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Past CHI Announcements
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April, 2008
Dear Friends and Supporters,
Spring signifies new beginnings and more energy for growth and renewal. The team at Cultural Heritage Imaging (CHI) springs into action — participating in global heritage conferences and sharing knowledge in other ways. In addition to delivering papers, CHI experts are conducting workshops at prestigious institutions around the world.
Cultivating A Global Presence
The European Union is the place to be with CHI in the months leading up to Summer 2008. Visit the CHI events page for more information and to read abstracts of the papers and presentations. CHI also plans to post the papers on the Featured Publications page.
Budapest is the Best. The CHI team heads to Hungary in early April to present a paper and workshop at the Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology conference (CAA 2008). CHI Executive Director Carla Schroer conducts the CAA workshop, “Open Archaeology: Fundamentals of Intellectual Property and Open Source.” Also at CAA, Carla and co-authors Mark Mudge (CHI President) and Michael Ashley (CHI board member) deliver their paper, “Not All Content is ‘Born Archival:’ Empirical Acquisition, Scientific Reliability, and Long-Term Digital Preservation.”
The Cretan Connection. Shortly after CAA winds down, the intrepid CHI researchers travel to the Greek island of Crete for Eurographics 2008. For this essential conference, CHI assembles a truly international gathering of experts who co-present a daylong tutorial on “Image-Based Empirical Information Acquisition, Scientific Reliability, and Long-Term Digital Preservation for the Natural Sciences and Cultural Heritage.”
Authorities from four US cultural heritage institutions and Greece, Portugal, Italy, and the UK collaborated on this groundbreaking tutorial. CHI’s special tutorial page provides more information and biographies of the tutorial team and will be updated with course notes and presentations after the conference.
Assisting East Coast Scholars. In a brief free interval during CHI’s busy conference schedule, the team conducts a weeklong training program in digital cultural heritage techniques for conservation staff at the Worcester Art Museum in Massachusetts in May.
Next Stop — Switzerland. Mark co-authored a paper with John Redman of Hewlett Packard, which John will present at the Society for Imaging Science & Technology’s Archiving 2008 conference in Switzerland. The paper is entitled “Color Accurate Photography Using Unmodified Digital Cameras and Theatrical Filters.”
On to the Emerald Isle. In late June, CHI specialists visit Ireland for the World Archaeological Congress (WAC). Mark co-leads a session, “Capturing and Visualizing the Past,” with Alan Chalmers of the Warwick Digital Laboratory, while Carla reprises her open archaeology, intellectual property, and open source workshop previously conducted at CAA. Mark and Carla also present two papers co-authored with CHI Imaging Director Marlin Lum entitled “Democratization and Adoption of Digital Technology.,” and “Robust Image-based Rock Art Documentation.”
Ongoing Projects
Best Practices in Cultural Heritage. The CHI team continues its collaboration with the University of Southern California (USC) on “Developing Advanced Technologies for the Imaging of Cultural Heritage Objects,” a project funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) National Leadership Grant. CHI has trained USC students and researchers in advanced digital imaging techniques for ancient coins, cuneiform tablets, and cylinder seal impressions. CHI has also helped USC develop special imaging equipment for future projects.
To help with the next phase of the IMLS project, CHI has recruited experts in knowledge management — leading-edge technologies and practices that facilitate cultural heritage research. Stay tuned for exciting new developments and check the IMLS project page for updates.
Rock Art & More. CHI also contributes expertise to multiple projects in diverse fields, such as the Legend Rock petroglyph site in Wyoming and several University of California–Berkeley natural history museums.
Your Support Means So Much.
The CHI team invites you to join us in preserving our cultural heritage for future generations. Your support in the past has been a great help for our projects.
Please continue to show your interest through the Support Us page at www.c-h-i.org. Let us know what you think about cultural heritage issues — we look forward to hearing from you.
Best wishes for a fantastic summer in 2008!
