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Unique app for research
THE GATE TO the medieval stave
church in Hemse on Gotland is 3.5 metres high but only 85 centimetres wide. When we have stepped over the church’s high threshold, we are in a dark interior where the flickering candle creates shadows on the walls. Suddenly we notice the baptismal font further into the church and the decorated tapestry that runs along the top of the walls. However, we are not in a real church, but in a digital reconstruction, experienced from a computer screen. More specifically, it is an app that focuses on the sensual experience; the visitor should be able to stand in the sunlight outside, open the creaking door, walk around the dark corners of the interior and click on different objects to find out more. The app also contains an introduction to the research questions, a 3D presentation of the archive material and a so-called anastylosis where the remains have been set up and arranged as a reconstruction.
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GUJOURNAL SUMMER 2021
Photo: JOHAN WINGBORG
At a conference in early May, two University of Gothenburg researchers participated with a presentation, scientifically reviewed just like any other research, but still unusual: the presentation was in the form of an app with material in virtual reality. - The app is, as far as we know, the first of its kind. But it is also an example of a larger international trend where researchers are using new technologies and media to publish their r esults, explained the app’s creators, Gunnar Almevik and Jonathan Westin.
Through a simple command in the app, the visitor can produce a digital lens to see the authentic source material behind the interpretation.
Gunnar Almevik has, together with Jonathan Westin, made a unique app for research within craft sciences.
GUNNAR ALMEVIK, Professor
of Conservation, and Jonathan Westin, Associate Professor in Conservation and Research Coordinator at the Centre for Digital Humanities, are the researchers who created the app. It was presented on the fourth of May at the digital conference the Biennial International Conference for the Craft Sciences, a conference that focuses on alternative ways of publishing research. – It is called NTRO, Non-Traditional Research Outputs, and, so far, it is most common in the artistic field, Gunnar Almevik explains. Instead of mainly publishing text-based articles, they try to find alternatives that better suit the research, such as documented exhibitions and demonstrations based on films, 3D models or animations.
ALTERNATIVE WAYS of communicating research have of course long been used in various public contexts to increase public interest. But this is not what NTRO is primarily about, instead it involves scientific publications that are as carefully reviewed as traditional articles, but where the main medium is something other than text. And there are many benefits to visual publishing, says Jonathan Westin. – In a piece of text, a laboratory can be described in words, but in a video you can show exactly what you do in each step, which also makes it easier for anyone who wants to repeat the experiment. In particular within craft sciences, it is important to be able to show, for example, what an object looked like, how a certain tool was used or how different artifacts interacted. – IN OUR APP, we combine a
In our app, we combine a number of different media such as film, text, 3D models and interactive scenes. JONATHAN WESTIN
number of different media such as film, text, 3D models and interactive scenes. We also use a narrator’s voice, as we believe the reviewer needs some guidance. The fact that the app also contains source material in 3D gives researchers the opportunity to find out more about the remains we investigated and form their own opinion on the interpretation, something that does not work in a traditional text-based article. The point of NTRO, however, is
