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In architectural heritage research, rituals and human activities are often overlooked but are crucial for maintaining authenticity and reflecting various cultural values. In the Tibetan-Yi Corridor, one of China's most renowned heritage routes, rituals and behaviours around the central pillar or fire pit reflect the shared culture and history of Di-Qiang ethnic groups, serving as critical indicators in studying their origins. A scientific method linking physical spaces with intangible cultural information is essential to preserve these rituals or activities and understand their interactions with architectural spaces. This study introduces a method utilising HBIM technology to document and analyse the 3D structures of Di-Qiang ethnic architecture and the rituals. It deconstructs rituals into bodily movements represented within the BIM space to simulate the behaviours of various roles. This method visualises ritual types and critical information by encoding different rituals and movements through geometric shapes, sizes, and colours, effectively linking architectural spaces with intangible cultural elements. The study's two main contributions are (i) the HBIM archival method for Di-Qiang ethnic architecture, standardising geometric modelling and semantic information recording to digitise Di-Qiang architectural heritage, and forming a foundational 3D model library and semantic database; and (ii) the 3D representation method for ritual movements, which offers a way to manage intangible cultural information and spatially assess cultural behaviours, and evaluates the authenticity and quality of architectural heritage by analysing bodily rituals in space. This approach introduces a novel method for documenting and researching intangible heritage in cultural studies. Additionally, the digital technology-based research method offers a convenient platform for integrating and connecting digital heritage with digital humanities in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digitized heritage is regarded as an emerging field, with existing studies primarily focusing on one case study, technological aspect, or a methodological approach. Thus, there remains a notable gap in the literature regarding the understanding of how these technologies and methodologies can be utilized in smart heritage fruition. Approaches that harness technological advancements to enhance the decision-making process regarding the use of appropriate methodology at various heritage sites remain insufficiently explored. To address this gap, this study conducted a cross-case analysis to survey the use of heritage technologies across selected cases to find underlying trends and correlations related to the scale and methodology used. The findings of this study provide insights into the nexus of technology integration into heritage fruition, highlighting the role of tangible heritage documentation technologies. The present study concludes that smart fruition framework necessitates an ongoing process involving the integration of cultural heritage data, digital documentation, management, enhancement methodologies, and the Internet of Things (IoT). The IoT facilitates the connectivity of physical items to the internet thereby supporting the understanding of heritage knowledge. Such framework operates through a collaboration platform that engages experts, local communities, and tourists to ensure a meaningful and interactive interconnection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By bringing together metadata from multiple collecting institutions, digital heritage aggregators offer the potential for diverse and dispersed audiences to engage with the collective cultural collections of a nation, state, or region. For institutions and policymakers, such endeavours promise greater value for public money, increased audiences, and democratised access to cultural heritage. This article explores how these idealised promises of digital heritage aggregators run up against the actual politics and practices of their implementation. This is grounded in a history of attempts to aggregate heterogeneous and geographically distant museum collections across Australia into a single ‘distributed national collection’. Australia’s landscape of museums has long been characterised by several major public institutions, which often play a coordinating role, and thousands of small (often volunteer-run) museums. We argue that aggregating cultural collections is not just a matter of standardising metadata but coordinating different needs, capacities, and priorities, particularly the divides between major museums and community collecting organisations. In response, we suggest a shift in the study of such collaborative endeavours, from the aggregation of cultural data to the coordination of data cultures. In practice, this approach eschews a top-down approach to bringing together heterogeneous organisations in favour of resolving tensions and disparities in divergent values, resources, and priorities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The North American Heritage at Risk (NAHAR) working group developed a research pipeline to employ collaborative methods to address climate impacts at archaeological sites that includes modeling, monitoring, meeting, methodizing, and mitigating. The People of Guana project was the inaugural study using the NAHAR pipeline to focus on a suite of sites located on the Guana Peninsula in northeastern Florida. The project was funded through the National Estuarine Research Reserve System's Science Collaborative (NERRS SC). This paper focuses on collaborative methods employed during monitoring efforts to document eroding resources using the Florida Public Archaeology Network's (FPAN) citizen science program Heritage Monitoring Scouts (HMS Florida). It further focuses on advanced monitoring techniques—shoreline mapping with an Arrow Gold GNSS receiver, terrestrial laser scanning of landscapes, and photogrammetry of exposed artifacts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

COVID-19 has undeniably affected museums' online content, yet attempts to identify or understand sector trends have been hampered by a lack of data. This paper uses a representative sample of 315 U.K. museums to create a much-needed benchmark against which museum practitioners can evaluate and contextualise prior studies and their own experiences. Gathering data from museum websites and five social media platforms, this paper is one of the largest studies of its kind in the European museum sector and the first of such scale in the U.K. Beginning with an overview of social media adoption, the paper then investigates museums' use of YouTube to identify sector trends. Crucially, this paper demonstrates a scalable methodology that enables a broader analysis of European and North American museums using TripAdvisor. This method has applications beyond the heritage sector and is pertinent to the study of any public facing attraction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract This study describes the process of digitally reconstructing the ancient Korean city of Suwon Hwaseong in 3D utilizing Historic Building Information Modeling (HBIM) resources to accurately represent its wooden architectural heritage. Previous 3D reconstructions of cultural heritage have often prioritized appearance or remained partially disassembled. However, our reconstruction method offers a comprehensive representation of the appearance and the internal structure of wooden architectural heritage, which can be suitable for restoration maintenance. To ensure accuracy in digital restoration, we collected and utilized administrative records and historical materials, including the geography, fortress walls, folk houses, and Haenggung (the temporary palace of the Joseon Dynasty)—drawing from the archive of the Korean Cultural Heritage Service’s management records and the 1796 manuscript “Uigwe: Royal Protocols of the Hwaseong Fortress” which documents the construction of the ancient city of Suwon Hwaseong. Extensive architectural records were used to generate HBIM data, which digitized historical records, documents, and drawings to accurately represent the complex layout of the wooden architectural heritage. For the folk houses that lacked design records and the fortress walls that retained their original shape, we performed a digital restoration-based façade modeling. These elements of the ancient city of Suwon Hwaseong were assembled into a 3D model using Unreal Engine (version 5.1.1) to digitally reconstruct the city and enhance its visual representation. The digital restoration content, which utilizes visual effects and precise rendering from a game engine, can be used for the restoration, repair, and maintenance of both appearance and internal structures.