The CHI Team
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December 2007,
Dear Friends and Supporters,
Thank you for supporting Cultural Heritage Imaging (CHI) through your continued interest and contributions. CHI is wrapping up 2007 in style with new web site content, publications in peer-reviewed journals, and new natural history and paleontology projects. The CHI Team is also poised to spread the word about advances in imaging technologies and processes at a series of prestigious conferences in 2008.
New Web Site Extras
New Publications Page. The CHI team has assembled all of our papers into a one-stop web listing on the new Featured Publications page. Visit this page to view abstracts and download full-color .PDF files of papers and presentations. Read about the latest techniques for documenting many types of cultural heritage objects – from Byzantine mosaics to ancient coins and rock art.
Updated Photo Galleries. CHI has added more photos to illustrate a number of our projects on the Featured Projects page. These virtual galleries take you into the field with the CHI team as they capture interactive three-dimensional (3D) images of objects and artifacts. Look for the camera and tripod icon to access these repositories of visual information.
Adventures in Empirical Provenance. CHI is the champion of a new concept in cultural heritage – empirical provenance (EP). Discover how EP is revolutionizing the field by reviewing CHI’s article on the Empirical Provenance page. The new EP article is a companion piece to an earlier CHI effort, “The Big Picture,” which explains how digital imaging and empirical provenance preserve cultural heritage for future generations.
Expanding Into Natural History
The natural sciences can also benefit from CHI’s techniques and the team is exploring how this could happen in a series of “proof of concept” projects at two natural history museums at the University of California–Berkeley (UCB). Stay tuned for more developments from CHI at the University of California Museum of Paleontology and the Essig Museum of Entomology.
Spreading the Word About CHI
The new year is almost here and CHI is lining up an impressive list of conference appearances to share knowledge about cultural heritage documentation. Recently, CHI also conducted an informative workshop at the UCB Archaeological Research Facility.
2008 Conference Participation. CHI presents a full-day tutorial, “Image-Based Empirical Information Acquisition, Scientific Reliability, and Long-Term Digital Preservation for the Natural Sciences and Cultural Heritage,” at Eurographics on the Greek island of Crete in April.
In late June-early July, CHI President Mark Mudge co-leads a session at the World Archaeological Congress (WAC) in Ireland. Mark’s session, “Capturing and Visualizing the Past,” Will be part of the conference theme, Archaeology in the Digital Age 2.0. CHI Executive Director Carla Schroer presents a WAC workshop, “Open Archaeology: Fundamentals of Intellectual Property and Open Source.”
UC–Berkeley Workshop. In December 2007, the CHI team gave a workshop on imaging methods that reveal surface details of rock art and other cultural heritage objects at UCB’s Archaeological Research Facility.
Visit the Events page on CHI’s web site for future updates about CHI’s conference and workshop participation in 2008.
Best Wishes To Our Friends and Supporters
CHI thanks all of our supporters for their generous contributions of money, time, advice, and collaboration. We couldn’t work on all these projects without your much-appreciated assistance!
CHI extends our gratitude to many of you on our Acknowledgements page.
Please continue to support us and show your interest through the Support Us page at www.c-h-i.org.
Happy holidays to all and here’s to a fantastic 2008!
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July 2007
Dear Friends and Supporters,
Thank you for your interest in Cultural Heritage Imaging (CHI). The CHI team is on the fast track for the rest of 2007 with much activity, including conferences, workshops, papers, and more.
New Ways to Study the Past
CHI Imaging Director Marlin Lum contributed his photographic expertise to assist CHI board member Dr. Michael Ashley in teaching an exciting new course in the San Francisco Presidio Archaeology Lab. Michael and his colleagues trained students at the University of California, Berkeley (UCB) summer session class, "Digital Documentation and Representation in Archaeology: Managing Cultural Heritage at the San Francisco Presidio."
Go to the UCB Multimedia Authoring Center for Teaching in Anthropology (MACTiA) site to read more about the class and watch a YouTube video.
