Heritage Artefacts Research Articles

An Abstraction Theory in Marketing: Examining the Relationship between the Effectiveness of Art and Heritage Marketing Dimensions and Customer Value

This research is attempting to find a new realm contributing to the current marketing practices through proposing a new method of marketing of art and heritage artefacts. This research tries to find a hint of a new angle through marketing practices on the relationship among abstraction, art and heritage marketing and customer value in art museums, galleries and exhibitions in Egypt.
 
 This research aims at gaining insight into the abstract marketing themes for a better use of the best marketing practices at museums, illuminating the way for other researchers to establish additional studies that look deeply into the relationships among abstraction theory, art & heritage dimensions and customer value.
 
 This research uses a quantitative research design beside a qualitative exploratory study for a clearer overview of the way art museums; galleries and exhibitions customers in Egypt view the provided service, through the use of an in-depth interview. The research develops and tests a conceptual model through quantitative analysis, using a self-administrated questionnaire of eight hundred copies distributed to art and heritage customers at some different art museums; galleries and exhibitions in greater Cairo and Alexandria. 320 questionnaire copies have been collected through a non-probability snowball sampling and convenience sample technique. The statistical analysis for the data, using SPSS and Path Analysis through AMOS have proved that there are positive correlations among the study variables, proving that abstraction has a significant positive impact on art and heritage marketing dimensions and that art and heritage marketing dimensions have a significant positive impact on customer value.

Systematic integration of 2D and 3D sources for the virtual reconstruction of lost heritage artefacts: the equestrian monument of Francesco III d’Este (1774–1796, Modena, Italy)

The role of 3D virtual reconstruction of lost heritage artefacts is acquiring ever-greater importance, as a support for archaeological research and art history studies, as well as a vehicle for the cultural and evocative involvement of the end-user. The main risk of virtual reconstruction is the lack of a faithful restitution but, conversely, very often the artefact conservation state does not allow a complete 3D reconstruction. Therefore, 2D sources, both textual and iconographic, represent a precious integration and completion of the existing 3D sources. This paper proposes an operating systematic workflow to integrate retrieved 2D and 3D sources and assess their compatibility for the virtual reconstruction of lost heritage artefacts using and integrating 3D survey and digital modelling. As a case study, we virtually reconstructed the lost equestrian monument of Duke Francesco III d'Este, 7 m high, built in 1774 in Modena, Italy, by the sculptor Giovanni Antonio Cybei and completely destroyed a little over 20 years later during the revolutionary uprisings. Following the proposed workflow, we integrate data coming from: a still preserved preparatory stucco model, paintings and engravings showing the missing details of the 3D model, a series of urban views returning the proportion and positioning of the monument (statue, pedestal and base), a fragment of the right foot providing the statue size and the appearance of the original white Carrara marble. The final 3D digital model shows a faithful correspondence to the 2D sources and guarantees an effective user’s fruition thanks to dedicated virtual applications. Besides the scientific and cultural goal, we highlight the evocative role of this work, which has contributed to the restitution of a monument that is unknown to most citizens and visitors.

Extended Framework for Multispectral RTI

Reflectance transformation imaging (RTI) is a widespread technique for studying and documenting cultural heritage artifacts encompassing textural information. The principle is capturing an object from a static camera position by changing the direction of the incident light in each image. The coupling of this approach with multispectral imaging (Multispectral RTI) has shown promising results in the recent years. Considering this approach, we propose an expanded framework for the investigation and documentation of the visual appearance of surfaces, targeted to cultural heritage artifacts. In this work, we study the integrated representation of the angular and spectral components of reflectance, as well as the contributions of exploration by independent wavelengths

An Online Model Viewer for Cultural Heritage in Unity 3D

We present a prototype of a 3D model viewer for cultural heritage built in Unity 3D. The Unity engine allows for the use of custom shaders that can increase realism and provide a uniquely immersive experience with cultural heritage artifacts. Examples of custom shaders that this architecture supports include image-based specular reflections and polynomial texture mapping (PTM) for translucent materials. Furthermore, the software can be built and deployed as a stand-alone WebGL application viewable in the browser without relying on third-party content delivery services. The code for this project is open source and available on GitHub.

