Organised by the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales, Digital Past is an annual two-day conference which showcases innovative digital technologies and techniques for data capture, interpretation and dissemination of the heritage of Wales, the UK and beyond.

Running for the twelfth year, in light of the uncertainty caused by COVID-19 Digital Past 2021 will be held as an online conference via the Zoom platform. One day of presented talks on Wednesday 10 February will be supplemented by workshops across the week of 8 to 12 February 2021.

In this context, the DHRLab will organise the workshop “How complex is 3D digitisation in Cultural Heritage?”.

Registrations are now open and free of charge: https://rcahmw.gov.uk/about-us/digital-past-conference/registration-2021/

Workshop Description

3D digitisation is the most challenging procedure in the documentation of the past. Previous research and developments in this domain clearly demonstrates, that a holistic 3D e-documentation including all related information and data is not yet fully realised, due to the lack of international standards.

At the starting point of a typical 3D documentation project, an immediate concern is to determine the level of complexity of an object, structure or site, addressing practical issues such as the physical dimensions of a space, the surface quality, materials and the overall environment. The acquired information will determine the necessary effort, production time and recording method. Ideally, though, the proposed recording method would also integrate a broader range of pertinent issues such as aesthetics, historical, social and environmental significances, among others. This information, in combination with the specifications of the recording technology and the dimensional record, would provide a more thorough and comprehensive description of the object or site.

The Digital Past 2021 workshop will aim to address the issue of “complexity” in the field of 3D digitisation, by inviting specialists coming from various Cultural Heritage fields to discuss key questions like:

• Which are the challenges of 3D surveying in CH?
• In which ways are the entanglements defining the final complexity of the 3D acquisition process?
• Which are the missing standards for 3D in CH modelling and the long-term preservation of 3D models?