DORA :: Browsing by Author "Cawthorne, Douglas"

Browsing by Author "Cawthorne, Douglas"

Now showing 1 - 15 of 15

Open Access
Audio Tactile Maps (ATM) System for the Exploration of Digital Heritage Buildings by Visually-impaired Individuals - First Prototype and Preliminary Evaluation
(European Acoustics Association, 2014-09-07) O'Sullivan, Liam; Picinali, Lorenzo; Feakes, C.; Cawthorne, Douglas
Navigation within historic spaces requires analysis of a variety of acoustic, proprioceptive and tactile cues; a task that is well-developed in many visually-impaired individuals but for which sighted individuals rely almost entirely on vision. For the visually-impaired, the creation of a cognitive map of a space can be a long process for which the individual may repeat various paths numerous times. While this action is typically performed by the individual on-site, it is of some interest to investigate to what degree this task can be performed off-site using a virtual simulator. We propose a tactile map navigation system with interactive auditory display. The system is based on a paper tactile map upon which the user’s hands are tracked. Audio feedback provides; (i) information on user-selected map features, (ii) dynamic navigation information as the hand is moved, (iii) guidance on how to reach the location of one hand (arrival point) from the location of the other hand (departure point) and (iv) additional interactive 3D-audio cues useful for navigation. This paper presents an overview of the initial technical development stage, reporting observations from preliminary evaluations with a blind individual. The system will be beneficial to visually impaired visitors to heritage sites; we describe one such site which is being used to further assess our prototype.
Open Access
Authenticating Anastylosis: Para Data in the Digital Reconstruction of Greyfrairs Church Leicester and the Tomb of King Richard III
(University of Siena, Department of History and Cultural Heritage, 2015-03-30) Cawthorne, Douglas; Davies, Steffan
Creating visualisations of historic buildings and interiors from partial evidence requires realistically implementable strategies for managing the evidence upon which they are based and for documenting the decisions taken concerning the selection and value judgements made about that evidence. This paradata is essential for scholarly audiences for whom the degree of authentication and probability of correctness are central issues in developing trusted research. Several methods of generating this paradata are already recorded in the literature but while often systematic they are also complex and largely text based and for this reason it is recognised that their use is still the exception rather than the norm. In early 2014 Archaeologists at the University of Leicester in the UK discovered the remains of King Richard III, who died in 1485. This internationally important archaeological discovery prompted Leicester City Council to commission the Digital Building Heritage Group at De Montfort University to use the newly discovered archaeological evidence and pre-existing literary and circumstantial evidence to create a highly detailed digital reconstruction for public exhibition of the now lost church and medieval precinct in which the king was buried. The international scrutiny surrounding this case required particular quality control over the paradata and the required development time for the reconstruction also required that any process used should be efficient, and practical to implement in a compressed time-frame. Experience was therefore drawn from quality control techniques in processes in the construction industry to authenticate decision-making using a particular form of drawing we call “body-maps”. These are graphic representations which specify options applicable to generic 2D and 3D representations of buildings and artefacts allow their development and change in design, allow the recording, over marking and notation of selections made, alternatives proposed, final decisions arrived at and official endorsement or “signing off” of the final visualisation. We have found this diagram based approach a time and cost efficient vehicle for generating a rich and accurate paradata record and one which can be easily stored digitally and retrieved for future examination. One of its advantages is that because they are largely graphical in format the “body-map” drawings can be read in chronological sequence and so provide a narrative with minimal use of explicitly narrative text. Factors which affect the method’s use are the need for personnel who can use simple computer based drawing packages like Sketchup and Photoshop to create and modify the base “body-maps” and a willingness amongst the participants to engage in basic hand-drawing diagramming and over-marking on paper print-outs. Interestingly we found that formal drawing ability has little if any effect upon the utility of the process with all participants from a range of backgrounds able to intuitively engage with it. Furthermore the process actively encourages thoughtful and reflective practice and the development of shared frames of reference between different disciplines. This paper explains the detail of the process we have developed, with examples of body-maps and their use, the resulting reconstructions and the methods we propose to archive and curate the paradata arising from it.