Abstract The layering process of the historic urban landscape (HUL) has spatial and temporal characteristics. With the help of digital technology, building a database to collect and manage spatial information on HUL is an effective research method. Taking Nanjing since the Ming Dynasty (1368–2024) as an example, our paper proposes a framework for constructing a historical geographic information system (HGIS) for HUL. The results show that (1) ancient Chinese historical archives have good potential for use in the construction of historical landscape databases. The HGIS can visualize the evolution of HUL and realize the storage, expression, querying, and analysis of information in different formats. (2) The Republic of China is a turning point in the evolution of Nanjing’s HUL. In terms of spatial evolution, the main distribution areas of urban form and characteristic places, as well as the NACH (normalized angular choice) and NAIN (normalized angular integration) cores of the road network, all moved from the south to the north of the city. In terms of typological evolution, the urban form changes from a predominantly residential area to one that emphasizes residential, administrative, educational and industrial areas. The main types of characteristic places shifted from house gardens, temples and ancestral halls to scenic buildings and public gardens. (3) Political factors, urban planning, commercial ports, and land prices influence the layering process of the HUL. The constructed database guides the preservation of HUL from the digital heritage perspective and the construction of other historical databases with spatial characteristics.

This study describes the process of digitally reconstructing the ancient Korean city of Suwon Hwaseong in 3D utilizing Historic Building Information Modeling (HBIM) resources to accurately represent its wooden architectural heritage. Previous 3D reconstructions of cultural heritage have often prioritized appearance or remained partially disassembled. However, our reconstruction method offers a comprehensive representation of the appearance and the internal structure of wooden architectural heritage, which can be suitable for restoration maintenance. To ensure accuracy in digital restoration, we collected and utilized administrative records and historical materials, including the geography, fortress walls, folk houses, and Haenggung (the temporary palace of the Joseon Dynasty)—drawing from the archive of the Korean Cultural Heritage Service's management records and the 1796 manuscript "Uigwe: Royal Protocols of the Hwaseong Fortress" which documents the construction of the ancient city of Suwon Hwaseong. Extensive architectural records were used to generate HBIM data, which digitized historical records, documents, and drawings to accurately represent the complex layout of the wooden architectural heritage. For the folk houses that lacked design records and the fortress walls that retained their original shape, we performed a digital restoration-based façade modeling. These elements of the ancient city of Suwon Hwaseong were assembled into a 3D model using Unreal Engine (version 5.1.1) to digitally reconstruct the city and enhance its visual representation. The digital restoration content, which utilizes visual effects and precise rendering from a game engine, can be used for the restoration, repair, and maintenance of both appearance and internal structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT Reconstructing and processing 3D objects are activities in the research field of computer graphics, image processing and computer vision. The 3D objects are processed based on geometric modelling (a branch of applied mathematics and computational geometry) or machine learning algorithms based on image processing. The computation of geometrical objects includes processing the curves and surfaces, subdivision, simplification, meshing, holes filling or reconstructing the 3D surface's objects on both point cloud data and triangular mesh. While the machine learning methods are developed using deep learning models. With the support of 3D laser scan devices and LiDAR techniques, the obtained dataset is close to the original shape of the real objects. Besides, photography and its application based on modern techniques in recent years help us collect data and process the 3D models more precisely. This article proposes a new method for filling holes on the 3D object's surface based on automatic segmentation. Instead of filling the hole directly as the existing methods, we now subdivide the hole before filling it. The hole is first determined and segmented automatically based on the computation of its local curvature. It is then filled on each part of the hole to match its local curvature shape. The method can work on both 3D point cloud surfaces and triangular mesh surfaces. Compared to the state‐of‐the‐art (SOTA) methods, our proposed method obtained higher accuracy of the reconstructed 3D objects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research paper examines the heritage value of construction documentation and processes via Virtual Reality (VR), with a focus on the Sydney Opera House (SOH). It underscores the importance of comprehending and documenting transient construction techniques for heritage valuation. Utilising VR, the study offers an immersive portrayal of the SOH's construction, emphasising its innovative methods, craftsmanship, and environmental challenges. The paper draws from the Digital Heritage Construction project, showcased at the Heritage Exposition of the ICOMOS General Assembly 2023. This project featured two VR simulations, developed through analysing 200 original shop drawings, historical photographs, and site minutes and reports. The first simulation illustrates the formwork systems used for the SOH's iconic sails, while the second elucidates the assembly methods for the precast vaulted roofs, including the operation of the telescopic erection arch and the installation of concrete segments. The paper examines the novelty of this approach through a survey conducted at the Heritage Exposition. Analysis of the survey's result reveals VR's effectiveness in deepening the appreciation of architectural heritage's intangible qualities, providing new insights into the historical construction processes of the building and their cultural significance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The absence of clear protocols in the conservation of new media art has led to a situation of extreme precariousness of digital artworks. The irruption of blockchain culture and NFTs seems to offer an opportunity to overcome this situation. This paper aims to clarify whether or not