London Charter Research Articles

Standards for science communication in extended and virtual reality: a model for XR/VR based on London Charter and Seville Principles

Videos featuring research results, laboratory tutorials, and online webinars are fundamental tools for disseminating science and boosting scientific impact. However, extended reality (XR) video technologies, which include virtual reality (VR), represent new challenges for scientists and science communicators. XR and VR can enhance, bend, or distort the reality surrounding scientific facts. The London Charter and Seville Principles are standards for computer-based visualization and reconstruction in a virtual reproduction of heritage sites and research in domains such as archaeology. Here, we develop a similar set of standards for the representation of scientific results in XR and VR and clarify the use of implicit XR and VR elements such as storytelling, setting, agency, interactivity, and other factors. Finally, the authors propose a framework XR/VR Model of Science Representation and Communication, derived from the context and other frameworks for representing information in virtual environments.

METHODOLOGY AND MEANING OF THE 3D MODELLING OF THE LOST BAALSHAMIN TEMPLE IN PALMYRA

Abstract. The Baalshamin temple in Palmyra was completely destroyed by ISIL in 2015. To address this issue, the “Collart-Palmyre Project” at the University of Lausanne (UNIL) digitally published the scientific archive of Paul Collart who was in charge of the excavation of the temple in the 1950’. Since 2017, the Project makes the archives accessible on an online open access database (tiresias.unil.ch). A 3D reconstruction of the temple has been realized by the UNIL team in collaboration with ICONEM. The 3D models (including handily drawn elements) are now being integrated onto a PoTree platform ( https://github.com/potree/potree) that allows archival items to be geolocated, associating them with the architectural or archaeological objects they document.The challenge here was to access metadata on the 3D model and to ease access to the archives through online tools.We also published a diachronic 3D model showing the different periods of occupation of the site (from the second century BC to the ninth century AD). Partnership with NGO’s also permit the presentation of 3D models to displaced Syrian refugees in the Spirit of the Faro Convention. Last but not least, the Project follows the guidelines of the London Charter and the Sevilla principles for Virtual Archaeology and questions the broader facets of neo-colonialist, economic and nationalist agendas that emerges from the 'migration of digital heritage' as assets to be exploited. This project wants to explore how these digital assets provide a scaffold for the memories of migrants.

Insights on the Film Tourism and Archéocinema for the Promotion of Heritage Tourism: A Critical Review

The link between Cultural Heritage (CH), media, and film tourism has gained increasing attention in the literature over the last two decades. The 21st-century film tourism industry edutainment must reflect the experiences of 21st-century digital/virtual requirements. Film tourism is often considered a potential marketing channel for World Heritage Sites (WHS) and CH tourism. Limited research addresses how heritage film tourism providers employ and deal with the film industry and Archéocinema media for marketing communication. This paper attempts to discuss the relationship between the capability of heritage film tourism as a promotional tool combined with Archéocinema in constructing the optimistic destination image of heritage tourism and experience as it flows in both physical places and virtual environments. It argues that both environments, as dynamic and generate meanings, merge, and embody subjectivity and objectivity now in one process. This process suggests building a critical, informative, and promotional purpose by engaging in storyline and storytelling, learning about what and how film tourism and Archéocinema can offer and representing it in a modern key within and beyond the physical dimensions of place in an ethical and transparent approach according to the London Charter and the Seville Principles.

Illuminating Transparency in Digital Historical Visualizations: Notre-Dame of Paris, St Stephen’s of Westminster, and Visualizing Venice

Illuminating Transparency in Digital Historical Visualizations: Notre-Dame of Paris, St Stephen’s of Westminster, and Visualizing Venice

Epistemic Communities of Exile Lawyers at the UNWCC

Abstract During the 1940s in London, exiled lawyers from Europe and Asia were among the main actors in coining one of the most known principles of international criminal law. The notion of ‘crimes against humanity’ emanated from their legal debates. This paper debates how the term surfaced in meetings of the United Nations War Crimes Commission (UNWCC) in 1944 and was taken up by the London Charter for the Nuremberg International Tribunal in 1945. Legal concepts, which previously needed to be discussed at conferences and via correspondence, developed much more quickly in the ‘breeding ground’ of the exile situation in London and were influenced by different legal traditions, here termed ‘legal flows’.