Open Access
Bosworth Battlefield Digital Landscape Project – An Interactive Wide Area Digital Model and Digital Heritage Framework
(2018) Cawthorne, Douglas; Johnson, Paul S.; Knox, Richard; Lewis, Melissa; Phillips, Martin P.; Stratton, Andrew; Rye, Eleanor
This report is an outcome of The Bosworth Battlefield Landscape Project, a one year project funded by Arts Council England’s Museum Resilience Fund and administered by the National Coordinating Centre for Public Engagement (NCCPE) in the United Kingdom as part of NCCPE’s Museum and Universities Partnership Initiative (MUPI) in 2017-18. The purpose of this initiative was to assist museum staff and academics to form working groups, carry out desk based feasibility studies, hold discussions and collaborate on new project development and establish funding routes. Bosworth Battlefield is one of the most historically important late medieval (1485) battlefield sites in the UK, and the battle which took place there in 1485 was the culmination of the Wars of Roses a dynastic struggle between the houses of York and Lancaster which saw the defeat of the last Plantagenet King Richard III and the establishment of the Tudor dynasty by the victor King Henry VII. Led by members of the Bosworth Battlefield Heritage Centre in Leicestershire, The Bosworth Battlefield Landscape Project focusses on the strategic planning, background research and feasibility study for the development of a major multi-purpose digital asset for the Bosworth Battlefield Heritage Centre. This is a proposed wide area, multi-purpose, 3D digital landscape model covering approximately 4 Km2 with integrated GIS data-handling capability, linked to augmented and immersive reality visualisation, with serious gaming applications and a predicative analysis capability across several domains, including archaeology and heritage interpretation. This report sets out the strategic aims and objects that were developed from the discussion of this group, including the socio-economic, intellectual and technical background and recommendations for full project bid development to a UK funding agency. This report also provides a strategic overview of the background thinking behind the project, supported by relevant examples of projects from elsewhere which have been used to inform the discussions. The project aims and objectives are to create an innovative, multi-layered, digital landscape resource with multiple interpretative, academic and engagement outputs, which meets the interpretation, learning, engagement and research agendas of all partners. Project Activities are to further Archaeological and landscape research on the Battlefield landscape. Digital mapping of the Battlefield landscape allowing an interactive reconstruction of the 1485 landscape to better understand possible troop movements and view sheds. The creation of a Battle interactive set on the digital landscape allowing alternative scenarios to be played out on gallery. Importing of key non-battle-related landscape features and their stories into the digital landscape data set. Digital scanning of key objects from the battlefield area to enable CGI reconstruction to give improved interpretation on gallery. Experiment how the varied cutting edge digital technologies currently available for testing can be used together to carry stronger interpretation models. Interrogate local place names and family names to help tie in historical and modern communities, including local grave stone surveys with local history groups. Collating digital images and video clips of local people and places to capture their sense of place.
Open Access
Driving Engagement in Heritage Sites Using Personal Mobile Technology
(Archaeopress Publishing Ltd, 2016-03-25) Corah, Thom; Cawthorne, Douglas
In a recent UK Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) funded project researchers from De Montfort University, the University of Nottingham and the University of Durham have collaborated with two community heritage groups to produce two innovative new mobile apps. The project and the apps are intended to address particular issues surrounding the use of mobile digital technologies for co-production of community heritage interpretation in community archaeology and to examine how the explanatory and interrogatory potential of mobile device software can be used to build community led interpretive paradigms for post excavation analysis, presentation and education in community archaeology projects. The use of smartphone and tablet devices has been growing significantly over the past five years and is now becoming more common in heritage and museum settings. The aim is often to further develop public engagement with tangible and intangible cultural heritage, explain and explore existing information about artefacts, sites and cultures and present new information in engaging, accessible and meaningful ways to a range of audiences. Community archaeology groups are becoming alert to this trend and wish to engage with it too, particularly for 3D exploration of built archaeology and the artefacts associated with it. This poses a number of challenges to these aims that differ from those for artefacts and documents in museum settings alone. It also poses contextual challenges in relation to specific and highly engaged user groups like community archaeologists. This paper describes the completed apps which have been designed to address some of these unique challenges of interpreting and exploring 3D digitally reconstructed historic buildings on mobile platforms for community archaeology and heritage groups. Concepts underlying the design and implementation of the apps are addressed and examples of their use in two specific archaeological projects in England are described; a Roman bath house in Northumberland and an historic urban fabric in Southwell, Nottinghamshire. The paper focusses upon paradigms adopted for visualisation and exploration and also upon the web-based management methods.
