Friday, August 5, 2011

Post from Clark

Hello all,

Clark asks that everyone check out the link here: http://www.engadget.com/2011/08/03/archeologists-eschewing-traditional-whip-leather-jacket-combo/

"I think that this scanning device and process could be useful. The archaeology content of the project is weak but the portability of the technology and ability to possibly scan exhibit visitors or let them scan each other and put themselves in the site architecture, wear Inca clothing, etc." - From Clark

- Jeanette

Monday, August 1, 2011

ok I simply can not make links work anymore so you're gonna have to do a lot of copying & pasting, sorry.

http://www.digitalview.com/

This company offers a variety of interactive display screens, signage, etc. specifically designed for exhibits and similar spaces.

http://paulbourke.net/papers/graphite2005/graphite.pdf

This is about a new, cheaper, easier, and more effective approach to projections in a dome (projection on a spherical mirror). I think something like this would be an investment that the museum could continue to use for future exhibits beyond pachacamac. A quick online search shows that this approach is about $10,000 cheaper than the traditional projection approach (projecting through a fisheye lens). other benefits of this system are that you can get away with using the cheapest projectors, the center of the dome (optimum viewing spot) is left clear, and there is no chromatic distortion at the edges.

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:T1zJk3U8-eIJ:citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download%3Fdoi%3D10.1.1.126.7966%26rep%3Drep1%26type%3Dpdf+space+feeling+and+alterity&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEEShmrUk5rYFMnVQt0cwxa23ovtxxdFPCYyZLxV8vcatWvPgvcq1lRhhuD_YHV1MuLI60Z2aPfPvq9wm0kcUqIr9FoippbbgXW2Ogh3H-Rit_JQ0r-UQ4yInJT5EXbzIBVDQZaNSo&sig=AHIEtbS0-70OJFQRnKnZWqCKzzgbDQlC_g

This is an interesting paper on how to effectively use digital media specifically for cultural heritage applications.

http://www.bodyscan.human.cornell.edu/scene0037.html


These are a bunch of projects going on at cornell that deal with cloth simulation and virtual fit. While reading through these, I discovered this guy:

http://www.cs.cornell.edu/~srm/

He has written a lot about fabric simulation

http://www.lbi.co.uk/

This company set up an interactive mirror a few months ago at the flagship macys in nyc to allow customers to virtually try on garments. I am in touch with a representative from that company because I think it would be really cool to allow our customers to virtually try on some garments that will be exhibited. I am also trying to track down someone at macys who can give me some feedback as to how customers reacted and how effective it was. when I physically went to the store some employees said that it was pretty polular, I have called a few people from the company and left some messages but haven’t learned much yet.

If anyone has any idea why I can no longer make links, PLEASE help me!

-Carly

Friday, July 29, 2011

More People in Pachacamac

I'm going to attempt a brief summary of the list I've compiled of the people that would have inhabited and visited Pachacamac. I've split them into two categories: 1) Religious and Ritual, and 2) Labor and Goods. Additionally, I'm including their sub-sections but not a description of their duties.

Religious and Ritual:
Priests
 - High priest - Temple of Pachacamac
   - Lesser priests
 - High priest - Sun Temple
   - Lesser priests
Guards
 - Temple of Pachacamac
 - Sun Temple
Pilgrims
- Dead
  - Interment of the dead
  - Re-interment of the dead
- Oracular
  - 20 day fast
  - 1 year fast
- Rituals & festivals
Acllas (chosen women)
  - Acllas
  - Mamaconas

Labor and Goods:
- Quarrymen
- Masons
- Metallurgists
- Ceramicists
- Agricultural laborers
- Fishermen
- Mitmaq and/or mit'a (corvee) laborers
- Painters

With the exception of mitmaq and mit'a laborers, the labor and goods people are pretty self explanatory. Mitmaq labor is when a group of people from one area are transplanted to another area. This may be done for various reasons such as praise or punishment. Mit'a labor is the tax due the Inka state by the subjugated groups. They would go to a place for a set amount of time in order to assist in state functions. It's unclear whether the Sun Temple was built using mitmaq or mit'a labor. Uhle has two conflicting views. The first is that the Sun Temple is not quintessentially Inka in design because it was charged to the local peoples to build the temple (mit'a labor) while the Inkas built the convent (Uhle calls it the Mamacona). His other view (from Santa Cruz) is that a group of rebellious huacas was punished and part of their punishment was to build a complex at Pachacamac (unclear which one) (mitmaq labor). This may not be a high area of contention for our purposes but is a good thing to keep in mind when dressing the building laborers.

I came across an article today by Thomas Pozorski ("The Early Horizon Site of the Huaca de los Reyes: Societal Implications". American Antiquity. 45:100-110 (1980)). In this article he calculates how many man hours it would take to build the complex of Huaca de los Reyes using the example in Charles Erasmus's article (1965). The site is similar to Pachacamac in that the basic building supplies consist of mud/clay, water, and rocks. A calculation for how many men and how many man hours it would take to build the Sun Temple could be made relatively easily using our Sun Temple model. If we calculated the area of the Sun Temple and figured out where the supplies came from (water shouldn't be too hard since there are waterworks at the site, but clay/dirt deposits are another story) we could figure out how many laborers should be working on the Sun Temple. This would allow for a more accurate reconstruction of the site and the people acting within it.

- Jeanette

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Does anyone know why I can no longer post links????

I just typed out a big blog post and it wouldn't post because of my links (again).