the structure of data and metadata associated with transactions in the blockchain solves the challenging obsolescent and unstable condition of new media art. The disturbing reality is that the so-called 'cryptoart' is not always stored and encapsulated on the blockchain itself. In a high number of cases, assets just point to artworks living outside, stored on off-chain servers or platforms. This paper analyzes the possibilities for the preservation of art hosted on the chain. Despite some limitations, this method is understood as the more coherent and robust for long-term life and availability of digital art associated with Web3 technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The layering process of the historic urban landscape (HUL) has spatial and temporal characteristics. With the help of digital technology, building a database to collect and manage spatial information on HUL is an effective research method. Taking Nanjing since the Ming Dynasty (1368–2024) as an example, our paper proposes a framework for constructing a historical geographic information system (HGIS) for HUL. The results show that (1) ancient Chinese historical archives have good potential for use in the construction of historical landscape databases. The HGIS can visualize the evolution of HUL and realize the storage, expression, querying, and analysis of information in different formats. (2) The Republic of China is a turning point in the evolution of Nanjing's HUL. In terms of spatial evolution, the main distribution areas of urban form and characteristic places, as well as the NACH (normalized angular choice) and NAIN (normalized angular integration) cores of the road network, all moved from the south to the north of the city. In terms of typological evolution, the urban form changes from a predominantly residential area to one that emphasizes residential, administrative, educational and industrial areas. The main types of characteristic places shifted from house gardens, temples and ancestral halls to scenic buildings and public gardens. (3) Political factors, urban planning, commercial ports, and land prices influence the layering process of the HUL. The constructed database guides the preservation of HUL from the digital heritage perspective and the construction of other historical databases with spatial characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cultural heritage is no longer something that can only be experienced in a museum exhibition. Digital tools have facilitated the distribution of material relating to artefacts, both in its representation and in presenting its context. This paper describes how digital modelling techniques can be synthesised with 3D scanning to digitally restore artefacts and create authentic replicas of their original states. The digital artefacts can then be used to assist the process of interpreting these artefacts in diverse forms, both in the museum and outside the museum. The study looks at Pictish sculpture as a case-study, restoring 3D models of two stones, and creating varying opportunities for their interpretation. As part of this study, new interactive tools, a virtual reality environment, and a virtual tour are built to assist immersive interpretation of the Pictish sculpture. The application of these digitised objects serves as an opportunity for informal learning. These applications were evaluated during a drop-in session. Findings show that all participants enjoyed the immersive mode of learning with 89% also showing a willingness to learn more about the topic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainable digital cultural heritage is now an essential aspect of our lives. The rapid development of 3D technology in the historic preservation industry provides the means of documenting, recovering, and presenting cultural heritage items. However, the digital transformation of 3D sculpture heritage is often led by technology without effective evaluation indicators as a guide. This study compares effective assessment methods for digital forms with traditional art. Our approach uses semantic differential scales and machine learning regression models to assess the importance of fifteen artistic attributes. The semantic differential scale is improved based on 15 artistic attributes and proves to be effective in evaluating the value of digital artwork. This research finds that digital artwork is significantly more popular among young people compared with elderly people, especially for attributes like colour variation, saturation, and texture. The research also finds that complexity and social attributes are more important in predicting the value of the digital 3D model. Digital transformation is a viable method for preserving the artistic value of sculpture and improving cultural sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Historical aerial images constitute an invaluable heritage that requires meticulous recovery and preservation. Interest in this task has been shown at the international level, where several congresses have been held to analyse orthophotographs production techniques, as well as the state of the art of preservation and dissemination of historical material. Innovative image orthorectification models, such as Structure for Motion and Multi-View Stereo, derived from classical photogrammetric methods such as collinearity equations, Direct Linear Transformation and Rational Function Model, have shown excellent results in the creation of 3D models from images captured by mobile devices and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). These advances open up a new line of research for its application in historical flights, characterised by unsuitable flight and conservation conditions, with geometries away from the conventional geometric model and the absence of orientation parameters. On the basis of the papers presented at the EuroSDR congresses in 2019 and 2022, and using SfM and MVS algorithmic programmes, research on the processes of orthorectification of historical images has been deepened, particularly in the processing of large volumes of data. The methodology was applied to what is potentially the largest block of data to date, comprising over 4,000 images covering an area of over 40,000 square kilometres corresponding to the A-series flight, carried out by the US Army Map Service between 1945 and 1946. This technical process represents a significant step towards the accurate correction of valuable historical aerial imagery, contributing to architectural study, urban planning, property organisation, and historical heritage conservation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a methodological, theoretical, and technological outline of