects which offer opportunities for the public to participate in archaeological research are introduced as case studies and used to examine the role of volunteers who are not only interested in spending their free time visiting heritage sites or museums, but are actually looking for opportunities to take part in hands-on research, in many cases even paying for the privilege.

Crowd-Sourced Digitisation of Cultural Heritage Assets

With the rise of digital content and web-based technologies, archaeologists and heritage organisations are increasingly striving to produce digital records of archaeology and heritage sites. The large numbers and geographical spread of these sites means that it would be too time-consuming for any one team to survey them. To meet this challenge, the Heritage Together project has developed a web platform through which members of the public can upload their own photographs of heritage assets to be processed into 3D models using an automated photogrammetry work flow. The web platform is part of a larger project which aims to capture, create and archive digital heritage assets in conjunction with local communities in Wales, UK, with a focus on megalithic monuments. Heritage Together is a digital community and community-built archive of heritage data, developed to inspire local communities to learn more about their heritage and to help to preserve it.

Archaeologist for a Week: Voluntourism in Archaeology

While many people are interested in archaeology, most opt for “something sensible” instead when choosing a career. In the UK, for example, these people have a wide range of volunteering options available that will allow them to get involved with archaeology in their spare time nonetheless. In other countries (e.g. Germany and Austria), volunteering options in archaeology are limited at best, if they exist at all. Therefore, some people are willing to pay to be able to spend their summer vacation on an archaeological excavation.