CAA2012 papers and posters - Digital Humanities Digital Humanities

I have been going through the timetable for CAA2012 and making a note of the papers and posters I am involved with, mostly as a means to make sure I don’t miss anything :-) I am getting really excited about next week. A partial list via sched.org is available at http://caaconference2012.sched.org/?s=Graeme+Earl

Leif Isaksen kicks everything off on Tuesday 27th in the 9am session. He is talking about “Archaeology and the Semantic Webs”. Leif’s thesis considered the relative merits of two different visions of the purpose and potential of semantic technologies.

Also on Tuesday morning Javier Pereda is describing his exciting “Installation for Interpretation of Archaeological Sites”. This project presents the designer’s interpretation of an archaeological site in order to produce material for the case study. The installation involves several technological elements that complement each other to provide the best interpretation and enhance experimentation. Among other technologies, the installation utilizes Augmented Reality, 3D Modelling, Projection Mapping and 3D Printing to assist in the interpretation of the site.

Gareth Beale will be talking on Tuesday afternoon about the possibilities for the use of Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI) and specifically Polynomial Texture Mapping (PTM) in the simulation of archaeologically derived materials.

James Miles will also be talking about his PhD research on Tuesday afternoon. His paper “Reconstruction of Ruined Archaeological Structures Using Structural Analysis Methods” outlines his work using structural analysis in the modelling pipeline.

Cat Cooper will be talking on Tuesday afternoon after Gareth and James, giving an introduction to the AHRC Ways of Seeing the English Domestic Interior, 1500-1700: the case of digital decorative textiles network. The participants are experimenting with, for instance, virtual reality environments that recreate historic atmospheric effects and eye tracking equipment that measures where and for how long we look at our surroundings, and see how this technology might be used to reconstruct historical perception. I will hot foot it to the launch of the new Southampton Marine and Maritime Institute where I will be talking about sotonDH activities in the maritime sphere.

On Wednesday 28th in the morning James Miles will be talking about the use of computed tomography within the study of archaeological coins. This is set to be a fantastic showcase for some recent work with the mu-Vis Centre. Also on Wednesday morning Matthew Harrison will be talking about Shape grammar modelling and the visualisation of an uncertain past. Unfortunately I am going to miss them both as I will be co-chairing a panel session on the interface between Digital Humanities and Archaeological Computing. Hopefully I can watch James’ and Matthew’s presentations afterwards via Panopto.

On Wednesday afternoon Tom Frankland will be talking about his PhD research on the RCUK DE PATINA project. The paper “Using technology to explore issues of communication and disruption in archaeological fieldwork” describes mechanisms to examine and disrupt fieldwork hierarchies.

Also on Wednesday afternoon I will be talking about the JISC DataPool project, specifically focusing on implications for archaeology. The DataPool project will build capacity within the University of Southampton to support good data management practice across all disciplines, including multi-disciplinary activity, throughout the data lifecycle. This is in a session on Data Management that I am co-organising with Stuart Jeffrey.

Also on Wednesday afternoon Tom Brughmans will be talking about re-contextualising inter-visibility networks with artefact networks for understanding urban connectivity in Iron Age and Roman Southern Spain. This is new and exciting component of our long-standing interest in network and visibility analysis in Spain.

Katherine Robbins is talking in the morning on Thursday 27th. Her paper “Exploring Archaeological Methods: Using Quantitative and Qualitative Techniques to Examine the Distribution of Amateur Collected Finds” is about PhD research into bias in the Portable Antiquities Scheme database.

Adam Frost is also talking on Thursday morning about “Exploring the perception of epigraphy: Analysis of visualisations through eye tracking”. This is a really interesting study exploring perception of simulated environments.

On Thursday afternoon Constantinos Papadopoulos will be talking about his PhD research in a paper called “The Paradox of Translating Reality into Photorealism: From Fieldwork and Recording to Computer Graphic Interpretations”.

There are also some posters from our ongoing research projects. These include two posters prepared by Grant Cox – one on “Photo-realistic Reality: The Level V “Shrine of the Hunters” at Çatalhöyük” and one on the AHRC Portus Project: Simulating the Ship-sheds”. Angeliki Chrysanthi will also be describing her PhD project in a poster entitled Visitor movement and tracking techniques. A visitor-sourced methodology for the interpretation of archaeological sites. Eleni Kotoula will also show her recent PhD research in a poster on the “Application of RTI in Conservation”. This includes some exciting new microscopic RTI technology and results. Terhi Nurmikko’s PhD poster introduces her work on Linking the Data of Ancient Sumer. It examines the potential of Open Linked Data applications for Assyriology from the multidisciplinary perspective of Web Science. Terhi is one of two current joint Web Science/Archaeology students at Southampton.