- Carly

Saturday, July 16, 2011

From Carly - Exhibit Stuff

There is an interesting project called “Get In Line” by the design team known as Evil Genius. I can not create links in this post for some reason right now so google “evil genius designs get in line”. It was designed to entertain people waiting in line for a ride at an amusement park or concert etc. While we probably won’t have to deal with huge lines of people, it could have applications for our purposes of engaging guests in a goal-oriented game like journey through our exhibit. Get In Line allows up to 6,000 people to use their cell phones to interact with games on one or more communal larger screens that everyone can see.

Evil Genius won an award for Get In Line at The International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions Expo last year. Again I cannot create a link to this for some reason. This year’s expo will be in November in Florida. This is not necessarily specific to museum exhibits but it looks like some pretty innovative ideas have come out of this expo in the past and it might be worth going to.

I have also been looking into retail applications for “virtual try-on” systems both in stores and online, as well as body scanning  for the same purposes (which is probably way to invasive for us to use). The flagship Macy’s in NYC has something called the “magic mirror” that I am going to test out on my way home to upstate NY next weekend, after which I will post more specifics. I am thinking we can use something like this to allow guests to “try on” some of our garments that will be on display.

- Carly

Friday, July 15, 2011

Peopling Pachacamac

I began my research on people Pachacamac by focusing more on the ritual and sacred activities that would have taken place at the site. From the following sources I was able to come up with this rough sketch of what life would have looked like for the religious side of the site. I'm not quite sure how to make the Excel sheet available to the project short of a Google doc (is there a way to embed a document in this post?) so I'll continue to work on it and if anyone would like to see it I can e-mail it to you. Accordingly, now I will begin more research on the people who worked at the site such as stonemasons, ceramicists (potentially), painters, roofers, food preparers, etc.

Bibliography (please ignore the helter skelter reference style):


Gose, Peter. “Oracles, Divine Kingship and Political Representation in the Inka State”. Ethnohistory. 43:1 (winter 1996) American Society for Ethnohistory.

Randall, Robert. “Qoyllur Rit’I, An Inca Fiesta of the Pleiades: Reflections on Time and Space in the Andean World”. Bull. Inst. Fr. Et. And. 1982, XI, No 1-2 pp. 37 – 81

Moore, Jerry D. “The Social Basis of Sacred Spaces in the Prehispanic Andes: Ritual Landscapes of the Dead in Chimu and Inka Societies”. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory. Vol II No 1, Part 1 (March 2004) pp. 83 – 124

Eeckhout, Peter and Lawrence Stuart Owens. “Human Sacrifice at Pachacamac”. Latin American Antiquity. Vol 19 No 4 (Dec 2008) pp. 375-398.

Paterson, Thomas C. “Pachacamac – An Andean Oracle Under Inca Rule”. Ed. D. Peter Kvietok and Daniel H. Sandweiss. Recent Studies in Andean Prehistory and Protohistory. Cornell Univ: 1983. p 159-175.
 
Steele, Paul R. and Catherine J. Allen. Handbook of Inca Mythology. ABC-CLIO, Inc: Santa Barbara, 2004.

Salomon, Frank. Urioste, Jorge. Avila, Francisco de. Ca 1573-1647. The Huarochiri Manuscript: A Testament of ancient and colonial Andean religion. Univ of Texas Press: c 1991.

MacCormack, Sabine. Religion in the Andes: vision and imagination in early colonial Peru. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton Univ Press, c1991.



MacCormack, Sabine. "Gods, Demons and Idols in the Andes". Journal of the History of Ideas. Vol 67 No 4 Oct 2006, pp. 623-648.

Vanstan, Ina. "The Fabrics of a Peruvian Mummy Bale Found Beneath the Pachacamac Temple". Bulletin de liaison du Centre international d'e'tude des textiles anciens. Vol 19 1964 p. 20 - 37.
 

The 2 articles by Shimada, Segura, et al. listed on the PAP page here. And of course the Uhle reprint from 1991 with Izumi Shimada's preface.

- Jeanette

 

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

from Carly

Is there any chance we could get reimbursed for going to Chicago? This exhibit looks awesome, and right up our alley. I discovered this exhibit because it uses products from Snibbe Interactive who I have been researching and tried to contact (no response yet). In particular I asked about their interactive mirror and if it would be possible to allow guests to try garments on, using a virtual version of their bodies.

- Carly

Sunday, July 10, 2011

Brief Thought

I've mentioned this reconstruction of the Mausoleum of Augustus a few times in meetings as a great example of letting the viewer pick and chose different elements in a 3D archaeological reconstruction.

- Jeanette

Saturday, July 9, 2011

dess up the male


Hi all, this is the result after dressing the male model. (Actually I think he looks like an ancient superman...)
Dressing up the female has met some problems because it always look weird around her chest. The model is in good and normal shape, but after dressing her and to cover her chest, that part of costume becomes extremely large...
BTW, I will upload the model to dropbox. So Adam if you can check and any feedback is more than welcome.
Hope you enjoy your weekend.
Dio

Friday, July 8, 2011

Grave lots...again

Sorry I haven't posted in awhile. Besides being away from the lab last week the work that I've been doing isn't very interesting to read about. Regardless, I'll attempt to update.

