Condition reporting and monitoring of archaeological sites: The use of large-scale vertical aerial photographs in New Zealand

Abstract

Large-scale aerial photographs (approximately 1:2000 to 1:10000 scale on the negative) have a number of virtues for condition reporting. The same site can be photographed at intervals so that rate of change can be measured. The record is objective and it gives sufficient detail to observe not only patterns but also the details of condition in such matters as past repairs, sheep tracking or the existence and state of repair of fences. In addition, photographic prints provide a ready basis for annotation. They are the primary record of condition and may highlight and focus the needs for conservation intervention. Archiving of photographs makes possible future study in the light of new research interests. Monitoring using photographs taken at regular intervals is also recommended.     

A dying art? Archiving photographs in Cameroon

I discuss the practical problems of running an project to archive the contents of a photographers studio in Cameroon with the help of the British Library's Endangered Archives Programme. Reflections on long term fieldwork in a small Cameroonian village end with the current uses of photography which are similar to those in the archive but likely never to receive such attention for reasons which I discuss.
The article is written for a non-specialist generalist audience.     

Family photographs and domestic spacings: a case study

This paper elaborates the argument that domestic space should be considered as the product of relations that extend beyond the home. It examines one common domestic object – family photographs – and explores how the particularity of this photography and the specificity of its display by white middle-class mothers with young children in South-east England produce just such an extended domestic space. The stretched space co-produced by these mothers and photographs is also a form of stretched time, and it is integrative in complex ways; it contains different kinds of absences which disturb but do not break its cohesion. The paper also discusses why the display of family photographs is done almost exclusively by women.     

Framing the past: situating the archaeological in photographs

Archaeology continually reproduces its own images. Speaking archaeology’s visual language is one way we prove membership in the discipline. Many aspects of this visual language have become so naturalized within archaeological representation as to be almost unquestionable: the cleaning of the site, the use of scale, and particular framings and perspectives. How, then, is the production of particular photographic images of archaeology related to the practice of archaeology? Does archaeology look a certain way (in photographs) or are archaeologists reproducing an archaeology according to the way it is thought it should look? Using examples of early photographs from Latin American archaeological expeditions, this article investigates not only photography as an applied technology for scientific recording, but also its power to situate archaeological knowledge. Drawing on recent reflective and critical developments in both the history of archaeology and visual anthropology, it uses five focal points – trace, objectivity and authenticity, sight/site, still lifes, and still lives – to argue that early-twentieth-century archaeological photographs of Latin America participated in the generation of an ‘authentic’ past rather than simply paid testament to it.     

Improving the learning processes of Physical Geography through the use of landscape photographs in class

The use of alternative teaching methods to lectures is one of the keys to develop a more participatory and effective education. In the teaching of Geography, greater interaction of students with elements of the landscape through the active use of photography could be one of the ways to achieve this efficiency. This article describes an experiment conducted in 2016 with students of the subject Physical Geography of the Iberian Peninsula. Two different teaching methodologies were applied to two groups of students. The first one was based on dividing the time of each class between participatory comments of landscape photographs and imparting theoretical knowledge through lectures. The second methodology consisted only of lectures, following a more traditional approach. Additionally, some students from the first group actively participated by uploading and tagging their own field pictures to a photographic repository of the University of Seville. The effectiveness of the different activities in each group was assessed through four tests, performed monthly. The results indicate that the use of landscape photographs as a participative teaching resource allows a more efficient learning of theoretical concepts. Therefore, the proposed methodology should be considered by those interested in improving the quality and effectiveness of their teaching of Geography.     

Mapping by matching: a computer vision-based approach to fast and accurate georeferencing of archaeological aerial photographs

To date, aerial archaeologists generally apply simple rectification procedures or more expensive and time-consuming orthorectification algorithms to correct their aerial photographs in varying degrees for geometrical deformations induced by the topographical relief, the tilt of the camera axis and the distortion of the optics. Irrespective of the method applied, the georeferencing of the images is commonly determined with ground control points, whose measurement and identification is a time-consuming operation and often limits certain images from being accurately georeferenced. Moreover, specialised software, certain photogrammetric skills, and experience are required. Thanks to the recent advances in the fields of computer vision and photogrammetry as well as the improvements in processing power, it is currently possible to generate orthophotos of large, almost randomly collected aerial photographs in a straightforward and nearly automatic way. This paper presents a computer vision-based approach that is complemented by proven photogrammetric principles to generate orthophotos from a range of uncalibrated oblique and vertical aerial frame images. In a first phase, the method uses algorithms that automatically compute the viewpoint of each photograph as well as a sparse 3D geometric representation of the scene that is imaged. Afterwards, dense reconstruction algorithms are applied to yield a three-dimensional surface model. After georeferencing this model, it can be used to create any kind of orthophoto out of the initial aerial views. To prove the benefits of this approach in comparison to the most common ways of georeferencing aerial imagery, several archaeological case studies are presented. Not only will they showcase the easy workflow and accuracy of the results, but they will also prove that this approach moves beyond current restrictions due to its applicability to datasets that were previously thought to be unsuited for convenient georeferencing.     