codesign principles for the effective development of digital heritage extended reality systems for health and care. The paper is based on two large-scale research projects involving ageing in rural and coastal communities, focused on the codesign of extended reality systems to stimulate new forms of access to local heritage sites with potential impact on health outcomes. Our approach stems from a multi-disciplinary collaboration between health, digital design, and heritage specialists, and suggests ways to reconcile diverging forms of knowledge production, such as our 'researcher in residence' methodology and the place-based complexities of codesigning such systems. Based on an analysis of fieldwork data and our own fieldwork experiences, the paper presents a roadmap for the codesign of digital heritage extended reality systems for health interventions that meet the needs of stakeholders and organisational implementation requirements, providing a useful tool in supporting the health and social care system for our ageing population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this explorative and collectively written paper, researchers and archivists from the research project Children's cultural heritage — the visual voices of the archive ponder, wrestle with, confront, and dig deeper into what it means to preserve and include children's own voices in archives. The authors acknowledge that child-produced cultural objects are historical landmarks and significant parts of national heritage. The article raises questions about where and how the 'doing' of what is here called children's cultural heritage takes place, what it means to archive from children's perspectives, and what aspects of children are saved during these preservation and archival management processes. To collect, preserve and provide access to heritage might empower and affirm individuals and subordinated groups of people who have not been seen or heard in the historical past, in the present, or in future pasts. Children, as a category, is one such subordinated group in heritage contexts. Adults therefore have a responsibility to empower children by strengthening their position towards other social groups, towards society and the heritage domain. This article provides insights into the challenges that heritage establishments face in taking children's cultural heritage seriously. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is important to manage individuals' personal data after their death to maintain their dignity or follow their wishes as much as possible. From this perspective, this report describes the real-world commercialization of immortal digital personalities, which gives eternal life to the deceased in a digital form. We identify the problems with the commercialization of deceased users' images and personal data, which becomes postmortem entertainment. Considering these problems, we seek out the ideal form of deceased users' personal data for commercialization. We conduct a social survey to understand how ordinary Japanese people feel about the various types of publicly available services that use personal data after death, such as social network service logs. By analyzing our survey results approximately 20% of respondents would allow the commercial use of their personal data, such as browsing their social network service logs, if they could receive compensation during their lifetime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In an age where technological advancements shape every facet of our lives, virtual reality (VR) stands at the forefront of innovation, offering transformative possibilities across various sectors. One particularly exciting application of VR is in the realm of cultural preservation. By enabling immersive experiences and detailed digital documentation, VR presents a powerful tool for protecting and revitalizing cultural heritage. However, this innovation comes with its own set of challenges and responsibilities, particularly in the context of international relations and legal frameworks. This article explores how VR is reshaping cultural preservation, balancing the fine line between innovation and safeguarding the past, and the necessary international legal measures to support this balance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a serious game that explores and digitally reconstructs the soundscape of the relocated Ottoman Sabīl (water dispensary) wa-Kuttāb (Quran elementary school) of Ismāʿīl al-Maghlawī, in historic Cairo, dated to 1657 CE. The sabīl was relocated in 1939 from its original location in Khān al-Khalīlī Street. It used to have an underground cistern, filled yearly with pure water from the Nile River, and provided water to passersby from its water dispensary room's window. The authors employed acoustic surveys to collect the impulse responses (IRs) in this sabīl toward developing an auralization using Odeon software. The auralized files were then deployed as a game using the Unity game engine, where players can identify the sabīl's architecture, soundscape, and spatial transformation over time. The game reveals the reverberating sounds of the sabīl's water path and, in the process, highlights the importance of acoustic documentation in the reconstruction of heritage buildings.

This study presents the background and the evaluation of integrating eXtended Reality (XR) in the permanent exhibition at the Tomato Industrial Museum “D. Nomikos”. This paper firstly provides the context of this study by outlining the methodological, technological, and museological approaches undertaken to integrate XR in a quest to enhance visitors’ meaningful engagement with the industrial heritage-related exhibition. Storytelling and narration are key elements of the museum’s museological design through audio tours and interactive AR-based visualization n of the machinery’s role and function. This paper presents and discusses the design of the evaluation methodology employed in the context of pertinent methods and approaches used in related research. This study investigates the effectiveness of XR for audience engagement and the added value that such technologies offer to the user experience as well as possible improvements. The main method adopted for gathering quantitative data is the User Experience Questionnaire (UEQ), and for qualitative data, through semi-structured interviews. Moreover, the findings are analyzed, interpreted, and discussed. Based on a case study, this paper offers a broader discussion of the challenges and prospects connected to the quest of employing emerging technologies and assessing their impact on visitors’ museum experience, reaching conclusions for future directions in the field.