My primary focus of this project has been the grave lots and their context. The main problem that we've run into, and a circular one at that, is that the best clothing for our male and female models are in a room called B26. They're being stored at the bottom of drawers, wrapped in archival paper and are therefore incredibly hard to access. Recently the collection was awarded an IMLS grant so these textiles can be unwrapped, unfolded, photographed, mounted and housed. However, this grant is not yet in effect. That is why we've been slow on giving the modelers photographs of the artifacts that we would like to see the models wear. In order to speed up the process of photographing these artifacts Carly and I have gone through the room and notated wherever we could find a textile belonging to a grave lot, and if possible we took some rough photos of the object. Sadly, this part of the project is a long way from finished, but it will all be well worth it when we can dress a model completely in clothing found from a grave lot.

In order to keep everyone busy in the meantime I photographed miniature ponchos and gave them to Dio so he can begin to clothe our male. After sorting through the thousands of photographs that have already been taken Carly and I also put together a folder on the DropBox of weaving tools. Combined with the schematic of a backstrap loom and the video from the Royal Ontario Museum we're hoping that Vijay can begin to model, assemble, and maybe one day animate the backstrap loom weaving process.

During the meeting on Tuesday Dr. Badler charged me with creating a spreadsheet of what people would have done at Pachacamac. This involves a lot of reading concerning pilgrimage, interment of the dead, re-interment of the dead, Andean festivals and ceremonies, and oracles. I have already read through a great article by Shimada concerning the actions of people at Pachacamac, but it was focused on the Pilgrimage Plaza and lacked any solid interpretation. While I realize that any interpretation is just that, I hope that after this research we can create semantics for the site and then begin populating it with conjectured actions.

- Jeanette

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Adam - Skin Shader

Today I gave Dio's Andean Male model a skin shader with a texture, bump map, and specular map. Here are today's results (click for a higher-resolution view):

Update:
Here he is with slightly yellower skin:


The effect is subtle but I think his skin looks better.





The model looked like an older man, so I gave him some wrinkles and some cheek blemishes. I'm still a bit unsure as to whether or not I got the tone of his skin and lips correct, though. I think he's still a bit dark.

Friday, July 1, 2011

my research (part 1 of ?) --Seungyeon

Hello all!

I apologize for this being blogged so late! Here are few of things I've found over the past few weeks. I will soon write another entry with more :)

For starters, here is a virtual museum of some world's ancient wonders, including an ancient Aztec temple (similar to our project! :D), the Parthenon in Ancient Greece, and La Maison Carree in Nimes, France. It's pretty cool! You can take a tour the site in either 'walk' mode or 'study' mode and as you approach different important locations, educational information about the building/site appears. In the walking mode, the camera is brought down to eye-level and you see the buildings and structures from the view of a person actually walking around the site. The 'study' mode brings the camera up in the air, as if from inside a helicopter, and you study the site grounds from above. Using your arrow keys on your keyboard, you navigate around the site. Each site is not that big but it seems all the major points have been hit. As you navigate, if there is a particularly important or significant building, as I have stated before, educational excerpts appear in the black panel on the bottom of the window. These excerpts are not very detailed and seem to state only a couple facts (perhaps because of limited space?). In the tour of the Aztec temple, I found it a bit annoying how there is not much indication as to which building will have more information provided and which are just there for display (not all structures come with facts in the tour). For the Parthenon or La Maison Carree, the tour is just of the one structure. I found it a bit amusing that, apparently, one can walk through walls in France. ;) But there is not much in the actual building. Similarly, the Egyptian Pharaoh Khufu's pyramid is pretty empty inside. As you walk in, it seemed like a real tour with information as you're lead through the hallway-like stretch, but once inside the temple, the tour ends. I tried to see if there was more on the opposite site of the temple but I got lost in all the little empty chambers....
Apparently, the Vikings walked on water and could also walk through walls! And the 3D Chariot artifact tour is not so much a tour but just a way to view the relic from all angles.
In the Aztec tour, to view the information, you have to 'walk' up very close to the structure. They used Adobe Shockwave and, if you do not already have it, you need to download Flash. I'm not sure if it is just because my internet is slow, but it took me quite some time to load the "tour" and feedback was very slow. In any case, the site in general does not provide extensively detailed information about each site and this virtual tour cannot take the place of an actual museum. But, with more time, the tours could be much more informational with more artifacts and people actually in the tours. Still, I enjoyed the site and I did learn from their little excerpts.

Esimple Studios is a company that develops platforms for clients like Heineken, Apple, General Electric, etc. I tried the GE tour. They made a virtual tour of an actual dealership. (dl Unity Web Player to view). There is not much displayed. Behind the customer service desk (?) there are some links that bring up pop-ups with what I can only guess to be more information. I cannot say for sure though (I've never studied Italian). The rest of the gallery shows pictures of beautiful cars and, when you point your cursor at the pictures, basic information about the car appears (click for more details). As I am not looking for any cars, it was an opportunity for me to see some low-quality pictures of some Audis, Alfa Romeos, Renaults, etc. :D still pretty, despite the low quality~~ Oh! and the building is very very cool. I am not much of an architect but I approve of the building. This video was made to be used on the GE website as an additional experience for potential buyers.
ES also built shopping and strip malls, games for Apple's iPhone and iPod Touch, and a quiz-style application for online shopping through social networking sites (i.e. Facebook) that provides you with items you might like at the end of the quiz and links to sites that sell the products. If you go to the link I provided, it takes you the the company's portfolio and when you click on each product, most come with videos that show what the company did for each client. Most of which are not very relevant but still I wanted to share this because this is one company that put 3D animation and modeling to use on the internet and through other technologies like smart phones.