Ongoing Projects
The CHI team continues to work on a variety of vital cultural heritage projects. Read more about these efforts on the Featured Project page.
Sharing Knowledge Globally and Locally
CHI researchers continue to share knowledge globally and locally with appearances at events all over the world and in the San Francisco Bay Area. See the Events page for the latest updates.
Coming Soon. Look for CHI at upcoming technology and cultural heritage conferences such as the Electronic Information, the Visual Arts, and Beyond (EVA) 2007 conference in London. Dr. Alan Chalmers of the University of Warwick and Eva Zanyi of the University of Bristol present a paper co-authored with CHI president Mark Mudge and executive director Carla Schroer, "Lighting and Byzantine Glass Tesserae." Read more about this project to document fantastic Byzantine glass mosaics in this press release.
ARARA 2007. Mark and Carla recently discussed "Simple, Low-Cost Reflection Transformation Imaging Documentation Techniques for Rock Art" at the American Rock Art Association (ARARA) 2007 event in Montana.
Archiving 2007. Mark traveled to the DC area to present "The Simultaneous Capture of Spectral and Textural Information" with co-author John Redman of Hewlett Packard at the Society for Imaging Science and Technology Archiving 2007 conference.
CAA 2007. Mark, Carla, and Michael made a big impression in Berlin at the Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology (CAA) 2007 conference. Mark and Carla delivered their research paper, "Simple, Low-Cost Reflection Information Capture and Reflection Transformation Imaging Techniques," to great acclaim.
Mark and Carla also contributed a project paper, "Fast, Accurate, Simple to Use, Textured Point Cloud Generation for Cultural Heritage Documentation," co-authored with Neffra Mathews and Tom Noble of the US Bureau of Land Management Science and Technology Center and Jason Birch of the Australian company ADAM Technology.
Mark, Michael, and Stephen Stead of Paveprime Ltd. conducted a key workshop at CAA 2007: "Standards of Best Practice: Best Practice for Standards."
US/ICOMOS Symposium. Barely 2 weeks after CAA 2007, the CHI team and Michael participated in the International Council on Monuments and Sites US/ICOMOS Symposium in the San Francisco Presidio. CHI's US/ICOMOS conference poster, "Empirical Provenance: A New Paradigm for Imaging Authenticity," is available.
Michael helped lead an US/ICOMOS off-site mobile workshop at Fort Winfield Scott in the Presidio. The CHI team provided content for the workshop: "High Definition Documentation for Heritage Management and Tourism."
The Big Picture
Visit Why CHI Exists on the CHI website for an illuminating position paper, "The Big Picture: Digital Imaging and Cultural Heritage in Context."
Thanks To Our Supporters
CHI appreciates your interest in our work and your support for our ongoing projects. CHI makes a difference by working with a broad range of institutions, experts, materials, and sites to develop practical applications for the latest imaging technologies. Please continue to support us and show your interest by
making a donation.
Have a wonderful summer 2007!
The CHI Team
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March 29, 2007
Dear Friends and Supporters,
Thank you for your interest in Cultural Heritage Imaging (CHI). We've been quite busy in the first months of 2007 — welcoming new board members, preparing for conferences, launching education efforts, working on research projects, and adding new content to www.chi.org.
Welcome New Board Members
CHI is happy to announce two prestigious additions to our board of directors. Please join us in welcoming board members Scott Verges and Dr. Michael Ashley.
Scott Verges is a prominent San Francisco Bay Area attorney with strong interests in arts and culture, including independent films.
Michael Ashley earned his Ph.D. in Archaeology from the University of California, Berkeley (UCB) Among his many roles, Michael manages New Program Development for the Open Knowledge and the Public Interest (OKAPI) team, a project at UCB’s Office of the Chief Information Officer.