Defining the Sense of Place Components in the Food and Craft Market at the World Heritage Site

The research aimed to strengthen the future sense of place by focusing on the sense of place components, namely, physical, social, personal, and shared meaning aspects, as input to local stakeholders. The sense of place of Borobudur Temple stimulated visitors to attend the tourism area at the heritage site, whose potential could be strengthened by promoting the local creative economy and its identity. The research provided theoretical benefits as a basis for further research and practical benefits as input for stakeholders to strengthen the identity of heritage areas. The research was a solution to preserving the historical value of this region in both physical and social aspects in order to strengthen the place’s character as the stalwart of the Borobudur area as a world heritage artifact. The discoveries would clear up the area’s function as Borobudur’s shopping excursion area in a local identity context. Data were collected through structured observation, in-depth online interviews, photos, videos, literature studies, and a manual data analysis procedure. The results show that physical attributes, such as site, build form, and landmark, need improvements. Moreover, social interaction, pedestrian flows, product, personal and shared meanings, comprising history, narration, and event and promotion, should be improved. Further studies should focus on how to improve architecture, modern product variations, and local music. Furthermore, the sense of place will be increased by understanding the services cape of Borobudur Food and Craft Market.

The mysterious mould outbreak - A comprehensive fungal colonisation in a climate-controlled museum repository challenges the environmental guidelines for heritage collections

• The xerophilic Aspergillus halophilicus has colonised a museum repository. • It was climate-controlled; the growth was not detectable with traditional methods. • Fungal growth in museum collections threatens the preservation of cultural heritage. • The massive fungal infestation may cause occupational exposure. • Guidelines for heritage collections do not consider the risk of xerophilic fungi. Within the last decade, fungal colonisations have increased in Danish museum repositories. The growth is unexpected, as many Danish museums strive to comply with the environmental guidelines for heritage collections. When fungal growth develops in heritage collections, it threatens the heritage preservation and occupational health of museum staff. Therefore, it is crucial to prevent. This study characterised a fungal colonisation in a 1450m 2 museum repository, striving to meet the guidelines for heritage collections with relative humidity below 60%. After fungal discovery, the repository was examined twice by an environmental laboratory with morphological identification of fungi and quantification of fungal biomass based on fungal enzyme activity. However, the reports were not sufficient to qualify a recovery process. A research study with a broader approach was conducted to further elucidate the problem. The study included 1) building examination, 2) fungal surface sampling and morphological ID, 3) ID of fungal isolates with DNA sequencing, and 4) activated fungal air sampling and morphological ID. Although the relative humidity was measured to meet the guidelines for heritage collections with no evidence of moisture or microclimate, hyaline and white fungal colonies were distributed on heritage artefacts throughout the repository. There was no growth on interior and building structures. Cultivation of air samples on DG18-agar and V8®agar showed the presence of common indoor fungi, while artefact samples cultivated on the same media showed no growth. In contrast, cultivation of air samples and artefacts samples on the low water activity agar MY50G followed by DNA-sequencing showed high concentrations of the xerophilic fungi A. halophilicus, A. domesticus, A. magnivesiculatus and A. vitricola , belonging to Aspergillus section Restricti . These fungi are characterised by growing at low water activity corresponding to low relative humidity. The museum repository seemed to provide this environment with relative humidity below 60%. The study emphasised that examining the same fungi using different approaches may obtain very different results. Furthermore, the study questioned if the environmental guidelines for heritage collections adequately prevent the risk of xerophilic fungal growth. Xerophilic fungi are not adequately included in the risk assessment underlying the preventive conservation framework. Consequently, the risk is not included in the revised environmental guidelines accepting RH between 40-60% to support more sustainable heritage storage. It has not been studied if the revision would increase the risk of xerophilic fungal growth before it was accepted and implemented. This study indicates that it could be the case. Close collaboration between mycologists and museum professionals may develop more standardised and targeted detection and prevention practices for heritage repositories. The risks of xerophilic fungal growth should be included in the preventive conservation framework ensuring heritage preservation and occupational health of museum staff.