Retraced memories - virtual reconstruction of an architectural landmark

<p class="VARAbstract">This paper addresses the challenge of digitally reconstructing ruined architectural sites and retracing their history, in order to virtually recompose their geometrical, stylistic and material integrity. To this end, the research team analyzed the ruins of the church of Santa Maria de Monasterio Albo, located in the ancient village of Misterbianco (Sicily) and destroyed (together with the entire hamlet) by the 1669 eruption of Mount Etna. In the last years, some excavation campaigns brought the church to the light, unveiling the remains of the main portal and six altars, which are one of the most remarkable examples of Mannerist art in eastern Sicily. This research aimed to three-dimensional (3D) reconstruct both the altars and the portal, ideally reviving their original 17<sup>th</sup> century configuration. This goal was achieved through an in-depth archival research (documents dating back to the years between 1300 and 1666 were consulted), an analysis of Classic and Renaissance treatises, and two integrated digital survey campaigns (laser scans and photogrammetry). The outcome is represented by the 3D models of the seven artifacts, which include surviving parts reconstructed as photogrammetric meshes, several fragments were placed in their likely early location through a virtual anastylosis, and NURBS (Non Uniform Rational Basis-Splines) surfaces (recreating the no longer existing elements). The latter were 3D modelled based on the treatises (which provided information on the correct proportioning) or in analogy with other coeval similar artifacts. Overall, the digital reconstruction was based on the ethical principles of transparency of the intervention, recognition of non-original additions and distinction between evidence and hypothesis, according to the London Charter and the Seville Principles. The experimentation provides a valid support for possible interventions in the real world and is the starting point to develop a digital archive of the site, which would make the different accuracy levels the reconstruction explicit.</p><p><strong>Highlights:</strong></p><ul><li><p>3D virtual reconstruction is effective to visualize and bring back to life ruined architectural artefacts.</p></li><li><p>Information about the artefacts original appearance was harvested through digital survey campaigns, archival documents, and comparisons with iconographic sources and coeval buildings.</p></li><li><p>The 3D reconstruction follows ethical principles of transparency and combines photogrammetric meshes (partly relocated through a virtual anastylosis) and NURBS surfaces.</p></li></ul>

Modelling Kiesler’s Endless Theatre: approaches to paradata for heritage visualization

ABSTRACT This article is an outcome of my investigations into the use of computer-based 3D visualization as a research methodology. Frederick Kiesler’s unrealized Endless Theatre (1916–26) project is employed as a case study for articulating ‘paradata’ in heritage visualization. This builds upon the principles of knowledge transparency outlined within the London Charter (2008). My overall objective for this article is to argue paradata as a critical framework for reading and designing heritage visualization. This is particularly focused on the procedural insights from a modeller’s perspective and practical techniques for ‘thick depiction’, including a proposal for ‘paradata maps’. To evidence these positions, the article details two contextual findings on the Endless Theatre project – concerning the principles of ‘continuous movement’ and ‘audience seating’ – that emerged through the visualization process itself. The article concludes with an appraisal of paradata as a critical framework and computer-based 3D visualization as a historiographic method that, it argues, has offered new insights into Kiesler’s unrealized theatre project.

Open Workflows for Polychromatic Reconstruction of Historical Sculptural Monuments in 3D

Many historical monuments were originally vividly painted (polychromatic), and researchers have been able to reach consensus on this even for monument classes in which only indirect evidence of painting survives. However, academic caution has led to an understandable reluctance to pass this knowledge to the public through use of reconstructions showing the colour schemes of these monuments. As a result, use of polychromatic reconstruction has been very limited and has made a significant impact on public perception for the classical period, with insignificant progress for many other important monument classes. We argue that large-scale projects to create digital reconstructions are inevitable but that adoption of open workflows is vitally important to achieve the objectives of the London Charter. We demonstrate a practical workflow with two medieval stone crosses.

A Medieval Bishop's Palace in Milicz: 3D Reconstruction as a Method of a Research Hypotheses Presentation

As a result of the intensive development of multimedia 3D visualizations of various kinds of historically, artistically or scientifically valuable objects became standard at the beginning of the 21st century. What triggered the construction of three-dimensional visualizations was the will to protect the cultural heritage – especially historical monuments which are in ruins and exposed to further destruction – as well as the need to disseminate the information about such objects not only among the small group of specialists. Another reason of that is to verify the existing proposals of reconstructions or research hypotheses. The bishop’s palace in Milicz was probably built in the late thirteenth or early fourteenth century. It was a brick building referring to the type of layout of princely buildings known in Silesia. Erection of the building in Milicz was connected with the creation of the Church castellany in this area. Visualisation of the oldest phase of the bishop’s palace in Milicz is part of the project: Regni custodiam et clavem – Santok and clavis regni Poloniae – Milicz as an example of two border towns, implemented by the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology of the Polish Academy of Sciences and financed from the funds of the National Program for the Development of Humanities for the years 2011-2017 (number 11H 11 0184 80). Virtual reconstructions were based on the analysis and interpretation of source materials, in accordance with the guidelines contained in the London Charter. The purpose of the visualization is to introduce residents of Milicz and tourists to history of the building and, in the long run, to take steps by local authorities towards preservation and revitalization of the bishop’s palace.