Open Access
Exhibition Brochure: the Choragic Monument of Lysicrates - A 3D Printed Model
(The Author, 2010) Cawthorne, Douglas
In October 2010, the author’s 2 ft high, 3D printed model of the famous Greek, fourth century BC Choragic Monument of Lysicrates was selected for exhibition as one of the centerpieces of the Royal Scottish Academy’s Open Exhibition in Edinburgh. It was on display from 29th October – 16th December that year. The model is a digital reconstruction based upon a detailed survey of the monument carried out by the British architects James "Athenian" Stuart and Nicholas Revett in 1751, before considerable surface detail was lost from it. As a demonstration of how 3D digital technologies can assist in representing historic buildings like the Choragic Monument of Lysicrates as they were when complete and in promoting public understanding of the issues of conservation and heritage which surround them this particular model has had considerable impact, being viewed by over eight thousand five hundred visitors.
Open Access
Hidden but not lost; Exploring the Great Hall at Boughton House
(University of Siena, Department of History and Cultural Heritage, 2016-03-26) Gration, Jonathan Roy; Cawthorne, Douglas
This is an abstract of a presentation delivered at CAA2015 in Siena which describes preliminary doctoral research on the creation of high resolution, textured digital reconstructions and novel visualisations of several historical phases of the Great Hall of Boughton House in England. Boughton House (1538-1910) is a sprawling country house built around 7 courtyards with twelve entrances, 52 chimney stacks and 365 windows. Its nickname “The English Versailles” is understandable. The focus of this paper is the Great Hall, which has been the central space of the house since its first establishment as a manor house on this site. The most eye catching element of the Great Hall is undoubtedly the wonderfully painted ceiling by Louis Chéron of 1705 depicting the Apotheosis of Hercules. The wainscoting panels appear to be of the same date, but are in fact additions of a restoration campaign in 1911. The panelling replaced a series of Corinthian pilasters of the same period as the painting by Chéron. The painted barrel vaulted ceiling however hides an earlier phase of this space, the Tudor Great Hall. The Tudor ceiling with its carved wind braces and quatrefoil patterns is still in a remarkable state of preservation although hidden behind its painted plaster successor. An original doorway dating to this period has also remained in situ. In addition there exist detailed inventories of furnishings many of which can be traced and there is also a valuable art collection which adorned the space and is still retained by the family. Using these sources and a conservation level examination of the extant fabric including laser scanning, photogrammetry and HDR texture capturing it is possible to reconstruct the earlier phases of the architectural features of the Great Hall, its contents and furnishings. The paper examines the challenges of doing so, the creation of digital reconstructions of the phases in the history of the Great Hall and issues of diminishing levels of certainty achievable the further back in time one goes. It also examines comparisons of various forms of evidence that inform and influence the end result. The need to exercise balanced evaluation is examined when combining physical evidence and remains, such as tangible objects and textures that are preserved in situ and elements of which only intangible archival evidence remains. In order to create authenticated and trusted 3D digital reconstructions, particular research methodologies from the digital humanities have been combined with the practice based methodology of heritage conservation and restoration. Applying the rigorous standards of physical conservation and restoration to digital reconstructions is presented as a quality control measure that ensures all elements of the reconstructed 3D models can be authenticated, avoiding the temptation of modelling for effect instead of fact. This ongoing project is presented as a specific example of the work that the Digital Building Heritage Group at De Montfort University undertakes, making the past of architectural heritage accessible through the creation of engaging digital reconstructions based on thorough academic research.