Here is a link to an exhibition in Europe called the KIOSK Europe Expo. The website does not provide much information but I was looking through museums throughout the world that are striving to be more innovative and technology-forward in their exhibitions and many use Kiosks and touch screens to provide information, rather than the traditional placard or pre-recorded audio tours. Kiosks allow for the visitors to have a more personalized tour and can provide more information than a simple placard but still have the feel of the more traditional museums, somewhat. This Expo is for businessmen and professionals seeking solutions in these Kiosks for their businesses. I only post this because, under "Exhibition" > "Solutions", Museums, Exhibitions, Travel & Tourism, and Education are listed. and I'd like to go! it sounds interesting~ Anyone else up for a trip to Europe for the 2012 Expo? ;)

3D Exhibits is a company that serves clients in helping with designing exhibits for trade shows. Again, not completely relevant to our job but I thought it would help with ideas for how to use a space. There are some cool shows that they put up and they succeeded in putting a lot into the small space while not making it look too cluttered or messy. If you have the time, please look through them. especially the one they did for Nintendo. I think something like that could be used for our exhibition. The way they have the walls on the inside as large screens to show more general shots and then smaller stations, each with a computer, for visitors' personal viewing pleasure.


Here are some other links to view (again more to come~):

The Science Museum in London has a new atmosphere gallery. They say that the expected duration of one's visit is only about 30 minutes. short in my opinion but it is very cool. They implemented different mediums to get information out to the visitors, such as, games, models, interactive displays, etc. Also, they used a combination of both touch screen monitors and plaques throughout the gallery to give information, which I think was smart.

This is a summary of a survey conducted in January 2009 to museum-goers asking how they preferred to visit museums. A list of answers, such as, guided tours with actual guides, self-guided tours, etc. would follow. At outdoor history museums, visitors under the age of thirty were actually the least likely to want the galleries to utilize technology; while people over the age of seventy were most likely to seek out technology. Note, not a single age group was particularly enthusiastic about tech in museums in general. I do not think this is that significant (if you read the article, the survey was not very well done but it should be noted that the question was not exclusive to science museums). Just thought the results were interesting and thought I'd share. If you have the time, the article is an interesting read (and so are the comments!).

Here is another link for those of you with some time. a presentation given by Dr. Heather King of King's College London outlining obstacles and uses of technology in museums as of April 2003.


Ok, as for projectors, I've spent a lot of time learning about different types of projectors, how they work, how they are used, etc. For everybody's viewing pleasure and convenience, I am putting together a googledoc with basic description of the different types of projectors as well as prices, specs, etc. of a couple models of each projector. I have all of the information and am working on putting together this doc so it is still a work in progress but here is the link to the doc for you to see what I've got done so far. will continue working on next week! :)

Any questions, please comment! I'll try to answer as best I can.
Please let me know what you think as well~

Best and Very Respectfully,
-Seungyeon Lee

P.S. I hope everybody enjoys 4th of July! I will, most likely, be back in Philadelphia by Monday but since I still do not have card access to the lab, I am hoping someone will be in the lab to let me in!

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Pachacamac Woman

 The two pictures above are the screenshot of the Inca woman. The following photo is one of the references. I also combined the face with some other women in the photos, and changed the shape of the face to make it more general.

The following two pictures are the normal body of a female I built recently. I still need to make it more like a Inca woman, that is the shape should not be too perfect. Actually I have some problem realizing the shape of Inca woman. The ideas for now is to give her upper body, the chest,  the abdominal, more sense of expansion.

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

From Carly - Pompeii and Constitution Center

This is the wiki page of a research team who virtually reconstructed and populated ancient Pompeii. On this page you can find a paper about their process, screen shots, and videos…lots of links so have fun. I think the videos are pretty cool except their faces look weird, some of the cloth seems a little too ‘stuck’ to the body, everyone is walking around alone which is unnatural, and in the large plaza area, I think the cobblestones don’t repeat very well. I can pick out the repeating unit too easily but maybe that is just the textile print designer in me.


This also happens to be about Pompeii but from what I can gather I think it’s actually a different team of people who worked on this project.

“This paper proposes a new development for the innovative revival of life in ancient fresco paintings in ancient Pompeii and creation of narrative spaces. The revival is based on real scenes captured on live video sequences augmented with real-time autonomous groups of 3D virtual fauna and flora.” They refer to this combination as “mixed reality”.

This paper discusses facial and cloth simulation but its overall focus is bringing preserved frescoes from the actual site to life. Maybe we could apply this idea to the friezes on the painted temple or Guaman Poma illustrations somehow? Also if you search around, the same authors have a lot of papers on cloth simulation out there.

In other news I visited the constitution center this weekend. The arrangement of their audio/speaker systems was really impressive. I sketched out some of their set ups that I will share at the meeting today. Maybe we should arrange a meeting with someone there to discuss their engineering process. While there I also saw the vide/projection/performance called Freedom Rising. The visitors sit in a sort of small arena, stadium seating. Above the seats is a large ring of curved projection screens (with projectors in the center of the ceiling), there are also videos/images projected onto the floor, where a speaker stands who tells the story of the constitution, also at one point, and circular screen lowers down around the person telling the story, at this point there is literally projection surrounding the audience members (I have a crappy drawing of this too). Again the print designer in me evaluated the repeat of the projections on 360 degrees of screen and I found it pretty seamless and impressive. Also there were some scenes in this multimedia presentation where there were modern day actors (average people on the street debating politics etc.) layered over old drawings and paintings and it actually wasn’t as cheesy as it sounds. So that is another way we could potentially use Guaman Poma’s illustrations and bring them to life.

If you haven't seen Freedom Riding you should go check it out.