‘That street is taking us to home’: young children’s photographs of public spaces

ABSTRACT

Children’s identities constitute and are constituted by the everyday spaces they inhabit. Though there are innumerable accounts of what adults think public spaces like subways and city streets mean to children, fewer recorded accounts exist from young children themselves (Faulkner and Zolkos 2016, “Introduction.” In Critical Childhood Studies and the Practice of Interdisciplinarity, ix–xvii. Lexington: Lanham.). In this work I explored 2- – 5-year-old children’s conceptions of public space through the photographs they took and the narratives they told in and around those images. I focused on how children imaged their spaces, how their narrative fragments added layers of story to the images’ contents, and how their photographic performances acted as ‘visual voice’ (Burke 2005, “‘Play in Focus’: Children Researching Their Own Spaces and Places for Play.” Children Youth and Environments 15 (1): 27–53.), highlighting for us how they see themselves and their positions within the larger urban environment. The young children’s photographs depicted their growing autonomy and mobility within an urban context, attunements to non-human forms of the city, and knowledge of what it means to live in their communities.     

A cohort of trees,photographs, scientists,an artist and a curator: the collaborative study of environmental change

ABSTRACT

I explore how a historic image archive can be re-worked through collaborative artistic-scientific practice, and how photography can be ‘re-performed’ as a strategy to observe an environmental change. The focus is on a project by the photographer Chrystel Lebas, who between 2011 and 2017 worked in collaboration with botanists from the Natural History Museum, London. The collaborators used historic and contemporary photographs for seasonal observations in the field. Their specific interest was in the potential for using historic visual ecological records to investigate environmental change as observed now.

The paper explores the hybridization of technical, aesthetic and embodied knowledge, the application of montage and the tacit creation of a visual framework for observation. It draws attention to the potential inflexibility in interpretation inherent in the accepted systematic practice of placing ecological records within a herbarium in a natural history collection. Secondly, it illustrates the neglected potential of photographic collections within scientific research.     

新内涵新视角新观点——评乌小花教授的《当代世界和平进程中的民族问题》

中央民族大学国家“十五”“211工程”建设项目,法学博士乌小花教授的学术著作《当代世界和平进程中的民族问题》,于2006年5月份由中央民族大学出版社出版。该书以马克思主义民族理论为指导,以探讨当今世界“和平与发展”的时代主题所面临的新情况和新问题为切入点,阐述民族宗教及其相关理论,对当代世界民族问题热点进行分类研究,历史地考察世界民族问题,揭示世界民族问题的本质和不同表现形式,分析当代世界民族问题对世界和平进程的影响,提出解决世界民族问题的见解和主张。该书还针对国际学术界诸如“文明冲突”、“民族主义”等一些热点…     

Social images through visual images: the use of drawings and photographs in the Western representation of the aborigines of Tierra del Fuego (southern South America)

Abstract

This paper analyses the creation of social images (culturally biased representations) about Fuegian aborigines through the production of visual images (drawings and photographs) by European voyagers, missionaries and ethnographers. The images are evaluated as records that offer rich and complex information about both the recorder and the recorded subjects through a consideration of the context in which they were published and the prevailing socio-historical situation. The creation and manipulation of visual records by Western agents has dual elements, in which the representation of the social ‘other’ (the Fuegians) bears a clear relation to the representation of the social ‘self’ (the Europeans). However, the Fuegians themselves were not necessarily passive subjects, but could act as active agents, negotiating who was photographed and in what situations. Over time, the prevailing representation of Fuegians changes from an initial idealization of their status as aboriginals, to a population of potential religious converts, and finally to their portrayal as ‘unpolluted’ aborigines in ethnographic photography. The paper concludes by considering how Fuegian societies and the impact of Western people have been re-considered through a re-contextualization of these same images within a recent museum display in Argentina.     

新形势 新需求 新规程：新修订《田野考古工作规程》的相关说明

现行的《田野考古工作规程》（试行）是上个世纪80年代初期国家文物局组织专家,在全面分析研究当时考古学的现状、学术发展方向以及学科环境的基础上制定的,1984年5月由中华人民共和国文化部颁布试行。《规程》自颁布以来,得到普遍和认真的执行,对整齐各地田野考古工作的质量,总体提升中国考古学的田野考古水平,发挥了积极和重要的作用。     

纽约新唐人

屋子的墙上歪七扭八地挂着几张一个老男人的画像.马文翰斜睨了几眼画像上的男人,就把墙上的画挨张撕下来,扯碎了.他心里无比地厌恶画上的老男人,那是一个来美国已经二十多年的福建人,如今,福建人已经拥有一家餐馆.马文翰在他那里打工.但是就在昨天,福建人当着那么多客人的面,冲着马文翰吼道:"你真的以为美国的盘子比国内好刷?"然后甩过几十块钱来.鱿鱼就是在这短短的几分钟内炒就的,可马文翰现在也不明白到底是什么原因.画都撕完了,但他重新陷入焦虑之中:明天怎么办呢?     

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