Open Access
The Leicester Arch and the Temple of Janus
(Leicester Mercury Media Group Ltd, 2007-12) Cawthorne, Douglas
Sir Edwin Lutyens was one of the foremost English architects of his day and was invited in 1919 to design a war memorial for the city of Leicester. For Lutyens the architectural challenge was to express in stone the profound sense of loss the nation and the city felt, in a poetic architectural expression of the fundamental truths of life and death while at the same time remaining fundamentally pantheist. To this end he turned to antiquity and a little known Roman temple, the temple of Janus in Rome, which had embodied in its design very particular solar alignments related to the summer solstices. Just as the priests of Janus built solar alignments into their temple so Lutyens gave a secret solar alignment to his war memorial. This article describes the background to the temple of Janus and how it influenced Lutyens’s design for the Leicester Arch of Remembrance.
Metadata only
McGruer - Why Art Matters in Yacht Design
(Gordon Drysdale, 2013-06-22) Cawthorne, Douglas
This 3000 word symposium paper was presented at the first ever classic yacht design symposium to be held in the UK, "Clyde Classic", at the Royal Northern and Clyde Yacht Club in June 2013. The paper deals with issues of aesthetics in classic yacht design, particularly in the current revival of interest in classic yachts world-wide and rehearses a number of issues that bear upon the appreciation of the visual and perfomative characteristics of sailing yachts. In approaching the application of aesthetics to yacht design the paper presents three points originally put forward in the 1950’s firstly that a reasonable length of overhang and a concave sheerline are innately graceful; secondly that ideas of beauty in classic yacht design at that time had become “accepted” by “the main body of yachting opinion; and thirdly that ideas of beauty in yacht design have absolute aesthetic values. The paper goes on to note that in contrast today there is a need for a broader education of the yachting public by exemplars, good practice and equally importantly in written texts in the connoisseurship of the art in yacht design generally.
Open Access
The McGruer Lorne Class Yachts - Their History and Architecture
(Carnegie Publishing Ltd., 2013-06-22) Cawthorne, Douglas
Established in 1911 on the river Clyde, the family-run firm of McGruer & Company Ltd created some of the finest sailing yachts ever built in Scotland. The smallest of these were the Lorne Class, designed in the 1960's by the legendary James McGruer as "affordable" family sail cruisers. At 28 ft. LOA not only did they have the thoroughbred lines and renowned sea-keeping qualities of their larger cousins but they were one of the last and best examples in small cruising yacht design of the centuries old woodworking skills and traditional plank on frame construction which had made McGruer & Company Ltd famous. Using original documents from the McGruer archive and first-hand accounts from builders and owners this meticulously researched and extensively referenced scholarly work tells the story of how and why the Lorne Class yachts were conceived and constructed, the men and women who sailed them, the often incredible voyages that these plucky little yachts undertook as far as the Pacific and the Sub-Arctic and their continuing importance within the world-wide revival of classic yachting and classic yacht architecture.
Embargo
Proportional Systems in the Design of the Cathedral of St. George of the Greeks, Cyprus
(Springer International Publishing AG, 2016-11) Cawthorne, Douglas; Irodotou, Romylos
The cathedral of St. George of the Greeks was built in the 14th – 15th c. in Famagusta, Cyprus to accommodate the religious needs of the Greek orthodox community living under a Frankish aristocracy. Its design is a hybrid of western European and Greek orthodox architectural traditions which reflect the political and social circumstances of its creation. This paper examines the degree to which the underlying design methods employed can be extrapolat-ed from the physical remains of the building, the historical sources bearing upon its interpretation and comparisons with related structures. Results are presented of a recent (2016) photogrammetric survey of the building and a new digital reconstruction of the church derived from it. These are used to quantify, assess and illustrate a three dimensional armature of regulatory proportions which it is proposed for reasons of ecclesiastical philosophy and practical execution, were employed to shape the building’s physical form.