Multi-Scale Upsampling GAN Based Hole-Filling Framework for High-Quality 3D Cultural Heritage Artifacts

With the rapid development of 3D scanners, the cultural heritage artifacts can be stored as a point cloud and displayed through the Internet. However, due to natural and human factors, many cultural relics had some surface damage when excavated. As a result, the holes caused by these damages still exist in the generated point cloud model. This work proposes a multi-scale upsampling GAN (MU-GAN) based framework for completing these holes. Firstly, a 3D mesh model based on the original point cloud is reconstructed, and the method of detecting holes is presented. Secondly, the point cloud patch contains hole regions and is extracted from the point cloud. Then the patch is input into the MU-GAN to generate a high-quality dense point cloud. Finally, the empty areas on the original point cloud are filled with the generated dense point cloud patches. A series of real-world experiments are conducted on real scan data to demonstrate that the proposed framework can fill the holes of 3D heritage models with grained details. We hope that our work can provide a useful tool for cultural heritage protection.

Non-targeted screening of volatile organic compounds in a museum in China Using GC-Orbitrap mass spectrometry

Non-targeted analysis (NTA) was used in identifying volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in a museum in China with the gas chromatograph (GC)−Orbitrap−mass spectrometer (MS). Approximately 230 VOCs were detected, of which 117 were observed at 100% frequency across all sampling sites. Although some were common in indoor environments, most of the detected VOCs were rarely reported in previous studies on museum environments. Some of the detected VOCs were found to be associated with the materials used in furnishings and the chemicals applied in conservation treatment. Spearman's correlation analysis showed that several classes of VOCs were well correlated, suggesting their common sources. Compared with compounds in outdoor air, indoor VOCs had a lower level of unsaturation and more portions of chemically reduced compounds. Hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) were performed. The results suggested that the sampling adsorbents chosen may have a large impact and that a single type of adsorbent may not be sufficient to cover a wide range of compounds in NTA studies. The MonoTrap adsorbent containing octadecylsilane (ODS) and activated carbon (AC) is suitable for aliphatic polar compounds that contain low levels of oxygen, whereas the MonoTrap ODS and silica gel are good at sampling aliphatic and aromatic hydrocarbons with limited polarity. Principle component analysis (PCA) showed that the indoor VOCs changed significantly at different times in the museum; this may have been caused by the removal of artifacts and refurbishment of the gallery between sampling events. A comparison with compounds identified by chamber emission tests showed that decorative materials may have been one of the main sources of indoor VOCs in the museum. The VOCs identified in the present study are likely to be present in other similar museums; therefore, further examination may be warranted of their potential impacts on cultural heritage artifacts, museum personnel, and visitors.

A novel compression framework of the dense point-cloud model for cultural heritage artifacts

A novel compression framework of the dense point-cloud model for cultural heritage artifacts

Black Fungi on Stone-Built Heritage: Current Knowledge and Future Outlook

Black fungi are considered as one of the main group of microorganisms responsible for the biodeterioration of stone cultural heritage artifacts. In this paper, we provide a critical analysis and review of more than 30 years of studies on black fungi isolated from stone-built heritage from 1990 to date. More than 109 papers concerning the fungal biodeterioration activity of stone were analysed. The main findings were a check list of the black fungal taxa involved in the biodeterioration of stone-built heritage, with a particular reference to meristematic black fungi, the main biodeterioration pattern attributed to them, and the methods of study including the new molecular advances. A particular focus was to discuss the current approaches to control black fungi from stone-built heritage and future perspectives. Black fungi are notoriously hard to remove or mitigate, so new methods of study and of control are needed, but it is also important to combine classical methods with new approaches to improve current knowledge to implement future conservation strategies.