Conference Presentations, Workshops, and Papers
CHI President Mark Mudge, executive director Carla Schroer, and board member Michael Ashley travel to Berlin in April for the Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology (CAA) 2007 conference. CHI will be presenting in 3 different forums at the conference. Stephen Stead of Paveprime Ltd. joins them in conducting “Standards of Best Practice: Best Practice for Standards.” Mark and Carla will present a research paper, "Simple, Low-Cost Reflection Information Capture and Reflection Transformation Imaging Techniques" and a project paper " Fast, Accurate, Simple to Use, Textured Point Cloud Generation for Cultural Heritage Documentation” co-authored with Neffra Mathews and Tom Noble of the US Bureau of Land Management and Jason Birch of the Australian company Adamtech.
Shortly after the CAA event, the CHI team and Dr. Ashley participate in the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) US/ICOMOS Symposium in the Presidio of San Francisco. CHI has an accepted poster at the conference. Dr. Ashley co-leads an off-site mobile workshop at Fort Scott in the Presidio. The CHI team presents at the workshop: “High Definition Documentation for Heritage Management and Tourism.”
Cutting-Edge CHI Web Site Content
Behind the scenes with CHI. The CHI web site team recently created exciting illustrated stories about CHI expeditions and projects in the Featured Projects section. Visit this section to read about CHI’s adventures in Switzerland and Portugal. View world-class Portuguese rock art and Swiss treasures in the galleries showcasing CHI’s new imaging technology.
Follow the news on CHI appearances.
The CHI team updates the Events page on a regular basis with CHI’s latest conferences, workshops, and more. Go to the Events page to see what CHI is doing around the world.
The CHI perspective.
Visit the Why CHI Exists and the What CHI Does sections of the web site for new insights and observations about the state of cultural heritage research and documentation. Why CHI Exists includes a new position paper, “The Big Picture: Digital Imaging and Cultural Heritage in Context.
In the News.
The CHI team appears in a January 8, 2007 USC Today article on the University of Southern California web site. Bill Dotson wrote the news feature, “Research Project Garners $600,000 Grant: The Institute of Museum and Library Services helps USC collaborators preserve the digital fingerprints of ancient scribes.”
CHI Reaches Out.
CHI continues its tradition of educating students of all ages about the merits of cultural heritage documentation.
The next generation. CHI Executive Director Carla Schroer visited the Ocean Palms Elementary School in Ponte Vedre, FL to show fifth graders how much fun cultural heritage can be. Judging by the lively response, the next generation is ready for the challenge to learn about and protect our cultural heritage.
Cultural heritage professionals. In February, CHI participated in a workshop held at the SF Presidio with Dr. Julian Richards, Director of the Archaeology Data Service, the national digital data archive for archaeological research in the UK. The workshop provided an informative discussion about Cultural Heritage and Digital Preservation.
CHI Thanks You for Your Support and Interest!
CHI needs your support to help with our ongoing work. We are making a difference by working with a broad range of institutions, experts, materials, and sites to develop and make practical the latest imaging techniques. Our pilot projects show promising results for documenting and disseminating important cultural heritage material. Even small amounts of money make a big difference to a start up organization like CHI. In addition to helping us pay our expenses, individual donors show there is support for and interest in our work. Please consider making a donation today.
The CHI Team
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November 28 , 2006
Dear Friends and Supporters,
Thank you for your interest in Cultural Heritage Imaging (CHI). As 2006 draws to a close, we are sending some exciting year-end updates from the CHI team.
Recent Recognition
Mark Mudge and Carla Schroer traveled to Cyprus in early November to deliver their paper, "New Reflection Transformation Imaging Methods for Rock Art and Multiple Viewpoint Display," at the 2006 International Symposium on Virtual Reality, Archaeology, and Cultural Heritage (VAST). CHI Imaging Director Marlin Lum and Tom Malzbender of Hewlett-Packard Laboratories (HP Labs) co-authored the paper, which won the "Best Paper" award at the conference. The 2006 VAST event was a joint effort unifying four conferences "for the exchange and sharing of know-how in the areas of Cultural Heritage (CH) and Information Technology (IT) focusing on e-documentation and computer graphics." The paper and the presentation slides are both available on CHI's events page.
