TY - JOUR
T1 - (Re)presenting heritage
T2 - Laser scanning and 3D visualisations for cultural resilience and community engagement
AU - Tait, Elizabeth
AU - Laing, Richard
AU - Grinnall, Andy
AU - Burnett, Simon
AU - Isaacs, John
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was funded by grants from the RCUK Digital Economy Communities and Culture network+ and the RCUK Digital Economy IT as a Utility Network+.
Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2016.
PY - 2016/6
Y1 - 2016/6
N2 - Cultural heritage is increasingly being viewed as an economic asset for geographic areas who aim to capitalise in the surge in interest in local history and heritage tourism from members of the public. Digital technologies have developed that facilitate new forms of engagement with heritage and allow local areas to showcase their history, potentially broadening interest to a wider audience, thus acting as a driver for cultural and economic resilience. The research presented in this paper explores this through interdisciplinary research utilising laser scanning and visualisation in combination with social research in Elgin. 3D data capture technologies were used to develop and test 3D data visualisations and protocols through which the urban built heritage can be digitally recorded. The main focus of this paper surrounds the application and perceptions of these technologies. Findings suggest that the primary driver for cultural heritage developments was economic (with an emphasis on tourism) but further benefits and key factors of community engagement, social learning and cultural resilience were also reported. Stakeholder engagement and partnership working, in particular, were identified as critical factors of success. The findings from the community engagement events demonstrate that laser scanning and visualisation provide a novel and engaging mechanism for co-producing heritage assets. There is a high level of public interest in such technologies and users who engaged with these models reported that they gained new perspectives (including spatial and temporal perspectives) on the built heritage of the area.
AB - Cultural heritage is increasingly being viewed as an economic asset for geographic areas who aim to capitalise in the surge in interest in local history and heritage tourism from members of the public. Digital technologies have developed that facilitate new forms of engagement with heritage and allow local areas to showcase their history, potentially broadening interest to a wider audience, thus acting as a driver for cultural and economic resilience. The research presented in this paper explores this through interdisciplinary research utilising laser scanning and visualisation in combination with social research in Elgin. 3D data capture technologies were used to develop and test 3D data visualisations and protocols through which the urban built heritage can be digitally recorded. The main focus of this paper surrounds the application and perceptions of these technologies. Findings suggest that the primary driver for cultural heritage developments was economic (with an emphasis on tourism) but further benefits and key factors of community engagement, social learning and cultural resilience were also reported. Stakeholder engagement and partnership working, in particular, were identified as critical factors of success. The findings from the community engagement events demonstrate that laser scanning and visualisation provide a novel and engaging mechanism for co-producing heritage assets. There is a high level of public interest in such technologies and users who engaged with these models reported that they gained new perspectives (including spatial and temporal perspectives) on the built heritage of the area.
KW - Built heritage visualisation
KW - community engagement
KW - laser scanning
KW - local heritage
KW - resilience
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U2 - 10.1177/0165551516636306
DO - 10.1177/0165551516636306
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84968761364
SN - 0165-5515
VL - 42
SP - 420
EP - 433
JO - Journal of Information Science
JF - Journal of Information Science
IS - 3
ER -