Upcoming Exhibition of MSc Work

After a year of exploration and experimentation the outcome of my MSc work will exhibit at the Dundee Masters Show from the 17th to the 26th of August. Details of the show are available via the university website here.

My projects have been designed to expand upon a central question of what low altitude aerial photography can bring the representation and visualization of heritage. The suitability of low aerial photographs for the purposes of structure from motion photogrammetry has been key to my investigations and 3D meshes generated in this way are the foundation of my visualization work.



This snowy looking mesh of Jarlshof consists of 1.6 million vertices and was pieced together from thousands of photographs taken from an 8m pole, in order to reach every niche and corner of the monument site. This is compared with a kite aerial photograph taken at a later date with special permission from the nearby air traffic control tower at Sumburgh airport.

The 3D model was created from Photosynth point clouds which were meshed and aligned using Meshlab. Although the very low level pole photographs were ideal for the purpose of generating the detailed mesh, the broad coverage of the kite's views were far better suited for texturing which was done by projecting photographs onto the surface in Mudbox.



This workflow allowed me to capture the site at particular times of day and recreate the environment in 3D, with the potential to manipulate the atmosphere for greater narrative effect. This kind of recreated environment is well suited to demonstrate how reconstructions of lost structures fit into the site as the visitor would find it today. These ideas are the basis of my short film about Jarlshof and it's 4,000 year story, which will be on display during the masters show week.

I was lucky enough to also be involved in research project led by Alice watterson to visualize Skara Brae, a neolithic village on the Orkney Islands. This presented an opportunity to explore these techniques further, looking at the incorporation of live action footage as well as how the same approach can be applied on a macro scale with artifacts.



This still frame shows an example of scratch art from Skara Brae which has been reconstructed using photogrammetry, bringing it into an environment where elements such as the firelight can be added. The finished shot, incorporating pigment added by Aaron Watson, will form part of a collaborative film which will hopes to be aired on site.

During my MSc studies I have raised a lot of question in the course of answering a few. I look forward greeting any and all interested parties at the masters show, which marks the end of a chapter, but not the end of the journey!

Jarlshof Reconstruction Sequence Draft 2.1

This is the sequence which I have been using as a basis for the reconstructed elements in 3D, as well as the informing the low aerial angles which I will use for each stage of the short Jarlshof film. I've been lucky to have Alice Watterson contributing to the archaeological reconstruction for the Norse and later phases, allowing me to focus on the environment and atmosphere using the captured photography and photogrammetry, as well as reconstructing the prehistoric phases of habitation.

These early phases will be reconstructed where possible using aerial photography from other better surviving sites such as nearby Mousa Broch, or contemporary reconstructions such as the wheelhouse at nearby Scatness.

Completing the Jarlshof Photogrammetry Mesh

The mesh below was created from ten sections of photogrammetry taken with a camera on an eight meter pole in December last year. Although this mesh covers most of the site I was keen to aim for more complete coverage so one of the jobs for my return visit in April was to capture the remaining material needed to fill the holes.



I took a printout of the above plan view of the mesh back on site so that I could target the areas of sparse coverage, highlighted in red. In addition I wanted to extend the mesh into all four corners of the boundary fence and add some low level detail to the enclosed broch wheelhouse structures.



The coloured sections in this images represent the supplementary data captured in April, while the original data is shaded in grey. Over that last few days I've been processing and aligning these sections using the Iterative Closest Point alignment tool in Meshlab. I'm quite happy with the consistency of coverage at this point and the next stage is to stitch these sections together into one seamless mesh.

The original data consisted of 2.8 million vertices and I am adding an additional 0.9 million to that so am expecting the re-meshing process to require even more patience than usual. Once I have a single master mesh this can be broken down into more manageable chunks for texturing and rendering.

St Andrews Kite Aerial Photograph Published in Aurora Magazine

My photograph of St Andrews Cathedral appeared in 'The Big Picture' feature in Aurora, the quarterly customer magazine for Highlands and Islands Airports. This dramatic ruined site makes for a particularly striking low aerial view, although I had to manoeuvre carefully around those lighting conductors!

