NEWS RELEASE: The GSA’s Digital Design Studio to be part of major international project to revolutionise the visitor experience at the Antonine Wall

July 18, 2016


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A virtual reconstruction of Barhill Roman Fort on the Antonine Wall, created from accurate terrestrial and aerial laser scan data with expert archaeological advice for the Scottish Ten Project and for the new Antonine Wall app © Centre for Digital Documentation and Visualisation LLP
£150k of funding from Creative Europe has been awarded to a multi-national project to to develop a 3D App of the Antonine Wall World Heritage Site it was announced today, 18 July 2016. The Glasgow School of Art will be part of this exciting project through the CDDV – a collaboration between heritage specialists at Historic Environment Scotland and world leaders in 3D visualisation at the GSA’s Digital Design Studio – along with the Bavarian State Department for Monument Protection, and Austrian firm Edufilm und medien GmbH, who specialise in the production of heritage based digital applications. 

The project builds on previous work of the CDDV to document digitally the line of the Antonine Wall as part of the Scottish Ten project. 

“We are delighted to have the opportunity, thanks to Creative Europe’s generous funding, to further develop and disseminate the 3D data we captured as part of the Scottish Ten project,”  says Dr Lyn Wilson, Digital Documentation Manager at CDDV. “The app will offer a substantial opportunity to share widely our high quality 3D models and accurate virtual reconstructions of both archaeological sites and artefacts from the Antonine Wall in a state-of-the-art way. We look forward to working in partnership with colleagues across Europe on this”.

Full text of the project news release below.

Ends

For further information on the DDS contact:
Lesley Booth
07799414474
press@gsa.ac.uk
@GSofAMedia


NEWS RELEASE


£150k
funding announced to develop cutting-edge technology for the Antonine Wall
3D app
to be developed for Roman World Heritage Site


A new project has been granted £150K
of funding from Creative Europe to develop cutting-edge technology which will
revolutionise the visitor experience at the Antonine Wall, in Central
Scotland. The Wall is part of the Europe wide ‘Frontiers of the Roman Empire
World Heritage Site’ and the project will see Scottish, German and Austrian
partners working together to create a mobile app platform and exciting new
visitor content.  

The new technology promises to
make the visitor experience more interactive through the use of augmented
reality and 3D virtual reconstructions, whilst improving understanding and
access both for users on-site but also for those who may want to visit
‘virtually’ from elsewhere. 

A key aim of the project is to
engage with key audiences and carry out user testing, potentially with schools
and community groups, in Scotland and Germany. Engagement with local authority
partners across Central Scotland will also explore how best to use the app to
support the tourism offering at individual properties along the length of the
Antonine Wall.
New technologies for presentation
and engagement will be explored during the project, with the hosting of
conferences in Scotland and Germany providing an opportunity for the exchange
of information and best practice across the sector, both in Europe and
worldwide. 

The final products will also
be made available, free of charge, to other countries along the line of the
Frontiers of the Roman Empire World Heritage Site, such as the Netherlands,
Slovakia, and Hungary, to enable them to create their own bespoke versions.
The three year Advanced Limes Applications project (ALApp) is a
partnership between Historic Environment Scotland, The Glasgow-based Centre for
Digital Documentation and Visualisation (CDDV) – a collaboration
between heritage specialists at Historic Environment Scotland and world leaders
in 3D visualisation at The Glasgow School of Art’s Digital Design Studio –  the Bavarian State Department for Monument
Protection, and Austrian firm Edufilm und medien GmbH, who specialise in
the production of heritage based digital applications. 

The project builds on previous work of the CDDV to digitally document the
line of the Antonine Wall as part of the Scottish Ten project. The
project will significantly enhance a basic version of the app platform
which was developed by the Bavarian State Department for Monument Protection
(with financial support from the Bavarian Savings Bank Foundation).

Patricia Weeks, Antonine Wall
World Heritage Site Co-ordinator for Historic Environment Scotland, said: “over
the last twelve months we have made great strides in digitally interpreting the
Antonine Wall. Thanks to this significant commitment from Creative Europe, as
well as Historic Environment Scotland’s own substantial investment, we are now able
to build on that work and expand our use of innovative technologies to engage the
widest audience possible. The project is a great model of international
partnership working and ultimately we will share the technology with other
countries free of charge, which should benefit the entire sector.”  