Monday, June 27, 2011

Adam - Mamacona update

Having finished modeling the Mamacona complex based on photos taken of it, I began raising walls that I thought might have existed when it was first built. So, the southeast building now has three floors and an outdoor deck-type area.



Here's the second floor of the southeast building with some poorly put-together lighting to show off its structure.




Thursday, June 23, 2011

From Carly - Textiles

You may remember this video that I posted several weeks back, I also played it in a meeting. I have since spoken with the artist who created them and he had this to say:


"I used 3DS Max as the primary software for 3d animation and cloth simulations. Everything was then composited in After Effects where everything was pieced together and color corrected. Textures and the like were created in Photoshop."

I'm not sure if any of our modelers are available to work on this kind of stuff because I know you are all working on several projects but I just thought I should share.

Also I have been in touch with representatives from a company called EAT, they provide software for textile designers that basically communicates instructions to looms. They also provide demos that show a designer what their fabric will look like. This page has a video (click on the 3D textile simulation video, and skip ahead past the slow intro) that demonstrates their programs and demos. While they do not offer actual animation of fabrics in use (to show friction, drapability, etc.) I think that their renderings of fabrics are really realistic and accurate. I especially like how they zoom in to show structures and yarn textures. I received a list of their packages and prices and I have inquired about our specific uses. They have never worked with virtual heritage material in the past but I have been explaining to them that there is actually a market out there for such applications. I think that there is hope here because EAT understands textiles so well. Their website claims:


"EAT’s software packages will cover almost all of the needs occuring when it comes to CAD/CAM for the textile industry. But maybe you have an individual task that is not covered by EAT’s software packages. We also develop custom software tailored to your needs. Whether it is a special function for the existing software that you already have, or in case you need something completely new, starting from scratch...."

Basically they are interested in working with new ideas. An old professor of mine is seeking out training in the yarn info input and fabric simulation aspect of their software and I plan to kind of tag along with her. I'll keep you posted on their interest in our project.

- Carly


revised male model

I exaggerate his cheekbone. Besides, I make the middle part of his face wider.
And I notice that classic Inca people's lower face (section below the eye) is a little bit larger and longer than modern people.


Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Adam, Jeanette and Carly's trip to D.C.

Yesterday (June 20th) the three of us went to Washington, D.C. to visit a few relevant museum exhibits. The most relevant exhibit we saw that we will focus on in this post was called "Echoes of the Past" which is in the Sackler Gallery.

First we went on a docent-led tour of the exhibit so we could experience it like other visitors would, and so we could learn about the culture, artifacts, and site. There are three galleries of artifacts that lead to a video projection gallery, followed by more artifacts. The set up had a nice flow to it because there were no obstructing, distracting, text panels. It didn't feel cluttered, and the artifacts were arranged in a way that mimicked their original orientations in the caves. The directive lighting and minimal color palette allowed us to focus on the sculptures and prints.

After our tour we met with the curator, Dr. Keith Wilson, and the project assistant, Ms. Daisy Wang, to discuss their decision-making process leading up to the installation of the exhibit. This was informative because they gave us insight on the logistics of working with an artist, other institutions, and a foreign country.

Things we learned:
Projection decisions/animated camera
Mirrors for physical projection
Artist being an artist
Cost of having tech people on standby + for travel
Backup projectors
No technical difficulties so far
More effective than actually being in cave (lighting) (convince board)
Research kiosks with extra info + text
Silent intro video of caves and nearby city to set the scene
Touch panels to interact with digital artifacts
Out of time for color reconstruction and ceiling
Wish they had discussed color reconstruction
Lack of sound except for fans
Show simplified mesh
Old photos confusing
Walls angled outward to prevent claustrophobia
Slowed down video to prevent motion sickness

If this is vague or confusing, please ask us about it in person.

Friday, June 17, 2011

Update from Jeanette

This week I spent a lot of time attempting to create virtual artifacts using the ARC 3D program. The ARC 3D program was made by EPOCH, European research network on excellence in Processing Open Cultural Heritage, that created this program for free use to virtually simulate artifacts. In theory it sounds very simple: download program, create username & password, upload photographs of artifacts, wait, open the files they send back. Sadly my experience wasn't quite so stress free. One vital stipulation that Clark and I were hoping could be overlooked is the way in which the pictures are taken. When we were taking photographs it was easiest to set the lights up stationary at the edge of a table and then move the artifact. However, because this makes the light inconsistent in relation to the vessel (when the vessel moves the light then shines on a different side of the vessel) the program mailed back a giant unconnected blob of nothingness. Even when I attempted to take photographs as they direct the light was still too inconsistent because I was using primarily overhead lights. Adam had the idea of placing an LED light (no heat to damage the artifact) on a turntable with an artifact, turn off the rest of the lights, and then photograph it from all angles. While this may work in theory I feel that it would be too time consuming of a process and we should move on to look for other ways to create virtual artifacts.

Since the ARC 3D program didn't work I've been looking for different examples of successful virtual archaeology. This website, while older than I would like, is a good example of showing artifacts where they would be found in a site and then being able to interact with the artifact directly. The walk through of the kiva itself is even well done. One problem with it is that the viewer is fixed within the space, they cannot zoom in or out or have a lower or higher viewpoint. I envision the Pachacamac project as more of a video game where the visitor can interact with the landscape which means varying their point of view and allowing them to move throughout the space. Currently I'm systematically going through this site which lists lots of wonderful virtual archaeology pages. However, I'm having some issues working on my laptop and will dig into them further when I get to the lab. Of special interest to me is the Paloma World link that advertises being able to virtually participate in an archaeological dig.