Glenelg Brochs

I took these photographs during a brief visit to Glenelg to add to my collection of broch references and possibly to inform a reconstruction of Jarlshof broch during it's phases of collapse. Among the best preserved examples of brochs on the mainland they are sheltered within a narrow glen, although despite this I was lucky enough to catch some good wind for kite flying.



Capturing this kite aerial photograph of Dun Telve required manoeuvring the kite line around the branches of the large tree on the left, always a frightening experience! It seems only by luck that these huge trees aren't close enough to have damaged the broch structure over time.



As the wind became more unstable I switched to pole aerial photography for this low level shot of Dun Troddan, which lies in clear line of site from Dun Telve. Here a portion of the stairway remains running between the two skins of the wall. The tall cavities supported by spreader stones are what gives these drystone towers their strength.

Skara Brae: Masive to Macro

As part of a collaborative effort to visualise Skara Brae I captured a series of kite aerial photographs as a starting point for a 3D reconstruction. Ultimately I aim to create an animated sequence showing an aerial approach to Skara Brae. This will be combined with live action footage, reconstruction and interpretations by both Aaron Watson and Alice Watterson to form a short film which aims to show the multi faceted nature of the site.

Skara Brae is set in a striking location, poised above the sweeping Bay of Skaill. Erosion from the sea here has contributed to both the sites discovery and partial collapse. From above the modern paving becomes particularly obvious, a necessity caused by swelling visitor numbers. One of the modern additions which aim to protect the site is the roofing on house 7, first constructed in glass, and then the turf which is visible here. The need for protection against the erosion caused by visitor numbers at Skara Brae means that many areas are out of access to the public, one of the issues which our visualisation hopes to address.

The house in the foreground here is quite different to the others architecturally (although each of the houses are distinct in some way) and is set aside form the rest of the village leading to speculation that it was used differently, perhaps as a workshop. It's symmetry and strong outline makes it particularly attractive from the air.

As well as the low altitude aerial photography I also spent some time photographing the detailed scratch art which adorns many stones in the houses and passageways. Perhaps the strongest example is this "bed" slab in house 7 which I focused on capturing with a 3D interpretation in mind.

Both these inaccessible details and aerial perspectives represent different kinds of privileged views, normally out of reach from the visitor. The outcome of our visualisation work has the potential not only to give an experiential glimpse of these vantage points but also to contextualise these distinct aspects of the site within each other. I hope to be able to present some more work from this exciting project soon!

Kite Photography in Orkney

I recently had the pleasure of being involved in a collaborative research project working with Aaron Watson and Alice Watterson who organised the project. Focused on Skara Brae, a neolithic village in the Orkney Islands, the project has taken the form of a collaborative mixed media film, which I will post more about soon. In the mean time here are some kite aerial photographs taken during our week of field work around the fantastic ancient monuments of Orkney.

The Ring of Brodgar, Kite Aerial Photograph.

The Ring of Brodgar is a neolithic stone circle and henge roughly contemporary with Skara Brae. It's vast diameter (around 100m) made it particularly difficult to photograph but after a few missed dinners waiting for the illusive evening sunlight we captured this image looking along the narrow spit of land towards the Ness of Brodgar and the Stones of Steness (pictured below).

The Stones of Stenness, Kite Aerial Photograph.

Stenness is a smaller standing stone circle and henge which includes a central hearth. The path which runs through the picture leads to Barnhouse, a neolithic settlement just visible in the background.

Broch of Gurness, Kite Aerial Photograph.

Jumping forward a few thousand years to the Iron Age, a visit to the Broch of Gurness was of interest to my own project which is largely focused on the brochs. John Hamilton speculated that the missing doorway in the broch and courtyard at Jarlshof may have been aligned to create a straight passage way, similar to the entrance here at Gurness, visible on the right.