The metaverse, powered by XR technologies, enables human augmentation by enhancing physical, cognitive, and sensory capabilities. Cultural heritage sees the metaverse as a vehicle for expression and exploration, providing new methods for heritage fruition and preservation. This article proposes a metaverse application, inspired by the events of the Italian Resistance, promoting interactions between multiple users in an immersive VR experience while safeguarding intangible cultural assets according to an edutainment approach. The virtual environment, based on Ivrea's town hall square, provides in-depth information about the partisan's life and the historical value of its actions for the city. Furthermore, the application allows users to meet in the same virtual place and engage with one another in real time through the Spatial SDK. Before the public presentation, a heterogeneous group of thirty users underwent usability and engagement tests to assess the experience on both VR headsets and smartphones. Tests revealed statistically significant evidence that there is a genuine difference in users' perceptions of usability and engagement with different devices and types of interaction. This study highlights the effectiveness of adopting XR as a supporting technology to complement the real experience of cultural heritage valorization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Europeana is a digital infrastructure aggregating the most extensive collection of cultural heritage data in Europe. Launched in 2008, it has enjoyed the political and financial support of the European Union and its member states, becoming the most ambitious and financed digital cultural project to date. For this reason, Europeana is an outstanding example of how the European Commission has used digital heritage platforms to pursue its cultural agenda. Nevertheless, the social and cultural implications of this digital infrastructure are still understudied. Following Europeana's evolution, this article explores Europeana's role in transforming the cultural sector and defining a European digital cultural policy. Analysing how the goals of the EU cultural policy have been implemented in the development of Europeana, this article reveals how Europeana has been instrumental in steering the digitisation of the European cultural sector through the development of standards and best practices. Furthermore, through digital heritage curation, Europeana plays a critical role in producing the narrative of a European past, promoting the construction of European citizenship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Numerous digital media repositories have been set up during recent decades, each containing plenty of data about historic cityscapes. In contrast, digital 3D reconstructions of no longer extant cityscapes have so far almost solely been performed for specific cases and via manual modelling techniques. Within the Jena4D research group, we are investigating and developing methods and technologies for transferring historical media and their contextual information into 4D models. The next step will be to automate this process and extend it to the world scale. Our team are working on different facets of that endeavor: retrieving images, text, and object data from public sources; crowdsourcing and collecting qualitative data from contests and pupil labs; processing historical plans and photographs to extract spatial data; location-based mobile visualization; and collection-browsing interfaces. This article is intended to highlight (1) current challenges, (2) the state of the art, (3) our approach to 4D modelling and visualization on the world scale, and (4) results from testing demo cases in Dresden, Jena, and Amsterdam. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study presents the background and the evaluation of integrating eXtended Reality (XR) in the permanent exhibition at the Tomato Industrial Museum "D. Nomikos". This paper firstly provides the context of this study by outlining the methodological, technological, and museological approaches undertaken to integrate XR in a quest to enhance visitors' meaningful engagement with the industrial heritage-related exhibition. Storytelling and narration are key elements of the museum's museological design through audio tours and interactive AR-based visualization n of the machinery's role and function. This paper presents and discusses the design of the evaluation methodology employed in the context of pertinent methods and approaches used in related research. This study investigates the effectiveness of XR for audience engagement and the added value that such technologies offer to the user experience as well as possible improvements. The main method adopted for gathering quantitative data is the User Experience Questionnaire (UEQ), and for qualitative data, through semi-structured interviews. Moreover, the findings are analyzed, interpreted, and discussed. Based on a case study, this paper offers a broader discussion of the challenges and prospects connected to the quest of employing emerging technologies and assessing their impact on visitors' museum experience, reaching conclusions for future directions in the field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The project aims to present the 3D reconstruction of the Roman Theater of Amman, the ancient Philadelphia of the Palestinian Decapolis, through rigorous representative models. The outcomes will be part of a future exhibition providing site-specific installations and user experience artifacts based on digital interaction and tactile models. The paper illustrates the multidisciplinary approach associated with using 3D virtual reconstruction and game engine tools to reflect on the practice of representing ancient monuments and digital museology. Travelers of the 18th and 19th centuries drafted the fascination of discovery as an experience in their notebooks. At the same time, their written records could address contemporary visitors to an extensive cultural knowledge of places and buildings, the historia of Philadelphia. Investigations are shifting scientific models towards a dynamic cultural experience representative of cultural heritage, including intangible heritage, stories, and new technological paradigms, increasingly rapidly making it possible to duplicate art and heritage. This shift is pinpointing the role of representation for cultural studies and humanities, experimenting with practices and tools to drill methodologies, and producing models for interaction design, socialization, gaming, and museum experience.DOI: https://doi.org/10.20365/disegnarecon.31.2023.15

Rural locations often form a hinterland – geographically and culturally - for large conurbations that dominate a particular region. They are interconnected, sometimes interdependent, but also separated by the social and spatial perceptions of a place. For urban dwellers the hinterland is a place to ‘escape to the country’; for rural dwellers the town is the place of ‘bright lights’. The norms of either location often sit juxtaposed. This sense of place may be constructed from traditional, stereotypical ways of seeing and understanding communities. Digital technology has provided a platform to challenge these norms and provide new ways of representing the physical and cultural landscape of urban and rural spaces. In this conceptual paper we explore digital placemaking in the hinterland of the North-East of Scotland. In this region, the city (Aberdeen) dominates, but it is the rural hinterland that charms. Through an examination of co-created content of rural spaces in this region we consider the role of participatory digital placemaking. Drawing on an extensive body of previous research that has explored community heritage in the North-East of Scotland, we use case studies to consider the ways in which images, iconography and language shape and inform perceptions of the rural space in the digital environment. We argue that this bottom-up approach to placemaking in rural areas can help to shape the way that places are seen, understood, and valued by communities, visitors and wider online audiences. To conclude, this paper reflects on how rural participatory digital placemaking counteracts the urban norm and connects communities across town and country through a reimagined digital hinterland.

