Documentation for Conservation and Development: New Heritage Strategies for the Future
Note: DEADLINE for submission of Abstracts is 31 January 2006
The theme of the 11th International Seminar of Forum UNESCO – University and Heritage is both ambitious and crucial to the future of heritage conservation as well as to the development of communities, cities and civil society at large.
Currently, documentation is approached in a very linear fashion and in most situations uses only traditional methods of recording; deals solely with traditional heritage themes such as architecture and; is devoid of any human element. In challenging the way we think about documentation, ways may be established of using it to benefit development and sustainability, a priority of the World Heritage Convention. By exploring this field, new technologies may be found that help record complex concepts such as Intangible Heritage, and this in turn may be able to safeguard against the loss of identity communities, cities and civil society.
The purpose of this Seminar therefore is two-fold. Primarily, it aims to look at new and innovative ways of using documentation not only as a tool for conservation but also as a way to help and encourage development. Secondly, it wishes to explore new ways in which the process of documentation is carried out such as using new technologies that will allow different themes to be recorded (e.g. 3D virtual reality, image-based modelling, 3D scanning and data capture, remote sensing and satellite imaging, etc., data management and modelling, networked cultural databases, image-based rendering, large scale terrain modelling, geo-temporal 3D databases, 3D GIS for cultural and natural sites, object and image restoration and modelling, search engines, etc., and the latest in presentation and dissemination, virtual and immersive reality for museums, kiosks and sites; projection technologies; multimedia delivery and exemplary web, DVD and other media presentations; etc).