Dr Lyn Wilson, Digital
Documentation Manager at CDDV said:  “We
are delighted to have the opportunity, thanks to Creative Europe’s generous
funding, to further develop and disseminate the 3D data we captured as part of
the Scottish Ten project. The app will offer a substantial opportunity to share
widely our high quality 3D models and accurate virtual reconstructions of both
archaeological sites and artefacts from the Antonine Wall in a state-of-the-art
way. We look forward to working in partnership with colleagues across Europe on
this”.

Christof Fluegel, Bavarian Office
of Monument Protection/Museums department said: “ALApp offers the huge
opportunity to enhance visitor experience along the transnational serial World
Heritage Site “Frontiers of the Roman Empire”. We are glad that we can combine
our experience in the field of Roman Apps on the Limes in Germany with a truly European
approach to bring archaeology to life, together with our Austrian and Scottish
partners and are looking forward to this exciting collaboration.”

Erik Dobat, of Edufilm
und medien GmbH said: “We are very happy to participate in this granted
European project which is helping to present common European history to a large
audience, making archaeology more widely available and easy to understand. We
have extensive experience in developing cutting-edge technology in this area,
which we will use to present the Antonine Wall and the Roman Frontiers in an
innovative way, using multimedia and 3D to facilitate a better understanding of
these monuments. We look forward to working with an international team, sharing
ideas and expertise.”

Further
information about the project will be made available at the project’s official
website:
www.alapp.eu
Ends                                                                                                      18 JULY 2016                     
Notes for editors:
The Antonine Wall became a UNESCO
World Heritage Site in 2008 as part of the Frontiers of the Roman Empire World
Heritage Site which also includes Hadrian’s Wall and the German Limes.

The Wall was the most northerly frontier of
the Roman Empire nearly 2,000 years ago. It ran for about 40 Roman miles (60km)
from modern Bo’ness on the Firth of Forth to Old Kilpatrick on the River Clyde.
At the time it was built, the wall was the most complex frontier ever
constructed by the Roman army.
Other countries who may join the Frontiers
of the Roman Empire World Heritage Site from across Europe include: the
Netherlands, Austria, Serbia, Croatia, Hungary, Slovakia, Bulgaria and Romania
The Scottish Ten is an ambitious
project using cutting edge technologies to create ten exceptionally accurate 3D
digital models of Scotland’s UNESCO World Heritage Sites and international
heritage sites in order to better conserve, manage, understand and virtually access
them. The Antonine Wall joins Mount Rushmore (USA), Rani ki Vav (India), Sydney
Opera House (Australia), Eastern Qing Tombs (China) and Meiji Industrial
Heritage (Japan) in the Scottish Ten. The project is now focusing on
dissemination of data through the use of innovative technologies. For more
information, visit
www.scottishten.org and
@ScottishTen on Twitter.
The Bavarian Savings Bank
Foundation (Bayerische Sparkassenstiftung) helped to fund the original
development of the app platform with the Bavarian State Conservation Office
(Bayerisches Landesamt fur Denkmalplfege) who developed the content for the
German App
The ALApp project secured funding
under the ‘Creative Europe Culture Cooperation Projects 2016’ funding stream.
Project Partners:  
·    Historic Environment Scotland (formerly Historic Scotland and the
Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland) is a
non-departmental public body.
·     The CDDV is a collaboration between
heritage specialists at Historic Environment Scotland and experts in 3D
visualisation at The Glasgow
School of Art’s Digital Design Studio
. CDDV has recently completed
the first phase of the Scottish Ten project, digitally documenting Scottish
World Heritage Sites and five internationally important heritage sites.
·    The Bavarian State Conservation
Office
(
Bayerisches Landesamt für Denkmalpflege) is the central specialist body for
monument protection and conservation in the Free State of Bavaria. It
participates in the project through its Bavarian Museum Service (
Landesstelle
für die nichtstaatlichen Museen in Bayern
), which supports non-state museums and coordinates the
authorities managing Bavaria’s FREWHS. The state department and museum service
are both based in Munich.
·    Edufilm
und medien GmbH
, based
in
Bad Bleiberg-Kreuth in Austria, is a firm specialising in the production of digital
applications in a heritage context.
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