Virtual heritage: technology in the service of culture

• Authors: Alonzo C. Addison
• Venue: Proceedings of the 2001 conference on Virtual reality, archeology, and cultural heritage
• Year: 2001

From the Coliseum in Rome to the verdant landscape of the Loire Valley, the world's cultural heritage has withstood the text of time. Today though, the pace of progress --- from urban sprawl to pollution, neglect, conflict, and even tourism --- threatens these landmarks of our past at an ever-increasing pace. In recent years, rapid advances in digital technologies, from 3D graphics, to multimedia, and virtual reality, have given heritage new hope: from archaeology to architecture, emerging digital tools offer promise in documenting, analyzing, and disseminating culture. Using examples from a decade of research at the University of California at Berkeley, and highlights from the 7th Int'l Conference on Virtual Systems and Multimedia (VSMM), we will explore the problems and potential of emerging documentation tools, representation and modeling aids, and presentation technologies.Despite the promise, more often than not, those responsible for recording, preserving, and teaching about culture have not been part of this digital revolution. Coupled with this, early 'digital heritage' failed to live up to expectations, whether due to limited tools, questionable research, or lack of visual realism. VAST and other gatherings are beginning to bridge researchers and practitioners, from government to academia, and archaeology to computer science. Using the Virtual Heritage Network and recent international media workshops with UNESCO as examples, we will explore the need for, and potential of, global cross-disciplinary collaboration. From the now obliterated Buddhist statues at Bamiyan, Afghanistan, to Minoru Yamasaki's Twin Towers in New York, we owe it to future generations to harness our digital tools to preserve and protect the world's cultural legacy.