The University of Bradford has established wide-ranging skillsets and capabilities as Visualising Heritage that have been built around expertise with 3D imaging for human bioarchaeology and for contextual understanding of archaeological sites, landscapes, heritage structures and associated artefacts. This paper reflects upon how these have been put to use during enabling works for HS2 and also the potential of this work for analysis, public engagement and legacy. The main focus of this paper covers 3D digital documentation of the world's first railway roundhouse designed by Robert Stephenson at Birmingham Curzon Street, together with immersive content that helps to tell the story of its discovery and exposure. We discuss 3D modelling that helps to link both to the original architectural drawings and to the broader narratives for understanding changes to the design of the building during its working life. We also contextualise its place within the historic environment relative to the Principal Building – the original Curzon Street terminus for the London and Birmingham Railway, the Eagle and Tun public house and the former Park Street Cemetery. As HS2 embarks upon the post-excavation phase, we also discuss the potential that recent investment from the Arts and Humanities Research Council in 'Capabilities for Human Bioarchaeology and Digital Collections' offers, building upon our pioneering 3D work at the object scale with 'Digitised Diseases', to bring within reach the potential for high throughput digital capture. This streamlines high fidelity 3D capture for key human bioarchaeology exemplars as legacy assets that would otherwise be lost to future study as they are destined for reburial.

Rural locations often form a hinterland - geographically and culturally - for large conurbations that dominate a particular region. They are interconnected, sometimes interdependent, but also separated by the social and spatial perceptions of a place. For urban dwellers the hinterland is a place to 'escape to the country'; for rural dwellers the town is the place of 'bright lights'. The norms of either location often sit juxtaposed. This sense of place may be constructed from traditional, stereotypical ways of seeing and understanding communities. Digital technology has provided a platform to challenge these norms and provide new ways of representing the physical and cultural landscape of urban and rural spaces. In this paper we explore digital placemaking in the hinterland of the North-East of Scotland. In this region, the city (Aberdeen) dominates, but it is the rural hinterland that charms. Through an examination of co-created content of rural spaces in this region we consider the role of participatory digital placemaking. Drawing on an extensive body of previous research that has explored community heritage in the North-East of Scotland, we use case studies to consider the ways in which images, iconography and language shape and inform perceptions of the rural space in the digital environment. We argue that this bottom-up approach to placemaking in rural areas can help to shape the way that places are seen, understood, and valued by communities, visitors and wider online audiences. To conclude, this paper reflects on how rural participatory digital placemaking counteracts the urban norm and connects communities across town and country through a reimagined digital hinterland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article aims to find out the process for achieving smartness in urban architectural heritage conservation, maintenance, and operation and identify characteristics of the so-called smartness. It seeks to provide an example of introducing smart ideas into architectural heritage while encouraging more conservation. The discussions among architectural heritage conservation under the smart discourse are scattered in virtual applications, digital involvements, tourism, etc., and an integration method is worth considering. This article selected a platform for architectural heritage conservation and management of the Shanghai Federation of Literary and Art Circles (SFLAC), China. An integrated literature review is conducted to locate knowledge gaps. Thematic analysis is used for data analysis to develop the practising procedure and smart heritage features. Current practices lack a systematic consideration based on the perspective of conservation and management, which details applications for various groups in correspondence to stages. Interviews and policy document analysis were conducted to support the investigation. Smartness for architectural heritage should include policy guidance, digitalisation, platform integration, applications, and optimisations and has the feature of evolvement. Its practice should first promote heritage preservation and consider the benefits of different users, cultural inheritance, and urban regeneration based on different time durations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the potential of dense multi-image 3D photogrammetric reconstruction of destroyed cultural heritage monuments by employing public domain imagery for heritage site visitors. This work focuses on the digital reconstruction of the Temple of Bel, one of the heritage monuments in Palmyra, Syria, which was demolished in the summer of 2015 due to armed conflict. This temple is believed to be one of the most significant religious structures of the first century AD in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region with its unique design and condition before destruction actions. The process is carried out using solely one source of images; the freely available visitors' images collected from the social media platforms and web search engines. This paper presents a digital 3D reconstruction workflow for the collected images using an advanced photogrammetry pipeline and dense image matching software. The virtually reconstructed outputs will be managed and implemented efficiently in Unity3D to create an entire 3D virtual interactive environment for the deconstructed temple to be visualised and experienced using the new Oculus Quest VR headset. The virtual Palmyra's visitor will be offered an enhanced walk-through off-site interactive, immersive experience compared to the real-world one, which is non-existing and unobtainable at the site in the current time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The application of digital technologies to museum heritage is increasingly widespread. • Digital anastylosis processes can aid the conservation of museum finds. • Digital anastylosis requires standardised digital survey protocols. • Integrated digital technologies can foster knowledge