Digital Technology for Heritage Preservation

Participants:
Lisa Ackerman, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, World Monuments Fund

Dietmar Offenhuber, Assistant Professor of Art + Design and Public Policy and Head of MFA in Information Design and Visualization, Northeastern University

Roger Michel, Founder and Executive Director, Institute for Digital Archaelogy

Holly Rushmeier, Professor of Computer Science, Yale University

Host:
Adam Lowe, Founder and Director of Factum Arte and Adjunct Professor of Historic Preservation, Columbia GSAPP

Over the recent years, 3D scanning has become part of a coherent and non-contact approach to the documentation of Cultural Heritage and its long term preservation. New developments in digital recording are appearing everyday and the academic community, relevant private and public institutions, media and general public, are increasingly interested in the growing possibilities such technological developments have to offer in the face of the important challenges related to the preservation of our shared Cultural Heritage.

But as the global expectations increase, different, and often contradictory approaches to the same problem start to arise, making it not uncommon for terms and concepts to be confused or misunderstood. In this roundtable discussion, we will discuss the facts related to digital technology and its political, cultural and economic implications. We will also seek to shed some light on basic questions such as:
- What does ‘high-resolution’ mean?
- What types of data are meaningful in the preservation of Cultural Heritage?
- How should digital technology be applied?