Raman spectroscopic characterization of corrosion products of archaeological iron

Abstract Raman spectroscopy is a versatile analytical technique which allows the detection of different molecules analysing the vibrational modes. As a matter of facts, the vibrational frequencies are typical of a specific chemical bond or of a structural symmetry. In this study, the Raman technique is used for the determination of iron corrosion products, mainly oxides and hydroxides. Metallic artefacts buried in soil are affected, in dependence of their electrochemical nobility, by corrosion phenomena of various entities, which partially modify their chemical composition and their structure. The process may occur both during burial time and after the extraction from the archaeological site, implying the potential loss of information about the metallurgical technology and structure of the object. The study of the corrosion phenomena allows to propose tailored strategies for the restoration and conservation of the artefacts, especially in view of the storage of the artefacts in a museum. This study validates the use of the Raman technique for this purpose, showing its efficiency in the identification of the iron corrosion products in favourable conditions for the analysis of Cultural Heritage artefacts, as the possibility of performing in situ analysis without the need of a previous sample preparation.

A Proposed Framework For Affordable CAM Replication In Cultural Heritage

Abstract The digital recording of cultural heritage artifacts and their replication with Computer-Aided Manufacturing (CAM) techniques has found many applications in the cultural heritage (CH) domain, and it is considered paramount. Although subtractive manufacturing comes with a tremendous financial cost since most of the hardware and the software used in the fabrication process are expensive and mainly proprietary. Consequently, many scholars benefit only from the cost-effective, easy-to-use, and prevalent additive manufacturing processes which can serve within certain limitations. In this work, we propose a framework to democratize the subtractive manufacturing processes required to replicate digitally recorded cultural heritage artifacts using open-source/license-free software and hardware tools. We further present an application of the framework by simulating the fabrication process of a laser-scanned bass relief using open-source and license-free CAM software as described in the proposed framework.

Artifacsimile –3D printed preservation at Monticello

Monticello, Thomas Jefferson’s plantation in Virginia, experimented with displaying archaeological artifacts in a permanent outdoor exhibition on enslaved men, women, and children. Unfortunately, the artifacts began to deteriorate from exposure to environmental changes. How could cultural heritage artifacts be preserved, while still contributing to the exhibition? Curators and archaeologists collaborated with the University of Virginia Library to collect 3D data and produce facsimiles for display in outdoor exhibitions. By producing a printed object based on precision 3D data, an “artifacsimile” becomes a physical representation of the original with the resulting 3D data processed, archived, and accessible to scholars and educators. Artifacsimiles at Monticello are a case study for the benefits and efficacy of 3D technologies for preservation and exhibit, in support of the University of Virginia’s efforts to collect, process, archive and disseminate 3D data using methods of 3D Cultural Heritage Informatics.

Recent Developments in the Application of Inorganic Nanomaterials and Nanosystems for the Protection of Cultural Heritage Organic Artifacts.

Cultural heritage (CH) represents human identity and evidence of the existence and activities that people have left over time. In response to the action of aggressive degrading factors, different materials have been developed and used to protect cultural heritage artifacts. The discovery of optimal materials for this purpose also raises several problems, mainly related to their compatibility with the support material, the most important aspect being that they must preserve their aesthetic characteristics. In this context, the present review paper aims to provide a critical discussion about the possibilities of using different inorganic nanomaterials and recipes for the conservation of cultural heritage objects of organic nature (such as paper, wood, and other support materials). In addition, also are covered different aspect concerning protection mechanisms and application methods as well as future perspectives in this area.

Historic Climate in Heritage Building and Standard 15757: Proposal for a Common Nomenclature

Research on the relationship between microclimate and heritage buildings or historic buildings has increased dramatically in the last few decades. Research has focused on indoor climate or indoor microclimate or the environment or micro-environment, and the field of these studies regards several variables, physical—air temperature, air speed, relative humidity—or chemical, dust, CO2, pollution, etc., all of which can have an effect or damage buildings or artifacts inside buildings. Moreover, all these variables should be monitored in a monitoring campaign following the standard EN 15757; in spite of this, scientific literature contains mistakes with regard to the words and objects of study. In this short contribution, the author proposes a common nomenclature in the research field of climate and microclimate in heritage buildings and heritage artifacts. A new nomenclature should be useful for the community of heritage scientists working on preventive measures to distinguish between climate and environment, or the object of study, e.g., the room (wall, wood structure, fresco, etc.) where the artifacts are or the air around them (painting, canvas, statue, piece of furniture, documents, books, etc.).

