Page 181 - AC/E Digital Culture Annual Report

of the no longer extant altar backdrop, which is known through archive photographs, making it possible to show an earlier state of the chapel of the Monument using digital technologies.3D modelling and augmented realityAnother Spanish example is the pioneering experiment carried out by the Universidad Polit cnica de Valencia on the cathedral’s main chapel. This experiment is an excellent example of the use of augmented reality in heritage con- texts and involved employing photogrammetric techniques to create virtual reconstructions.The experiment, on which the Departmentof Cartographic Engineering, Geodes and Photogrammetry and the Department of Con- servation and Restoration of Cultural Heritageof the university collaborated, consisted of an augmented reality visualisation of the cathedral’s main chapel, reproducing its Baroque appearance with the recently dismantled Baroque vaultand the silver altarpiece illustrating themes of the Virgin, which was melted down during the Peninsular War.For the Baroque vault, the 3D digital model produced using photogrammetric techniques and a ground-based laser scanner during the work carried out prior to its dismantling was taken as a basis. For the Renaissance altarpiece, the only known visual source was used: a small panel painting housed in the cathedral archive, from which the digital model to be overlaid on the extant altarpiece for the augmented reality experience was created. Portal s et al., 2009).269This experiment involved a prototype head- mounted display or augmented reality headset to enable users to view the Baroque vault asit was until the end of 2005 (the date it was dismantled) on the HMD screen, as well as to appreciate the silver Renaissance altarpiece in the main chapel, which disappeared during the Peninsular War.Experiments in recovering the past through3D digital data acquisition techniques are not limited to recreating a moment in history ofa heritage asset; many more recent research projects are focused on the virtual anastylosis of art historical objects currently in a fragmented state. These are cases where elements of the past are not lost or destroyed but have been dispersed owing to various circumstances, either to be reused in other works or distributed among several museum collections worldwide.The potential of this method for unprecedented visualisation of historic heritage in its original form and context is boosted when it is usedin conjunction with new fast prototyping techniques such as 3D printing, which have succeeded in taking these e orts to recover the past one step further.Tudor tomb monuments in NorfolkThe University of Leicester (UK) is notable for an important case in which digital technologies played a decisive part in helping reassemble scattered historic heritage using an e ective combination of three essential aspects of research involving cultural heritage and new technologies. Sixteenth-century art historical documentation together with 3D laser and 3D scanning techniques made it possible to recreate two tomb monuments belonging to the Tudor dynasty.The project,270 run by the University of Leicester, is one of the results of the research carried out by the team at Representing Re-Formation,271 who analyse and recreate important Tudor monuments with funding from the Science and Heritage Programme272 (AHRC and EPSRC).The two tomb monuments studied were com- missioned by Thomas Howard, third Duke of Norfolk, for himself and for Henry VIII’s illegit- imate son Henry Fitzroy, Duke of Richmond. Both were originally intended for Thetford prioryAC/E DIGITAL CULTURE ANNUAL REPORT 2017181The use of digital technologies in the conservation, analysis and dissemination of cultural heritage