Bosworth Battlefield Digital Landscape Project – An Interactive Wide Area Digital Model and Digital Heritage Framework
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Abstract
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.