The Giza Project is in contention for my favorite 3D reconstruction of an archaeological site. While they did rely on archival photographs, their reconstructions of the above ground and even subterranean spaces are incredible. I find the expanse of the mastabas amazing. Granted, it's 'sterile' looking but I think it's something to strive for. My favorite part is when the camera cuts underground and you can see the subterranean chambers from straight on. With Clark talking about plugging Uhle's photos into the reconstruction it would be interesting to then have the burial chambers intact in the simulation.

Finally, I participated in an eye tracking experiment yesterday. This is in response to a paper that Carly found a week or two ago discussing the usefulness of eye tracking technology within visual heritage contexts. The way that eye tracking is achieved without the use of head gear is to beam a light into the eye, which is then reflected by the retina and picked up by a receptor on the same plane as the light source. Even though it sounds like a great idea in theory, there are problems that make it not possible for museum use yet. One problem is that visual correction apparatuses (eye glasses and contact lenses) cause a large error. I wear soft contact lenses and my eyes were not able to be accurately tracked. Another problem is that the reflection from any eye makeup causes for false readings also. Eye tracking is a great idea for finding out how the eye moves within a museum display and may want to be kept on the back burner until the technology evolves.

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

From Dio-Say Hello to Our Andean Guy

Hi all, today I modeled the head part of an Andean male. Actually I have some models available from my last semester's projects. So I just made changes and it's a little bit easier.
Here are some pictures. Any suggestion is more than welcome.
Wow, forgot to mention that, only his right half face has been modified by now =. =


Monday, June 13, 2011

From Carly- One more image from Clark

One other goal of this project is to dress avatars with ideally complete outfits from our collection, which will involve some much needed large scale photography of artifacts. Trying to achieve an accurate drape, weight, and overall real 'feel' of the garments are things we want to strive for. We also want to be able to show the designs (that is, both iconography and structure in fabrics) in a way that is true to physical artifacts from the collection. We might be able to experiment with Maya cloth, I am also looking into a weaving design tool software called EAT that might be easily manipulated for our purposes. 

This diagram shows the inca state style and how all of the pieces would be worn to create a complete outfit



Left: 

1. Ccorekente bird's feathers

2) tassel (puyllu) 

3) helmet (chucu) 

4) Sceptre (sunturpauccar) 

5) string (llaut)

6) Arillo (tulumpi) 

7) rapacejo (mascaipacha)

8) sun hat (phullu) 

9) small center (MacCane) 

10) Shield with your banner (pullcancca with huifala) 

11) Bracelet (chchipana) 

12) strip (TOPACE) 

13) Cup (llaccolla) 

14) flecadura (SACCSA) 

15) Sandal (usuta) 

16) metal plate (accorasi) 

17) robe or Tunic (uncu) 

Right:

1) brooch (tupayari) 

2) head covering (sukkupa or Nanaca) 

3) blanket or Mantle (lliclla)

4) pin (tupu) 

5) band (Tocapo) 

6) flowers (TTIC) 

7) Bag (chchuspa) 

8) Tunica (ACSU) 

9) Sandal (usuta)



- Carly

From Carly - Illustration of fabric structures


These illustrations are good in that they are easy to understand and you can kind of follow individual yarns and can therefore see the structures clearly. 

The first four structures are various kinds of looping/netting that are similar to modern day knitted structures. They generally use one "set" of yarns as opposed to the 2 sets (warp and weft) in weaving. These structures are not considered woven fabrics and do not use looms, although some are aided by the use of scaffolds or stakes.

The last 4 illustrations are of woven structures (these could be created on the loom in the previous post). The vertical yarns are the warp yarns and the horizontal yarns are the wefts. These are just a few of the many complicated ways these two elements can interact to create different design elements, fabric strength, weight, drapability, breathability, texture, etc. These structures are much easier to explain and understand in person when pointing to specific parts of the diagrams, than to write about, so should go over this stuff tomorrow. Hopefully this has helped you start to understand and visualize textile process and structures a little bit.

Again I would like to work with a modeler to create an animation of a loom in use, and I am also intersted in being able to zoom in on a loom in action, or zoom in on a garment from the collection and see structures shown clearly like these are.

From Carly- textile basics/illustrations

Clark wanted me to post and discuss the following images:


This diagram is of a backstrap loom. To create woven fabrics on a loom, one set of yarns (called warp yarns) is held relatively taught vertically between the loom bars. On this loom, the top loom bar would be attached to a tree or pole, and the weaver would sit facing the loom, legs out in front with the backstrap around the lower back. Therefore the tension of these yarns is controlled by the weavers body. Also the fact that this loom is not staked down like other types of looms makes it portable. 

The heading string and lease cord are used to create a warp selvage (or clean uncut edge of fabric that won't unravel). The shed rod and heddle both keep the warp yarns separated into 2 groups (every other yarn). The heddle has individual yarn loops, each one looping around an individual yarn from one of these halves of the warp yarns. When the heddle is lifted (as is the case in the diagram) the 2 groups of warp yarns separate, leaving a space known as the shed. A second set of yarns run horizontally and are inserted into this shed, these are known as weft yarns. 

Weaving process: The heddle is lifted, one weft yarn is inserted into the shed, then the batten/sword is used to beat that weft yarn as close to the resulting fabric as possible. Then the other half, or some other carefully picked out combination of warp yarns, are lifted to create a new shed, and the next weft yarn is inserted. Fabrics created on this loom are always woven to a width no larger than the arm span of the weaver.