Metadata only
A Prototype Audio-Tactile Map System with an Advanced Auditory Display
(IGI Global, 2015-07-01) O'Sullivan, Liam; Picinali, Lorenzo; Gerino, Andrea; Cawthorne, Douglas
Tactile surfaces can display information in a variety of applications for all users, but can be of particular benefit to blind and visually impaired individuals. One example is the use of paper-based tactile maps as navigational aids for interior and exterior spaces; visually impaired individuals may use these to practice and learn a route prior to journeying. The addition of an interactive auditory display can enhance such interfaces by providing additional information. This article presents a prototype system which tracks the actions of a user's hands over a tactile surface and responds with sonic feedback. The initial application is an Audio-Tactile Map (ATM); the auditory display provides verbalised information as well as environmental sounds useful for navigation. Two versions of the interface are presented; a desktop version intended as a large-format information point and a mobile version which uses a tablet computer overlain with tactile paper. Details of these implementations are provided, including observations drawn from the participation of a partially-sighted individual in the design process. A usability test with five visually impaired subjects also gives a favourable assessment of the mobile version.
Embargo
A Prototype Interactive Tactile Display with Auditory Feedback
(Dublin City University, 2014-09-01) O'Sullivan, Liam; Picinali, Lorenzo; Cawthorne, Douglas
Tactile surfaces can display useful information in a variety of applications for blind, visually-impaired and even sighted users. One example is the use of paper-based tactile maps as navigational aids for interior and exterior spaces; visually- impaired individuals may use these to practice and learn a route prior to journeying. The addition of an interactive auditory display could enhance such tactile interfaces by providing additional information. This paper presents pre- liminary work on a prototype multi-modal interface which tracks the actions of a user’s hands over a tactile surface and responds with sonic feedback. The initial application being considered is an Auditory Tactile Map (ATM); the auditory display provides verbalised information as well as environmental sounds useful for navigation. Another pro- posed implementation adds interactivity to reproductions of museum exhibits, making these more accessible to the visually-impaired and allowing exploration of their tactile affordances while preserving the original works.
Open Access
Unlocking Lutyens: A Gateway to the Hidden Legacy of John Pell and Sir Christopher Wren
(Cambridge University Press, 2008) Radford, Dennis; Cawthorne, Douglas
The design of the ‘Arch of Remembrance’ in Leicester by Sir Edwin Lutyens, offers the opportunity of a unique insight into the design methods of the architect in the latter half of his career. These were characterised by a highly developed use of proportion in what has been described as his ‘elemental mode’ and the use of a particular number sequence to grow the design towards closed dimensional goals. This paper examines the sources of and motives for this design method and the details of its application.
Open Access
Virtual Roman Leicester (VRL): An interactive Computer Model of a Romano-British City
(Computer Applications in Archaeology, 2010 - Fusion of Cultures, 2010) Cawthorne, Douglas; Watson, G.; Hugill, Andrew
This paper describes the background, development and use of a new Virtual Reality (VR) model of the built fabric of Roman Leicester (Ratae Corieltauvo-rum) which has been based upon direct archaeologi-cal evidence, literary evidence and comparisons with the remains of similar Romano-British cities. It forms the conclusion of the first stage of a larger ongoing collaborative research project to create an inhabited virtual Romano-British world populated by interact-ing avatars programmed using a novel form of artifi-cial intelligence (AI) to have a range of Romano-British morals and values for the purposes of examin-ing resultant emergent behaviors and societal devel-opment. Virtual Roman Leicester (VRL) has been created in a popular games engine to allow real-time exploration by real world users and has a multiplat-form capability to also examine issues surrounding the use of Virtual Reality for public outreach and the wider understanding of cultural heritage. Here we focus firstly upon issues surrounding the interpreta-tion of the archaeological evidence and its extrapola-tion into full buildings (using a technique we call architectural forensics), secondly upon technical is-sues concerning importation of ancient land surface terrain and thirdly upon aspects of initial user expe-rience following an extensive public exhibition of the model.
Metadata only
‘White Model: Choragic Monument of Lysicrates’
(2010) Cawthorne, Douglas

Browsing by Author "Cawthorne, Douglas"

Results Per Page

Sort Options