Augmenting the Archaeological Record with Art: The Time Maps Project

Abstract

This chapter proposes a new method for evoking the complexity of the Past from the archaeological record, based on a transdisciplinary approach linking science, art and technology. Inspired from the fractal-theory, this method employs different levels of augmentations from general context to detail and uses a combination of Augmented Reality techniques and visual media, with a high artistic quality, to create a Mixed-Reality user experience. The paper presents an experimental Augmented Reality application on mobile devices, and discusses the efficacy of the method for an educational strategy to help communities recover and transmit their immaterial heritage to future generations. The research was based in Vadastra village, southern Romania, in an archaeological complex of a prehistoric settlement.