A major goal in this project is to animate the weaving process, maybe starting with a simple fabric structure. It would be nice to be able to zoom in and show the precise process, hand motions, and tools in use. I will be posting an image shortly of some illustrated fabric structures, I will try to keep it concise sorry this was so long!

- Carly






From Adam - Mamacona

Since many of the images I received on Friday were of the Mamacona convent in the northwest section of the site, I decided to begin modeling that. Having all those photos has made accurately modeling this building much easier. Of course, certain areas kept me puzzled for a while, since the top-down map and photos shed no light on some sections such as the trench connecting the two water pools.



5:00 Update:


Friday, June 10, 2011

From Adam - Progress Report

I decided to take a break from modeling the Sun Temple and model a smaller building today. I decided to put together a ramped pyramid, using Go Mastumoto's map and some of the photos I received yesterday. Modeling it is kind of nice; since we know less about the building I have more leeway in how I choose to model it. Of course, I'll try to model it based on what I already know about Incan architecture.

Thursday, June 9, 2011

From C & J - Day 4 Archaeological Textile Course

Today's history lecture was about the Tiwanaku and Wari cultures. This page (scroll down a tiny bit) has a good map that shows the expansion of these 2 cultures and it includes Pachacamac which gives us some context. The Wari are of particular interest because of their similarities to the Inca, in that they were a true expansionist state that controlled labor, taxes, etc. Also the influence of the Wari culture over the site of Pachacamac during the Middle Horizon is humongous.

The Wari are also known for their textiles: extremely fine yarns, warped imagery, vibrant colors (because in the highlands they used a lot of wool which holds dye better than cotton), tapestry weaving, unique tie-dyeing, and complicated combination of textile processes. Once again, some of the textiles found at Pachacamac were distinctly Wari in style, but may be a local imitation. An exhibit discussion of the difference between the influence of one culture's preferred style upon another is a must if we're going to attempt to explain the complexities of the imagery in this period.

We learned a lot about how an unbelievable amount of work was put into certain textiles possibly just to affect weight/drape, this is evident in the fact that the same visual effect could have been achieved by simpler means. There were a couple examples of this. This will help us visualize how certain textile artifacts would act on a body, based on analysis of their structure. Which, of course, will help in our reconstruction and attempting to make the 3D models feel as lifelike as possible.

We also worked on some pretty complicated structures on our looms (specifically double cloth and slit, interlocking, and dovetail tapestry) which again, helped us understand how and why certain designs are achieved. Then we had the opportunity to put our new knowledge to the test and analyzed some archaeological textiles in Bryn Mawr's wonderful collection. We discussed fiber type, weave structure, culture/time period, etc. After taking this course I feel competent analyzing an archaeological textile.

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

From C & J - Day 3 Archaeological Textile Course

Today we began the morning with a lecture on the Moche and Chimu civilizations. Both are located on the north coast but are not contemporaneous as the former existed in the Early Intermediate period, and the latter in the Late Intermediate period. Once again, great places to start or just compare with the adobe works at Pachacamac. The relief wall decorations on the Moche temples are incredible and still intact at places, even with visible traces of brightly colored paint. Also the sea life motifs in Chan Chan are comparable to the fish friezes at Pachacamac.

Next, we spent some time learning about twill fabric. Twills are woven structures that create diagonal and diamond shapes (like you can see in your jeans). We created a repeating chevron twill and a diamond twill pattern which is very common in Andean textiles, specifically on those that are more utilitarian with minimal decoration.

The rest of the day was spent learning and creating a brocade pattern. We both chose to design trinagular birds inspired by those that we have seen in large quantities throughout the collection and that we saw today when looking at Chimu fabrics. There are a few motifs like these triangular birds that are seen in cultures all up and down the coast.

Before today I (Jeanette) was very confused as to how brocade was supplemental to the weft without being an embroidery but then I learned that the supplemental weft is woven at the same time (from a separate bobbin) as the weft and follows the existing structure of the ground fabric (unlike embroidery which is added after weaving and independant of the structure). Being able to re-create these techniques on my loom has helped me tremendously in the understanding of the structure of textiles.

We also experimented with alpaca yarns and learned a lot of about the difficulties caused by its fuzziness and tendency to cling, and obscure designs.

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

From C & J - Day 2 of Archaeological Textile course

Today we learned about the Paracas and Nasca cultures. Both are very interesting cultures that flourished primarily on the coast. The Nasca ceramics deeply influenced a phase of ceramics at Pachacamac that is characterized by a bird figure named the "Pachacamac Griffin". Because these are visually appealing pieces it may be nice to focus on a polychrome vessel of this style when attempting to virtually deconstruct an artifact or discuss it's iconography.

Then we got right into the hands on part of the class. We set up and warped our mini looms, this was much simpler than warping modern 8+ harness looms. It was interesting to see the logistics of tensioning a continuous warp (necessary for a 4 selvage textile). We did not yet deal with creating the warp selvages because a textile piece must be completed before removal from the loom. We did however ask some questions and learned about a few creative ways to create that selvage (which we will experiment with when we complete our sample piece we are adding to each day). One thing that I (Jeanette) would like to emphasize when gathering information for the public is the attachment of the warp to the loom bar by lashing so that the textile would not have to be cut and the weft could go all the way up to the selvage. This practice, while semi-simple, shows the reverence that the Inkas had for their textiles.