Major Grant Award
In late September, the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) announced the recipients of the IMLS National Leadership Grants. The University of Southern California (USC), in partnership with CHI, received a $600,000 IMLS grant for a joint project: "Developing Advanced Technologies for the Imaging of Cultural Heritage Objects." USC and CHI will "develop technology that is capable of providing a three-dimensional (3D), multi-view representation of cultural objects that will be downloadable and available over the Internet." IMLS leadership grants require matching funds and encourage innovation and public service at US museums and libraries.
New Project Details on CHI Website
Lions and Rabbits and Birds -- Oh My! CHI has published more results from the extensive work we did for our Switzerland 2005 project. In 16 days we documented 114 artifacts from three Swiss collections. We've added new 3D Reflection Transformation Images (RTIs). Click and drag anywhere on these interactive RTIs to change the light source and highlight different aspects of ancient artwork, including Celtic lion and rabbit jars and a stylish Celtic bird. On some artifact pages, we have both Quicktime object movies and RTIs available, as well as archaeological information. View centuries-old treasures in entirely new ways in CHI's Switzerland 2005 gallery.
Preview of Coming Attractions: Art That Rocks. As a special thank you for our faithful email list subscribers, we're offering a "sneak peek" at petroglyphs from the Foz Coa Paleolithic rock art site in Portugal. CHI embarked on this multi-year project in June 2006. We are keeping the Portugal 2006 gallery under wraps by not adding links to these pages from our main site until we finish writing descriptions for all the featured rock art images. However, you can visit this great work in progress and view fine details from these amazing carved masterpieces created 12,000 to 14,000 years ago.
Getting the Word Out: CHI Outreach
CHI staff members have been busy giving talks and meeting new people interested in cultural heritage preservation and innovation. Here are highlights from mid-2006:
School Daze. Choruses of "Cool!" and "I didn't know coins were that old!" followed Carla Schroer's presentation at the Sedgwick Elementary School "Discovery Day" in Cupertino, CA in April 2006. Carla showed four classes of enthusiastic fourth and fifth graders ancient objects from the Switzerland 2005 project. The aspiring students of archaeology particularly enjoyed images of ancient coins and document seals.
New Frontiers in Fargo. Mark Mudge and Carla Schroer contributed their expertise to the Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology Conference in Fargo, ND in April 2006. The CHI talk, "3D Data Acquisition with Reflection Transformation Imaging," was well received at an event dedicated to "Digital Discovery: Exploring New Frontiers in Human Heritage." The conference gave CHI the chance to discuss the documentation needs of many cultural heritage projects, as well as to see first hand what work is underway.
College Covers CHI. A prominent feature on CHI appeared in the Summer 2006 NIMBUS, the alumni newspaper for New College, the Florida school Mark Mudge and Carla Schroer attended. S. Lawrence Paulson wrote the article on CHI, "How alums Mark Mudge and Carla Schroer are saving civilization, image by image."
New Technology Directions
CHI is working with researchers at HP Labs and other groups to devise new ways to use Reflection Transformation Imaging (RTI) technology for cultural heritage projects. CHI and HP Labs are developing multiple-view RTIs of the same object. An experimental viewer is in the works. Scholars at the Italian National Research Council, ISTI at Pisa, the University of California-Santa Cruz, Princeton University, and the Universidade de Minho in Portugal are helping CHI refine the new technologies.
CHI and HP Labs are also developing a technique to capture RTIs of larger objects in the field without the need for a lighting dome to suspend light sources around the objects. CHI performed initial tests of the experimental dome-free technique at the Foz Coa Paleolithic rock art site in Portugal and also at the Legend Rock petroglyph site in Wyoming. CHI's most recent paper describes the new methods used in both of these projects.
CHI Appreciates Your Continuing Support!
CHI needs your support to help with our ongoing work. We are making a difference by working with a broad range of institutions, experts, materials, and sites to develop the latest imaging techniques and make them easier to use. Our pilot projects show promising results for documenting and disseminating important cultural heritage material. Even small amounts of money make a big difference to a start up organization like CHI. In addition to helping us pay our expenses, individual donors show there is support for and interest in our work. Please consider making a donation today.
