CymraegThe focus of the project is on producing heritage data in conjunction with local communities. Photographs of heritage artefacts and environments will be uploaded onto our website (www.HeritageTogether.org).
The project is funded under the Humanities Research Council’s ‘Connected Communities’ call. The project is a collaboration between the schools of Computer Science at Bangor University and Aberystwyth University, and schools of Archaeology at Bangor University and Manchester Metropolitan University and Gwynedd Archaeological Trust. This project builds on a previous AHRC £100,000 project led from Bangor of the ‘Alternative views of the lost heritage of Gwynedd’.
By collaborating with the public, it will be possible to record our heritage. The project brings together academics from three institutions, with a mixture of skills from archaeology, computer science, community engagement and also researchers from the Gwynedd Archaeological Trust.
Dr Jonathan Roberts writes:
“It is fantastic to be working with the community on this project; it will allow the community to learn more about their heritage, and while improving heritage management and allowing scientists to much more effectively monitor damage to or loss of substance of monuments. It also provides a step change in research collaboration between academia and the wider public and provide the public with a new way of meaningfully engage with their heritage.”
The formal title of the project is “Co-production of alternative views of lost heritage”. This is a ‘co-production project’, because we (as academics) are working with the public to capture alternative views of our heritage. In fact, we are doing “heritage together”. By working together with the public, and getting volunteers to take photographs of these heritage assets, we are able to record our heritage.
Thereby it is possible to capture and record many more heritage objects than would be possible if it was merely an academic project. This is exciting. Everyone together can help to make our goals. Go out – on a free moment – and take photographs and get involved in this project. You can go out taking photographs during your lunch break, of over a weekend, or come up to Wales and make a specific holiday of it!
So, come and get involved! Take photographs, upload them to the server, and see them in three-dimensions. If you come to one of our exhibitions, then you may also see one of your models printed out in 3d, as a tangible object, and may be able to manipulate your objects in 3d on our 3d screen.
Our goal is to capture all the standing stones and burial cairns, foremostly in the Gwynedd area, but also beyond.
Jonathan (Principle investigator, Bangor University)
Thanks very much to those members of the public who came to our open days, field visits and lectures, who helped curate and test-drive our website, who produced data, and who worked with us to develop our methodological approaches. Here are two posters summarizing things that we have learned working with members of the public doing photogrammetry.
See the full-sized PDFs here: HeritageTogether poster EN, HeritageTogether poster CY
Seren (Research Associate, Manchester Metropolitan University)