Today we just wove some basic plain weaves (1 over 1), and variations, as well as basket weaves (2 over 2) and variations of that. It was enlightening to see how the shed (space between warp yarns that wefts are inserted into) is meticulously picked out, yarn by yarn, with each pass of a weft yarn, as they did not use harnesses, like looms have today. These are the techniques that will be easiest to illustrate digitally and should be focused on quite soon when we have a modeler ready to undertake this part of the project.

From Carly - Day 1 of Archaeological Textile course.

I apologize that this is a day late, I had some internet issues yesterday. This post will be about yesterday's class, and then later, Jeanette and I will create a joint post about today's class so as not to bore you to tears with repetitive posts. 

So like Jeanette said, class began with a refresher on some pre-ceramic cultures of the Andes, followed by some hands on work. This combination has really helped me to contextualize a lot of the things I have read about Andean Textile creation. I tend to confuse some of the pre-inca cultures, and their styles, but I already feel more confident and familiar with many of the Andean cultures and their relationships to one another (geographically, chronologically, stylistically). I know that I will also gain more from things I read in the future after this sort of crash course in Andean history. 

The most meaningful part of this course for me is the hands on stuff. There is only so much one can glean from simply reading about textile processes. I actually spun yarn with a drop spindle for the first time yesterday and learned first hand how much skill is involved. I also learned that there is a direct relationship between spindle/whorl size, and yarn size. Seeing modern spindles for crafters, which are much larger, really drove home the point that Andean weavers valued extremely fine yarns, and therefore, they valued the immense detail we see in their textile artifacts. 

We also experimented with "single element" techniques like looping, cross-knit looping, linking, and knotting/netting. Again these are things that I simply could not fully comprehend until I did it myself, despite my knowledge of modern day knits which are similar. I think I am now much better equipped at looking at piece that uses these techniques and correctly identifying precisely how they were made. Some of them lead to visually similar finished products but were made quite differently. 

Ultimately this course will definitely help me get more out of my research.

- Carly

Monday, June 6, 2011

Uhle Grave Lots

The bulk of my time over the past week has been spent reconstructing the grave lots and their associated goods so that within the exhibit these items can be displayed together as they may represent a complete view of Andean burial practices, or life in the Andes in general. Below is the process I went through to acquire these:

1. Uhle's Pachacamac volume. Clark had mentioned that Uhle listed a few grave lots in his published account. When I looked through them I found that he had mentioned two, but when discussing them in the text mixed them up and made it quite hard to figure out which number belonged to which of the 8 different cotton tunics mentioned, etc. One grave lot from here was successful and includes two black vicuna textiles, which if their identification is correct would show a very high ranking individual from the highlands being buried at Pachacamac or remarkable trade taking place (even though I imagine wearing vicuna on the coast would not be comfortable).

2. Database search. When Uhle originally cataloged the collection he would write out all of the artifacts associated with one mummy bundle (field and museum numbers) on the remarks part for one of these artifacts, the remaining objects would have a notation saying "See #####" referring to the record for the artifact (normally a false mummy head, human cranium, or a ceramic vessel) that contained the list of grave goods. I ran a search for the all artifacts from Pachacamac with the word "See" in their notes field. This returned a limited number of results.

3. Catalog cards. Because Uhle primarily recorded this information towards the beginning of the numbering sequence I flipped through the catalog cards to find any sorts of leads. This lead to the majority of the grave lots that have been compiled. I noticed a pattern that most of these artifacts were from either "Gravefield I" or "Beneath the Temple of Pachacamaj", and became concerned over the lack of context from the Sun Temple. After looking furiously through the card catalog I asked Clark and he mentioned the original ledgers.

4. Original ledgers. Finally, I consulted the ledgers to see if I missed anything from the Sun Temple. Turns out I hadn't. Something must have happened when excavating at the Sun Temple, because the artifacts lack any sort of context and associations between them. Will our reconstructions and peopling of this part of the site be primarily conjecture then?

5. Excel legwork. After having all of the information for each artifact (accession number, field number, description, and current location), I entered each grave lot into a worksheet in Excel and randomly assigned them grave lot numbers. There are 27 grave lots to work with during the rest of the summer. Then I checked my inventory sheet from the duration of this project to see if the objects had been previously photographed, and if so, when. All of this information went into another Excel document that was shipped off to Clark in the hopes that he will work with the new interns to expedite the photography of these artifacts so we can begin to digitally recreate them.

While Carly will be later posting the bulk of the material that we learned today during Dr. Anne Tibali's Archaeological Textile Course, I wanted to mention a few key items. Primarily, we were able to videotape a student spinning alpaca wool. Is there anything I should keep in mind when taping or downloading these images (file size, quality, type, etc)? Secondarily, the lecture on Pre-Ceramic coastal Peru was very relevant in that it was the beginning (but certainly not the end) of ceremonial architecture on the coast. Moseley brings it up in his article from Dumbarton-Oaks, and I'm thinking it would be advantageous to compare Caral to Pachacamac to see the relationship between the adobe styles. In addition, our work with single set structures was informative and will help us understand more how items such as slings react in the real world in order to accurately recreate them.

From Adam - Progress on the Sun Temple

I meant to post this on Friday, but here's how far I got modeling the Sun Temple by Friday evening:


The colors are just so I can tell how elevated a section is from a top view. Interpreting Uhle's drawings of the sides can be difficult at times since there are so many overlapping walls, but I'm making steady progress.

3:11 Update:


5:00 Update:


It doesn't fit on the terrain perfectly, so I'll have to add in finer terrain detail once I totally finish the temple.