Proposal for the improvement and modification in the scale of evidence for virtual reconstruction of the cultural heritage: A first approach in the mosque-cathedral and the fluvial landscape of Cordoba

Abstract This article intends to improve and modify the scale of evidence in the virtual reconstructions created by Tayfun Oner for the Byzantium 1200 project team. In the article the scale has been analysed, reducing its number of levels and modifying its chromatic gradation to improve its perception. For this purpose, the original scale and the modified scale have been compared in three different three-dimensional models, the minaret of ‘Abd al-Rahman III’, Cordoba, Spain. A sector of the mosque of ‘Abd al-Rahman I’, Cordoba, Spain, and the Roman Port of Colonia Patricia, Cordoba, Spain. The modified scale complies with the London Charter and the Seville Principles for the Virtual Reconstruction of Cultural Heritage and it is aimed at been established as a common scale within the scientific community.

London Charter on Oral Health Inequalities

London Charter on Oral Health Inequalities

Data fusion in Cultural Heritage – A Review

Abstract. Geometric documentation is one of the most important task of the Cultural Heritage (CH) conservation and management policies. 3D documentation, prior to any conservation and restoration works, is considered a basic pre-requisite for preserving, understanding, communicating and valorizing CH sites and objects (London Charter, 2009; Sevilla Principles, 2011). 3D models have become the usual way of digitally preserving, communicating, explaining and disseminat ing cultural knowledge, as they have the capability of reproducing ancient states and behaviors. Using photo-realistic and accurate 3D models, the current conservation state can be shown and preserve for future generations. But despite the large request of 3D models in the CH field, there is no 3D documentation method which can properly satisfy all the areas with their requirements, therefore a fusion methodology (of data and sensors) is normally required and performed. The paper analyzes the fusion concept and levels as well as some merging approaches so far presented in the research community. While the paper will be necessarily incomplete due to space limitations, it will hopefully give an understanding on the actual methods of data fusion and clarify some open research issues.

The Nuremberg Trial: Procedural Due Process at the International Military Tribunal

For over 60 years, lawyers and historians have discussed the credibility and repercussions of the Nuremberg Trial (1945–1946). The Nuremberg Trial at the International Military Tribunal was conducted by the four Allied Powers to try the upper echelon Nazi war criminals following the Second World War. The London Charter, drafted by the Allies, outlined the trial procedure to be adopted, and provided certain guarantees in an attempt to secure a fair trial for the 22 defendants. This article examines the history of fundamental due process rights (recognised in both Continental Europe and Common Law jurisdictions) and analyses the extent to which these rights were breached at Nuremberg. It argues that the defendants' procedural due process rights were partially protected at Nuremberg, although there were gross breaches of particular fundamental due process rights. This article further argues that despite the defendants being afforded more rights than they could have expected given the circumstances, such breaches significantly compromised the integrity of the trial.

Setting the Path for the UNWCC: The Representation of European Exile Governments on the London International Assembly and the Commission for Penal Reconstruction and Development, 1941–1944

This article discusses the development of the UNWCC and the intellectuals involved. It notes the commitment that smaller Allied states made to frame international criminal law with regard to war crimes. The article pays particular attention to two Czech delegates who stood out from the community of experts, and who were instrumental in formalizing how war crimes committed in Europe during the Second World War – and beyond – should be handled. The concept of crimes against humanity became a main outcome of the legal debates, serving not only as a blueprint for the London Charter, but the international criminal law system as a whole. The predecessors of the UNWCC, involving some of the most renowned lawyers of the time, formed one of the first truly transnational networks. Moreover, the experiences of the lawyers, and their framing of that experience in lengthy memorandums, helped to generate a new concept in politics: the protection of human rights.

Simplifying Crowd Automation in the Virtual Laboratory of Archaeology

Abstract Virtual archaeology projects have been evolving to go beyond a mere reconstruction of architecture and artefacts of heritage sites: human interaction with the environment is also an object of research for historians and archaeologists. Methodologies like the London Charter propose that historians and archaeologists, in close collaboration with technical teams, lead virtual archaeology projects to guarantee the credibility and scientific validation of the result. The question is how to allow historians to model crowds on their own, if lacking the required skills to programme complex artificial intelligent-driven autonomous agents. In this article a method is proposed, currently under development, to allow non-programmers will be able to successfully model crowds using very simple tools that do not require formal programming knowledge but can still provide convincing results. The underlying idea is to employ concepts borrowed from computer games, whose interfaces are targeted to non-experts and adapt them to the specificities of virtual world platforms like Second Life® and OpenSimulator. Moreover, some limitations and ideas for further extension are discussed.