Thank you and happy holidays from CHI! Here's to more progress and good news in 2007!
The CHI Team
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March 1, 2006
Dear friends and supporters,
Thank you for your interest in Cultural Heritage Imaging. Here are a few quick announcements.
Upcoming Events:
A reminder for those of you in the Bay Area, Mark Mudge and Carla Schroer will give a talk entitled "Archiving Technology: Sacred and Profane Treasures of the Alps" on Friday March 3 at 8pm In the Annenberg Auditorium at Stanford. The talk is part of the Stanford Chapter of the Archaeological Institute of America lecture series and is free and open to the public. More details can be found on the events page on the CHI web site
New Material on the website:.
We have posted new object movies, to the Switzerland project page The object movies are of Celtic ceramics excavated by the monks of the Grand St. Bernard in a grave near Martigny in 1891. Also included in this set is a bronze age torque with incised geometric designs. We will be showing this material and much more at the Stanford lecture on Friday.
Help spread the word about CHI
One of our goals for 2006 is to make more people aware of our work. You can help us by passing on this announcement to people you think would be interested. Encourage your friends to sign up for our email announcement list, either by visiting the sign up page or simply sending an email to us
Thanks for your support!
The CHI Team
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February 8 , 2006
Dear friends and supporters,
Thank you for your interest in Cultural Heritage Imaging. Here are a few updates on our recent work and plans.
Upcoming Events:
For those of you in the Bay Area, Mark Mudge and Carla Schroer will give a talk entitled "Archiving Technology: Sacred and Profane Treasures of the Alps" on Friday March 3 at 8pm In the Annenberg Auditorium at Stanford. The talk is part of the Stanford Chapter of the Archaeological Institute of America lecture series and is free and open to the public. More details can be found on the events page on the CHI web site
Switzerland and Italy Update:.
Our projects in Switzerland went very well. We were able to capture approximately 200 PTMs of ancient coins, wax and lead document seals on medieval documents, an 18th century oil painting, sculptures, ceramic epigraphy, and a 3700 year old bronze age torque. We also shot object movies, video and photographs. We have just begun a project page for this work on our website. We will post more material there as we process it. Many examples from this project will be presented at the March 3rd talk at Stanford.
Our paper, "Reflection Transformation Imaging and Virtual Representations of Coins from the Hospice of the Grand St. Bernard," presented to the VAST conference in Pisa was well received. We had an opportunity to meet with many interesting folks at the conference, and saw some exciting new work in computer graphics and cultural heritage.
Technology:
The fiber optic PTM capture dome, we completed in the fall, worked very well in Switzerland. You can see some pictures of it in action on the project page. The fiber optic dome can be precisely wavelength controlled, limiting photonic damage, so that very fragile objects like ancient paper, papyri, and textiles may be photographed. We are working on modifications to the dome that would allow us to use LED lights for situations where light damage is less of an issues, such as sculptures, ceramics and coins. The LED lights are brighter and will allow us to use shorter exposures which will speed up capture times.
Help spread the word about CHI
One of our goals for 2006 is to make more people aware of our work. You can help us by passing on this announcement to people you think would be interested.
Encourage your friends to sign up for our email announcement list, either by visiting the sign up page or simply sending an email to us
Thanks for your support!
The CHI Team
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October 4, 2005
Dear friends and supporters,
Included are a few more updates from the CHI team on our current work and fall plans.
Upcoming Projects
The CHI team is heading to Switzerland in the middle of October for three weeks of documenting ancient artifacts. Take a look at some of the material we will be working with, it's fantastic! document seals from the Monastery of St. Bernard. (This page is in French, but the images are wonderful, and require no translation) We will also be documenting coins from three collections in the region.
