Implementing Best Practice in Cultural Heritage Visualisation: The London Charter

Abstract

The London Charter for the Computer-Based Visualisation of Cultural Heritage (2.1) is a document written in 2009 by a pool of internationally renowned experts in digital technologies and virtual reality, which arose out of a recognition that the use of three-dimensional computer modelling in the historical, archaeological and broader cultural heritage domain, and particularly the rise of hyperrealism, risked introducing a dangerous lack of intellectual transparency, a lack which could critically compromise the actual and perceived validity of such research. The resonance of this initiative is such that it is already translated in ten other languages after the original version in English; the Charter has won formal endorsement from national and international bodies including adoption as an official guideline.