Gamma and Electron Beam Irradiation Use in the Control of a Radiation-Resistant Fungus (Epicoccum Nigrum) for Preservation of Contaminated Organic Artefacts of Traditional Heritage

Gamma and Electron Beam Irradiation Use in the Control of a Radiation-Resistant Fungus (Epicoccum Nigrum) for Preservation of Contaminated Organic Artefacts of Traditional Heritage

INTEGRATION OF CULTURAL HERITAGE AND MODERN ART EDUCATION

This article examines current issues in arts education regarding its role in the preservation and promotion of cultural heritage. From there, the article looks at ways of integrating them, which can ultimately be realized through the active work of cultural institutions and the education system. The education of cultural literacy, in the context of the study of global and national cultural historical values, creates the prerequisites for further positioning oneself as an educated fully developed person. In modern conditions of the revival of many aspects of national culture, new opportunities for the revision of views on the history of culture of the people, which contribute to the moral and patriotic education of today's youth. In this process, a special place should be given to museums, which are the centre of material and spiritual heritage artefacts. Due to their uniqueness, museums are like accumulators of all national cultural treasures. Therefore, this article examines the integrated opportunities for in-depth study of national heritage and cultural specificities within the framework of museum pedagogy as an important part of art education.

ЖОҒАРЫ ОҚУ ОРЫНДАРЫНДА БІЛІМ АЛУШЫЛАРҒА ИННОВАЦИЯЛЫҚ ТЕХНОЛОГИЯЛАРДЫ СЕМИНАР САБАҚТАРЫНДА ПАЙДАЛАНУДЫҢ АРТЫҚШЫЛЫҚТАРЫ

This article examines current issues in arts education regarding its role in the preservation and promotion of cultural heritage. From there, the article looks at ways of integrating them, which can ultimately be realized through the active work of cultural institutions and the education system. The education of cultural literacy, in the context of the study of global and national cultural historical values, creates the prerequisites for further positioning oneself as an educated fully developed person. In modern conditions of the revival of many aspects of national culture, new opportunities for the revision of views on the history of culture of the people, which contribute to the moral and patriotic education of today's youth. In this process, a special place should be given to museums, which are the centre of material and spiritual heritage artefacts. Due to their uniqueness, museums are like accumulators of all national cultural treasures. Therefore, this article examines the integrated opportunities for in-depth study of national heritage and cultural specificities within the framework of museum pedagogy as an important part of art education.

Towards Tangible Cultural Heritage Experiences—Enriching VR-based Object Inspection with Haptic Feedback

VR/AR technology is a key enabler for new ways of immersively experiencing cultural heritage artifacts based on their virtual counterparts obtained from a digitization process. In this article, we focus on enriching VR-based object inspection by additional haptic feedback, thereby creating tangible cultural heritage experiences. For this purpose, we present an approach for interactive and collaborative VR-based object inspection and annotation. Our system supports high-quality 3D models with accurate reflectance characteristics while additionally providing haptic feedback regarding shape features of the object based on a 3D printed replica. The digital object model in terms of a printable representation of the geometry as well as reflectance characteristics are stored in a compact and streamable representation on a central server, which streams the data to remotely connected users/clients. The latter can jointly perform an interactive inspection of the object in VR with additional haptic feedback through the 3D printed replica. Evaluations regarding system performance, visual quality of the considered models, as well as insights from a user study indicate an improved interaction, assessment, and experience of the considered objects.

Hole-filling framework by combining structural and textural information for the 3D Terracotta Warriors

As one of the eight wonders in the world, the virtual restoration of Terracotta Warriors is of great significance to archaeology. However, some parts of fragments were corroded for thousands of years, resulting in the existence of several holes in most of the restored cultural heritage artifacts. Based on the structural and textural information, we present a framework for filling the hole. First, a method based on the Poisson equation was employed to fill the hole on the triangular mesh model. Then, to complete the surface color and texture information of the three-dimension (3D) model, make the hole patch, and the original model surface texture natural transition, the 3D problem is converted into two-dimension (2D) image inpaint problem, and a refined network is added into EdgeConnect to generate a higher resolution result. A set of experiments is performed to evaluate the performance of our proposed framework. We hope the proposed framework can provide a useful tool to guide the virtual restoration of other cultural heritage artifacts.