of fragile cultural heritage. The conservation, development, and enjoyment of the artefacts in museums can benefit greatly from the application of integrated digital technologies. This topic is of great interest not only to researchers in various disciplines, but also to the managers of this heritage, the producers of technologies, innovative companies and start-ups, and the wider public. However, it does not currently seem to be possible to identify methods and protocols shared between the actors involved for the purpose of managing the phases of acquisition, definition of data models, management of digital content, and its later implementation. "Tailor-made" approaches therefore have direct consequences on the efficacy of the digitalisation processes currently available when applied to conservation and restoration, and to the promotion of cultural heritage. In this paper, we propose a protocol for the digitalisation of archaeological artefacts for the purpose of their display in museums. The method is illustrated with reference to a case study involving very rare artefacts from a wooden throne from the Villanovan Age. Finally, the work is part of the results of a wider project for the definition of protocols for the surveying and modelling of cultural heritage, from the architectural scale down to the scale of artefacts, carried out through public-private partnerships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The digitalisation of cultural heritage creates expectations for improved research methods and more diverse and inclusive memory institutions. However, it is difficult to take advantage of the opportunities the quantification might give owing to deficient and inadequate metadata. The diversity of standards and wilfulness in different historical archive practices creates problems when aggregating data from various sources. The ambition to create more diverse and inclusive memory institutions, compensating for the historical lack of justice, also creates the risk of excluding important contexts from the digital collections. To develop research methods that take this archival wilfulness into account, in this study I have used speculative design to explore images from Europeana, the digital archive that aggregates data from memory institutions all over Europe. Instead of seeing this archive as something lacking in terms of shared standards and inclusive vocabularies, I suggest we see Europeana as a queer collection of wilful archival practices, by showing the desires and imaginations represented in the archival context. By contrasting the visual content of an image with the metadata that describes the image, the norms and desires in the archival practice come into focus, as the metadata points out what at the time was considered interesting about an image, and the reason the photograph was taken. Images described as 'Swedes', for example, rarely show pictures of Swedes in Sweden. Swedes are described as Swedes when they are outside Sweden. It is the exotic and foreign that are categorised. Most importantly, the person who controls the camera is not in the picture, but the choice of perspective and the metadata description of the image tell us something about the photographer's and archivist's will and desires. By visually reversing the perspective and making visible both norms and deviations, I show how one can approach this digital heritage with a methodology of feminist wonder. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research contributes to the discussion around the importance of the long-term preservation of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and minted digital artworks. The paper is based on a review of the literature on blockchain in art and heritage management and conservation, with particular attention to references related to the production, marketing, maintenance, and distribution of NFT-based digital art. The aims of this paper involve anticipating potential problems in the oversight of NFTs and setting out good long-term management principles and practices as well as specific preservation strategies. Despite the fact that it also discusses issues over authorship, copyright, creative commons, and open access, the paper is particularly devoted to raising concerns about the high energy consumption associated with blockchain technology and its impact on climate change. It also highlights how the preservation of NFTs cannot be neglected, despite the belief that they last forever. Most studies dedicated to analysing the impact of blockchain technology on the cultural heritage sector ignore the most important issue: preserving not only the minted digital artworks themselves but also the respective blockchain networks. Overall, this paper seeks to foster a collective awareness of the need to reflect on blockchain-related art practices and their implications for the long-term protection of cultural property.

Historical aerial images constitute an invaluable heritage that requires meticulous recovery and preservation. Interest in this task has been shown at the international level, where several congresses have been held to analyse orthophotographs production techniques, as well as the state of the art of preservation and dissemination of historical material. Innovative image orthorectification models, such as Structure for Motion and Multi-View Stereo, derived from classical photogrammetric methods such as collinearity equations, Direct Linear Transformation and Rational Function Model, have shown excellent results in the creation of 3D models from images captured by mobile devices and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). These advances open up a new line of research for its application in historical flights, characterised by unsuitable flight and conservation conditions, with geometries away from the conventional geometric model and the absence of orientation parameters. On the basis of the papers presented at the EuroSDR congresses in 2019 and 2022, and using SfM and MVS algorithmic programmes, research on the processes of orthorectification of historical images has been deepened, particularly in the processing of large volumes of data. The methodology was applied to what is potentially the largest block of data to date, comprising over 4,000 images covering an area of over 40,000 square kilometres corresponding to the A-series flight, carried out by the US Army Map Service between 1945 and 1946. This technical process represents a significant step towards the accurate correction of valuable historical aerial imagery, contributing to architectural study, urban planning, property organisation, and historical heritage conservation.

