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| Digital Heritage Research Lab | |
|---|---|
| Name | Digital Heritage Research Lab |
| Formation | 2000s |
| Type | Research institute |
| Headquarters | unspecified |
Digital Heritage Research Lab is an interdisciplinary research institute focused on the digitization, preservation, analysis, and dissemination of cultural heritage materials. The Lab brings together scholars and practitioners from institutions such as British Museum, Smithsonian Institution, Library of Congress, Getty Research Institute, and Institut national du patrimoine to apply computational methods to artifacts, manuscripts, sites, and audiovisual collections. Activities often intersect with initiatives at UNESCO, European Commission, National Endowment for the Humanities, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and Wellcome Trust.
The Lab operates at the nexus of computational science, conservation, museology, and archival practice, collaborating with partners including University of Oxford, Harvard University, Stanford University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and University College London. Projects connect with fieldwork at sites such as Machu Picchu, Pompeii, Angkor Wat, Stonehenge, and Petra while engaging collections from Vatican Library, Bibliothèque nationale de France, National Museum of China, State Hermitage Museum, and National Museum of Anthropology (Mexico). Funding and policy dialogues involve stakeholders like Getty Foundation, European Research Council, Horizon 2020, Digital Public Library of America, and International Council on Monuments and Sites.
The Lab was established amid growth in digital humanities and imaging science influenced by projects at Los Alamos National Laboratory, CERN, NASA, J. Paul Getty Trust, and Smithsonian Institution Research Information Systems. Early collaborations drew on expertise from Rijksmuseum, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Tate Modern, National Gallery, and Victoria and Albert Museum and technical methods developed in laboratories such as Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Argonne National Laboratory, and Fraunhofer Society. Advisory boards included figures affiliated with Princeton University, Columbia University, Yale University, Cornell University, and University of Cambridge.
Research spans 3D documentation, spectral imaging, database curation, and computational analysis with projects linked to Getty Villa, American Museum of Natural History, Royal Ontario Museum, Canadian Museum of History, and Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. Notable initiatives addressed by the Lab engage with digitization programs at World Monuments Fund, International Council of Museums, ICOMOS, British Library, and National Archives and Records Administration. The Lab's case studies include work on artifacts from Louvre Museum, Hermitage Museum, Museo del Prado, Guggenheim Museum, and archaeological contexts such as Çatalhöyük, Meroë, Tikal, Göbekli Tepe, and Knossos.
Technical approaches integrate photogrammetry, LiDAR, multispectral imaging, X-ray fluorescence, and computed tomography informed by methods used at European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, Diamond Light Source, MAX IV Laboratory, Brookhaven National Laboratory, and SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. Data management practices draw on standards developed by Dublin Core, CIDOC CRM, PREMIS, ISO 21127, and initiatives at Library of Congress, OCLC, DPLA, and Internet Archive. Analytical workflows incorporate machine learning frameworks from Google Research, OpenAI, DeepMind, Facebook AI Research, and tools influenced by TensorFlow, PyTorch, Scikit-learn, and OpenCV.
The Lab maintains partnerships with academic centers like Stanford Humanities Center, Oxford Internet Institute, Harvard Center for Geographic Analysis, and MIT Media Lab as well as museums and archives including National Portrait Gallery (London), Royal Library of Belgium, Museo Nacional del Prado, National Museum of Korea, and Israel Museum. International cooperation extends to programs at UNESCO World Heritage Centre, Council of Europe, Asia-Pacific Cultural Centre for UNESCO, African Union, and Mercosur Cultural Network. Industry collaborations involve firms such as Microsoft Research, IBM Research, Adobe Systems, Autodesk, and Esri.
Laboratory facilities include imaging suites, conservation studios, high-performance computing clusters, and access to sensor arrays similar to those at PLATO Laboratory, National Center for Supercomputing Applications, Purdue University Visual Analytics Lab, and Stanford Linear Accelerator Center. Collections digitized or studied encompass holdings from Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew, Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Field Museum, and Natural History Museum, London. The Lab curates digital repositories interoperable with Europeana, Google Arts & Culture, Gallica, DigitalNZ, and Trove.
Educational programs include workshops, fellowships, and MOOCs conducted with partners like Coursera, edX, FutureLearn, and university programs at University of Pisa, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, National University of Singapore, University of Melbourne, and University of Cape Town. Outreach activities have supported community projects with Smithsonian Latino Center, National Trust (England), Historic England, National Park Service, and indigenous collaborations with organizations such as Assembly of First Nations and Māori Council. Training aligns with standards from ICOM, ICOMOS, Conservation of Cultural Property (ICOMOS-ICCROM), and International Centre for the Study of Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property.
The Lab's outputs have influenced policy reports at UNESCO, grant awards from European Research Council, prizes such as those given by Prince of Asturias Awards, citations in journals like Nature, Science, Journal of Archaeological Science, and policy briefs for agencies including National Science Foundation and Arts and Humanities Research Council. Collaborators have received fellowships from MacArthur Foundation, Rhodes Trust, Fulbright Program, and honors associated with Royal Society, British Academy, and American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Category:Research institutes