NSF Student Travel Grant for 2018 GRC on Scientific Methods in Cultural Heritage Research (SMCHR 2018)

Gordon Research Conferences, East Greenwich RI

Investigators

Abstract

Technical art history is a new sub-discipline within art historical and conservation research that applies science and technology to the understanding and preservation of art objects. Only over the last decade has this community begun to accord image processing and computational science the status of a principal partner among the other scientific and technological disciplines,such as chemistry, materials science, physics, imaging technology, and dendrochronology, blended together in the growing specialization of technical art history. From July 22 to 27, 2018, the 4th Gordon Research Conference on Scientific Methods in Cultural Heritage Research with the theme "Leading Edge Applications of Data Science, Degradation Science, and Conservation Strategies for Cultural Heritage" will take place in Castelldefels, Spain. This award is to support graduate students at US universities with backgrounds in engineering and science that include applicable expertise in imaging science and technology, digital signal/image processing, or computer science - to attend the 2018 Gordon Research Conference on Scientific Methods in Cultural Heritage Research. The inclusion of digital signal/image processing and related expertise from electrical engineering and computer science in the foundation of technical art history helps align art history with the burgeoning digital humanities. The expansion from words to images is an active frontier in the digital humanities. Advances in the computational component of technical art history, i.e. computational art history, are very likely to spawn "technology transfer" to other branches of the digital humanities dealing with images and objects. The potential for these newly opened cross-disciplinary applications of digital image processing to raise new technical challenges is heightened by aiding the inclusion of - particularly young - digital image processing specialists in the foundation-building period of this new field of technical art history. Another benefit arises with the public's exposure to science and technology brought on by the expansion of technical art history research evident in the recent upswing in the incorporation of technical information and their computer-based visualizations into museum exhibitions. This is an unparalleled opportunity for students in engineering, applied mathematics, computer science, and other sciences to be present at the beginning of this young field's effort to incorporate their image processing and computational science skills. Their presence at this conference will also add to the perception of viability of computational methods in the future of technical art history. The connections the students make with domain experts with the potential for future collaboration are priceless to both sides. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.