RETOLD

RETOLD will last four years only. In December 2022, the third year commenced. We did a lot, but ended the year, knowing which challenges were left unsolved.

With the RETOLD project approaching its last year and our product (the App for documenting) expected to be ready by March 2024, we decided to design a communication plan until the end of the project. Through all platforms and by reaching our audience and target groups, we provide weekly explanations about the project, its necessity and the app.

We will show various aspects, which will make it interesting for many. The big launch is scheduled for September 2024 in the Netherlands. So if you are wondering what is happening, keep an eye on our social media. Every week you will find a short blog explaining what we have done, and what is going on right now!

During the RETOLD conference at Steinzeitpark Dithmarschen (September 2023), XYZ Technical Art Services continued their series of photogrammetry training sessions for museum partners who want to digitally capture their museum inventory.

During the workshop, volunteers and museum staff gained hands-on experience of taking photos suitable for photogrammetry. These photos are then processed in commercial or open-source stitching software, which “reads” the visual features in the photos and reconstructs the camera angles from which the photos were taken. The resulting point cloud can then be further processed into a textured 3D mesh.

It has been a busy year for the RETOLD project. We work with documenting, digitising and sharing stories of open-air museums. After having met in the ASTRA museum in Sibiu, Romania, in spring 2023, and in Museumsdorf Düppel in Berlin, Germany, in summer, we met in Steinzeitpark Dithmarschen, Germany in early autumn. 

EXARC is looking for a few open-air museums willing to test our new app in the coming weeks. The app is to document buildings: you mostly use photos and a sequence of questions for the initial setting up of a house, which then is followed by for example notes on maintenance. In the end, this app is meant to manage a digital documentation of the stories of both archaeological open-air museums and historical, skansen-type, open-air museums. 

Retold is an EU cooperation project where EXARC and partners develop a method for open-air museums to document, digitise and share their stories. One of the avenues is that we create 3D models of the houses in these museums. These models are then dressed with all kinds of information. Our specialists from XYZ Technical Art Services have developed most of our approach.

On Tuesday, March 28th, during meeting at Sibiu, Cordula Hansen and Shay Gilna (NUWA) led a session “Introduction to Photogrammetry”. The aim of the workshop was to introduce participants to accessible, practical ways of documenting buildings, objects and environments as 3D models using current mobile and desktop applications.

Early Spring 2023, we spent a short week in Sibiu, to discuss going digital with open-air museums. The Complexul National Muzeal ASTRA is one of the largest of this kind of museums in Central and East Europe, counting over 300 houses. The idea of the museum goes back to the end of the 19 th century. Originally they started with installations like for example wind and water mills.

The RETOLD project is in its third year now, so we used the chance to visit Romania and discuss every aspect of documenting, digitising and sharing of the stories of open-air museums. The tools we develop will be available to all open-air museums worldwide.