Hello my name is John Tierney, I am a field archaeologist working with Eachtra Archaeological Projects. This talk has been written with Maurizio Toscano our GIS manager and is being presented as part of the process of planning a collaboration with the team at Archaeology Scotland. We are careful to call ourselves field archaeologists because it informs our whole approach. In terms of todays unconference we see community archaeology projects as using archaeological techniques to generate heritage media which through digital technology has a greater potential for communicating archaeology.
In essence we register Historic graveyards Within those we register memorials/graves From those we register people Record and attach audio and video stories to the graveyards
Our fundamental approach is grassroots and community development based- this reflects our personal background in archaeology –which focussed on the democratisation of field recording and the resultant archaeological data then ‘belonging to the public’
The user generated content is heritage media and its recording is done in a systematic planned way, over a period of time. Much of the work is voluntary although a number of community groups have funding for people and resources.
Behind all of the technology the key attributes people need are Commitment and focus With that commitment the community team must have members who are able to use a digital camera able to use a computer Capable of being rigorous and methodical in the field and following standard data archiving practices
When we record stories we attach them to place (here we see a list of stories for Ballymoney graveyard in West Cork)
Geotagged memorial headstone photographs are also presented attached to the historic graveyard.
Here is a screen capture of one memorial showing the inset google map location, the geotagged photograph and a zoomed-in portion of the headstone for inscription and iconographical examination.
The people database can be searched
Here we see the results of one search and links added to notes, telling personal stories.
In reference to the next speaker – this is part of how we aspire to hold people’s attention online We aim to present rich media about place Audio recordings of the rooks in the trees A Video panning across the graveyard for the more visually oriented amongst us (25 frames per second is a lot of information) Audio recordings of local stories in local accents (anybody who tells you accents are becoming homogenised does not work with community groups) Local pronunciations of personal and placenames – connecting to the diaspora By presenting these multiple stimulii we aim to hold attention for conservation and heritage benefits
Much of our work is organised around workshops –usually commencing on a Saturday with a larger group and continuing over a couple of weeks thereafter with more focussed, hands-on training. This approach is about working with communities to help them identify their own team members and to generate short and long-term plans.
We train groups in the Care and Conservation of Historic Graveyards, we focus on simple, low technology approaches to survey and recording as well the use of the more modern equipment such as the Sony HX5 GPS camera
Some groups are smaller and more focussed – they have already got their core team together and we go directly to hands-on training in the GPS camera, audiorecorder and iPod touch video production as you see here.
Field recording paperwork management systems are implemented and the project archive is always being built.
Energy and commitment are channelled away from memorial cleaning, hummock removal, headstone straightening, concrete path building and into recording, biodiversity and research.
In preparation for this talk I did a brief photographic survey of 12 memorials in the Kirk of Canongate yesterday. We uploaded 4 of the memorial photos yesterday and they are now live, for demonstration purposes, on the website. Maurizio is a an italian GIS specialist living on the southcoast of Ireland – he works with national and international datasets and he has built the system to work world wide.
Abbeylands, Kinsale – inscribed and uninscribed headstones were recorded in the initial survey
Smartphones can be used to record memorials with geotagged photographs and upload directly to the server. We wrote two Apps over the Winter and it works with Android 2.2. Grave Recorder and Grave Finder.
From within the App you can capture the geotagged photo or you can import an image from the Camera Roll.
Camera Roll and two memorial images from Grange Road cemetery yesterday.
Upload in Progress
Layar is an augmented reality application found in iPhones and Android phones which allows the direct interrogation of the graveyard database in the field – search by surname and be directed to headstone (+/- 3-10 m). The LAYAR will lead people to within 10m of the graves. We can try this in Canongate later on with the data we uploaded yesterday. The rich multimedia can be accessed via 3G and LAYAR.