Update from the Digital Manager
Since my last update in the summer issue of the KAS Magazine, our 3D recording project with Geoff Watkins of Aerial Imaging South East has continued at pace, with St Mary the Blessed Virgin Church, Woodnesborough, St Peter-in-Thanet Church, Broadstairs, and St Mary’s Church, Lenham now available to explore online on desktop and smartphone. Also in Lenham, Geoff has produced an excellent record of The Tithe Barn. Most recently, we have been privileged to record the crater and remnants of a V-1 ‘Flying Bomb’ in Benenden under excavation by Research Resource Archaeology. These models will be described and annotated to form virtual tours, for use remotely or on site, providing introductions, research and linking to other online and offline resources, on the KAS website and elsewhere.
[fg]jpg|Geoff Watkins recording at The Tithe Barn, Lenham.|Image[/fg]
These 3D records of excavations, architectural elements, sculpture and other artefacts are of use in analysing items, creating typologies and drawing comparisons between sites—we’ve often found these to be of particular use if we want to engage an expert’s opinion on items of interest remotely. They also make for teaching aids for students of architecture, history and archaeology and also aids to accessibility; through which, elements of buildings and sites that might otherwise be inaccessible to some, or all, visitors, can be revealed. The models are also of use operationally; available in a quality (the photos can be reprocessed in the future in higher detail) that they can be of use to architects and contractors when planning maintenance and works.
[fg]jpg|Geoff Watkins recording at St Peter-in-Thanet Church, Broadstairs.|Image[/fg]
The exterior of buildings are in a constant state of weathering, so this record can also be used to check against future deterioration. We have even been able to send models to conservators to exact very accurate conservation on sculptural elements that were subsequently damaged—so a digital backup, if you like!
[fg]png|V-1 ‘Flying-Bomb’ and crater excavations, Benenden.|Image[/fg]
All photography and 3D imagery is made available to the site administrators to do with whatever they see fit, with copies retained for the KAS Archive. The recording of sites that are made available publicly online are recorded at no expense to the administrators. We are enormously grateful to everyone from all these sites for inviting us along and sharing their spaces and artefacts. If you or someone you know is an owner, staff or volunteer at a heritage site, a Friend, vicar, or church warden, and would like your site recorded in 3D, get in touch!