The recent advancement in immersive technologies opens up opportunities for the way individuals perceive and engage with information in public spaces to be innovated. This article discusses a study that investigates the application of Virtual Reality (VR) as an instrument for communicating engineering heritage in museum environments with the aim to enhance visitor experience. The study adopted Shannon’s communication theory as the main principle for contextualising heritage objects within virtual environments. This approach can benefit curators in informing the way the intended meaning, value, and context behind museum artefacts to be delivered through visual narratives and aesthetics. In this study, three VR scenarios have been developed using the Unreal engine to investigate the aspects of learning, interaction, and immersion during the virtual experience. One-way ANOVA approach was used to determine the significant differences between the proposed factors in the study. The study found that the absence of interaction in the immersive scenario reduced the mean score leading to a lack of constructive guidance during navigation. Whereas using Gamified and narrated approaches significantly increased the mean value of the participants compared to the control group. While many researchers argue that the utilisation of VR could improve the users’ level of presence, the study outcomes suggest that there are certain conditions that should be structured during the development process to facilitate better engagement with virtual content. To achieve these conditions, gamification and storytelling strategies have been found to be effective in delivering an interactive immersive experience for engaging with heritage artefacts and contents.

Internet memes are a culturally significant aspect of digital media and communication. Many memes draw on themes and sources from museums, including specific objects and images. This has significance for museums’ digital communications and audience development, presenting not only opportunities for engagement but also reputational risks. This article presents a brief overview of relevant scholarship in memetic media to introduce some key definitions and dynamics of internet memes. Following this, it explores three brief case studies of ‘museum memes’ to illustrate some of these concepts. Finally, it considers how museums and heritage institutions might respond to popular memes and how heritage scholars might begin to approach memes as research subjects.

Europeana is a cultural heritage initiative financed by the European Union (EU) with the primary scope of curating a platform aggregating digital collections of European cultural heritage. Among other tasks, Europeana designs best practices and digital tools aligned with the EU’s digital cultural policy to support the digitization of cultural heritage institutions in the member states. Therefore, it can be considered a socio-political actor building an international network. Nevertheless, it has mainly been studied as a digital service. To investigate Europeana’s impact on the European cultural sector, this work proposes a three-level methodology combining web mapping, close reading of websites, and statistical analysis. This methodology offers a comprehensive picture of the Europeana platform’s role on the web, providing evidence of its action as a social hub gathering a network of national and local actors in the European cultural environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Considering that culture is the product of creative and human processes, it is believed that intellectual property is a legal tool that allows for its protection given that it helps conserve, safeguard and preserve its tangible and/or intangible assets. In the case of digital heritage, which is made up of digital elements that should be preserved due to their cultural value, some challenges have arisen regarding their legal protection. One of these challenges is the lack of clarity about how the elements that comprise it should be protected, giving rise to doubts about how intellectual property should help solve this conflict. This article presents the discussion regarding the protection of digital heritage in Colombia, how copyright is becoming an instrument that contributes to its legal protection, and the challenges to further develop it in the country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the 2010s, various national and pan-European public infrastructures have been emerging around aggregation, viewing, and 3D heritage model collection. The purpose of this article is to focus on the current state and ecosystem for 3D models in Europe through (a) a review of published studies on users, objects, and demands (b) and an overview of the ecosystem for 3D heritage data. As part of the German distributed infrastructure, the DFG 3D Viewer Jena experimental repository serves as a testbed for technology prototyping and testing. Based on the findings of the European ecosystem, we used this repository to test a prototypic approach to (c) acquiring 3D data from multiple sources, (d) enriching data quality, and (e) enabling indexing, searching, and viewing functionalities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digital technologies are becoming increasingly relevant in the processes of documenting, surveying, enhancing, and preserving cultural heritage, including through applications that are becoming more and more optimized and oriented toward new data management and accessibility processes. This great potential can find significant levels of application in the tourism sector, seeking new strategies to access, discover, and understand cultural assets. In this direction, many digital applications have already found interesting outcomes in the tourism sector, but there is large room for improvement in the applications for "minor", small, or neglected cultural sites, not included in conventional tourism routes, which play a key role in social inclusion and territorial cohesion, as well as for the development of social, economic, and environmental sustainability. The paper presents a conceptual framework or possible outline to foster the use of digital technologies through a set of integrated bottom-up and top-down actions, to facilitate connections of minor sites into larger networks, contributing to the search for new forms of sustainable and active fruition and social participation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the visual communication potential and efficacy of the Portal to Peru project to prepare future study abroad and other tourists for ethical and conscientious tourism encounters. Portal to Peru is a Website project that provides visitors with exhibits, digital stories and interactive novels, and access to the permanent collection based on the Center for Traditional Textiles (CTTC) in Cusco, Peru. To begin exploring the question of whether and how using the site before going abroad may or may not help prepare eventual travelers to South America to be more informed and thoughtful tourists, we administered a pre-departure survey to a class of Latin American Studies students at a Florida university before their trip to Cusco, and a post-visit survey upon their return, along with having them study the Website for a limited period of time in between. Although preliminary, the results suggest modest gains in certain areas of knowledge and changes in attitudes, although more work is to be done both in terms of testing and in refining the approach the Website takes based on user feedback. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]