When we finish the documentation work, we will drive to Pisa for the VAST conference. Our president, Mark Mudge, is one of the program committee co-chairs for the conference, and we will be presenting a paper entitled "Reflection Transformation Imaging and Virtual Representations of Coins from the Hospice of the Grand St. Bernard" (424 kb pdf download)
Technology
We've been working hard on our automatic fiber optic dome for capturing PTMs of coins, document seals, and other small material.We've had an enormous amount of help from volunteer Michael Hyde, and board member Tim Lindholm in creating this piece of equipment, and we want to give them big thanks. We're pretty excited about our ability to document much more material in an efficient and automated way. The new rig has some special features for working with ancient documents, mainly that all UV and IR light is filtered and we only let light through between 520 and 750 nm. So, the spectrum that is most harmful to paper doesn't come through.
Mark Mudge and Carla Schroer attended the SIGGRAPH conference in LA in August, and saw breakthrough research in a number of areas. We are in discussions with several researchers about possible collaboration, and testing some of the new methods. For you geeks on the list here are a couple of papers we thought were particularly interesting.
Efficiently Combining Positions and Normals for Precise 3D Geometry
Performance Geometry Capture for Spatially Varying Relighting
Carved Visual Hulls for High-Accuracy Image-Based Modeling
Supporting CHI
CHI needs your support! Many of you have donated money and/or volunteered your time to help CHI. We appreciate everything you've done, and can't survive without your support. We can always put donations to good use. Even small donations make a big difference to a start up organization like CHI, because, in addition to the money, they show potential granting agencies that there is broad support for this work. You can donate securely using your credit card online or you can mail us a check.
A great way to help CHI is to tell your friends and colleagues about us, and ask them to subscribe to receive announcements
We also have volunteer opportunities, just drop us a line, and we can discuss your skills, what we need, and what you want to do.
Thank you for your continued interest and support!
The CHI Team
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July 19, 2005
Dear friends and supporters,
You haven't heard from the CHI team in a while, and we wanted to update you about the many things that are happening.
New on the Website:
We've created a new gallery of ancient glass beads, photographed as object movies.
Upcoming Projects:
The CHI team will return to the Swiss Alps in late August/early September to document more material from the Monastery of Saint Bernard, as well as treasures from the Abbe of St. Maurice and the Monastery of Simplon. In addition to coins, we will be photographing wax and lead document seals, using the PTM technique. Some of our work from last year is available on our website, and also in French on the website of the monastery.
Chanoine Jean-Pierre Voutaz, Archivist of the Congregation of the Grand St. Bernard says this about CHI's work: "To date, various animations of objects and photographs of coins taken with the PTM technique, which you [CHI] carried out and transmitted to us, were made available online on our web site to allow people to consult some seminal objects of our civilization. On several occasions I also presented these techniques, either to members of the congregation, or to groups of young people to explain to them that they are part of a long chain of human beings which crossed the Alps going back millennia." (translated from French)
We are looking forward to returning to the Alps and expanding our work there.
Other News:
We are developing a new, portable, automatic PTM rig which we will take to the Alps. This will bring enormous improvements in the efficiency of capturing coins and document seals
Mark Mudge, our president, was named co-chair of the International Program Committee for the VAST symposium on Virtual Reality, Archaeology and Cultural Heritage to take place in Pisa, Italy in November.
New Fund raising Campaign:
CHI needs your support to continue our work. We have launched a campaign to obtain 200 individual donations by the end of 2005. Your support helps us to continue to publish material to the website, develop new techniques and equipment, and work with cultural heritage professionals to document collections and archives. Your donations also show foundations and corporations that people are interested in and supportive of CHI's work. This is a critical measure applied to start-up organizations like CHI. Any amount is appreciated and will be put to good use directly funding our programs. You can make donations online with a credit card or mail us a check.
We are a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation, and all donations are tax deductible in the U.S.
If donating to CHI doesn't fit in your budget right now, there are other ways to help us fulfill our mission. Please conatct us
Thank you for your continued interest in our work.
The CHI Team
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