Norman Geras: Crimes Against Humanity: Birth of a Concept

The legal definition of crimes against humanity was first explicitly formulated in the London Charter, establishing the International Military Tribunal (IMT) at Nuremberg and forming the basis of the trial of the leading figures of the Third Reich. Geras usefully recounts some of the political and legal history behind the emergence of crimes against humanity in the Charter and insightfully discusses some of the post-Charter evolution of the offence in international law. As he writes, ‘the Nuremburg Trials… marked the official birth of the concept of crimes against humanity, inaugurating its effective, its practical, emergence into the world of law and the world of the law’ (3—italics in original), and, yet, ‘[o]n virtually every dimension of interest [the trial’s] meaning was ambiguous and has been disputed’ (20). The Charter’s provision on crimes against humanity divided such crimes into two main categories: first, ‘murder, extermination, enslavement, deportation, and other inhumane acts committed against any civilian population, before or during the war,’ and, second, ‘persecutions on political, racial, or religious grounds in execution of or in connection with any crime within the jurisdiction of the Tribunal’ (13–14). In its judgment, the Tribunal interpreted the Charter as requiring that a crime against humanity be connected to a state’s preparation for, or execution of, war. Geras thinks that this ‘war-nexus’ requirement was a mistake and notes approvingly that it is no longer in place; he writes that ‘the conditions of war and peace are logically extrinsic to what the offence of crimes against humanity aimed to prohibit. Atrocities against individuals or groups may be more likely in wartime, but they are also perfectly possible outside of it’ (84). Fortunately, in Geras’s eyes, in 1998 the Statute for the International Criminal Court (ICC) did away with the IMT’s requirement of a connection to war, and since then, ‘there has been a steady movement away from the war nexus’ (83). The London Charter did not explicitly impose a state-action requirement on crimes against humanity, but international lawyers and legal theorists have long endorsed the view that only a state or its agents are liable for such crimes. However, this requirement, too, has come under criticism, and many international lawyers now argue that non-state actors can be held liable for crimes against humanity. Geras agrees that the state-action requirement should be jettisoned, arguing, ‘Like war, state delinquency certainly provides a facilitating context for extreme human rights violations; but like war, it is not essential to them’ (85). Any state-action requirement unduly restricts what counts as a crime against humanity. Geras also finds prominent philosophical accounts of crimes against humanity to be unduly restrictive. Larry May, for example, has proposed that the persecution-based crimes enumerated by the London Charter (i.e., the second category under its definition of the offence) can provide a useful model for understanding all crimes against humanity. Thus, May argues that such crimes are essentially offences committed against persons on account of their belonging to some disfavored group. But Geras is unpersuaded: ‘[P]eople can be attacked in their humanity by way of other human characteristics than their group membership’ (88). Persecution on account of group membership is one form that crimes against humanity can take, but Geras contends that it is not the only form. Thus far, Geras’s critical arguments are quite convincing: it is unduly limiting to regard crimes against humanity as essentially involving a war nexus, or state action, or group-based persecution. But his crucial critical argument is yet to come. It concerns the very heart of the legal definition of crimes against humanity, a part of the definition that is found, in one form or another, not only in the London Charter but in the Statute of the ICC and every other legally authoritative statement of what constitutes such a crime. The part in question requires that a crime against humanity be part of a widespread or systemic attack against civilians and so specifies a contextual element for the crime. Let us turn to that element and Geras’s rejection of it.

The London Charter and the Seville Principles as sources of requirements for e-archaeology systems development purposes

<p>Requirements engineering (RE) is a discipline of critical importance in software development. This paper provides a process and a set of software artefacts to help in the production of e-archaeology systems with emphasis on requirements reuse and standards. In particular, two important guidelines in the field of earchaeology, the London Charter and the Principles of Seville, have been shown as two sources of requirements to be considered as a starting point for developing this type of systems.</p>

Time.deltaTime: the vicissitudes of presence in visualizing Roman houses with game engine technology

First drafted in 2006 and currently in version 2.1, the London Charter calls for the adoption of international standards for intellectual integrity, transparency, sustainability, and access in 3D modeling for cultural heritage. While the London Charter has been in the process of revision and distribution to the heritage community, game engines have become less expensive and more approachable. Several engines offer the ability to publish easily across operating systems, mobile devices, and the web, causing a rapid expansion in their use for archeological visualization. However, the very power of game engines to create and publish immersive content poses fundamental challenges to the emphasis on data-driven visualization and transparency expressed in the London Charter. These challenges should not be suppressed, since they can prove heuristically fruitful if they are explicitly recognized and explored. This potential is illustrated by a descriptive analysis of the recreation of the House of the Prince of Naples in Pompeii by an undergraduate humanities class, which concludes that the immersive effects of engine-based visualizations are as much to be found in their creation as in their "playing." This suggests the value of democratizing the creation of game engine content for heritage visualization beyond research visualization laboratories, as a part of undergraduate curricula in the humanities.

Special issue: presence

This special issue of AI and Society on presence features papers that were presented at the 13th annual International Workshop on Presence, which was held in Edinburgh. These papers represent the wide variety of disciplines that continue to be applied to the study of presence ranging from computer science, to classical studies, psychology, neuroscience and communication. As digital technologies continue their relentless spread to so very many aspects of our everyday lives, the experience of presence is becoming a unifying basis for reasoning about and evaluating these developments. This special issue comprises eight papers that have been grouped into three sections. The first two papers, while being closely related, differ with respect to their treatment of the authenticity of the virtual environments that they describe. The next two papers report studies of social presence. The final tranche of papers address presence in different forms of media. In the first section, the papers examine applications of presence. The paper by Benyon and his colleagues offers an introduction to what they describe as digital tourism. They begin by noting that tourism is a global industry worth billions. Digital tourism is concerned with the use of digital technologies such as augmented reality to enhance the experience of being-there and being-there with other people. The authors offer a number of design scenarios (exemplars) of how this might be implemented. In the first example, the House of Edgar Allen Poe has the tourist experiencing an enhanced visit by way of their mobile phone. The Brick City Tours offers an alternate vision by offering digital enhancement, before, during and after a visit. An interesting feature of the after visit supports being personalised mementoes of the trip. These digital enhancements are deemed to involve the creation of blended spaces, that is, the seamless experience of the real and the virtual—a notion that might have puzzled Descartes. The vision offered by this paper is faced with an interesting and unexpected counterpoint in the next paper—Time.deltaTime. Fredrick’s Time.deltaTime raises a host of issues for presence researchers and those engaged in building digital applications intended to create a sense of being-there. Fredrick’s interest is primarily in the re-creation of places of historic and archaeological interest. Digital technology can be used to create or recreate representations of the historic (e.g. ancient Egypt), culturally significant but physically fragile (Machu Picchu) and the inaccessible (the surface of Mars, the bottom of the Pacific). The implications for tourism, archaeology, education and so forth are significant. However, this unconstrained enthusiasm stands in contrast to the aims of the London Charter which calls for the adoption of international standards for intellectual integrity, transparency, sustainability and access in 3D modelling for cultural heritage. Fredrick, echoing the intent of the London Charter, observes that it is simply too easy, when using software tools, to over-embellish a representation of, say, ancient Pompeii. By way of further example, he notes the many anachronisms and errors in Ubisoft’s best-selling games—Assassin’s Creed—which is set in what purports to be an historic Venice. From their reconstruction of the Piazza and Basilica, San Marco Fredrick suggests that the designers may not have read the London Charter. The sheer P. Turner (&) School of Computing, Edinburgh Napier University, 10 Colinton Road, Edinburgh Eh10 5DT, Scotland, UK e-mail: p.turner@napier.ac.uk

Designing interaction metaphors for Web3D cultural dissemination

Abstract In the last few years the improved performances of graphics hardware and the growing availability of broadband internet connections have eventually led to effectively adding a third dimension to web interfaces, achieving what is commonly referred to as Web3D. Nevertheless, these technologies are not yet widespread, especially in the cultural sector, for at least two factors: technological limitations, mostly in the lack of coherent and effective metaphors to visualize and interact with digital cultural assets using the third-dimension as an added value rather than as a stylish gadget, and communication issues, as, despite the principles stated in the London Charter aimed at ensuring technical and intellectual rigor for the digital visualization of cultural heritage, a proper way to deal with relevant and sustainable 3D information is not yet completely established. For this reason this paper focuses on identifying and analyzing the aspects that may contribute to a more efficient use of Web3D technologies to access cultural content, in order to set up a set of development standards aiming to encourage web-based learning and guaranteeing systems accessible and usable by the widest possible audience.