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CONTRIBUTION OF SIMPLE TEACHING TOOLS TO THE
RecorDIM-INITIATIVE
Albert Wiedemann a ' *, Francois LeBlanc b
a FPK Ingenieur GmbH, Feurigstr. 54, 10827 Berlin, Germany - A.Wiedemann@fpk.de
b Getty Conservation Institute, 1200 Getty Center Drive, Suite 700, Los Angeles, CA 90049, USA -
FLeBlanc@getty.edu
Working Group I
KEY WORDS: Architecture, Teaching, Multimedia, Surveying, Photogrammetry, Documentation, Conservation, Toolbox
ABSTRACT:
The main emphasis of the RecorDIM (Recording, Documentation and Information Management) Initiative, based on the work of the
Getty Conservation Institute (GCI), the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) and “The ICOMOS / ISPRS
Committee for Documentation of Cultural Heritage (CIPA), is “Bridging the Gap” between Information Users and Information
Providers in the field of Heritage Documentation. One of the gaps encountered is the users insufficient knowledge of the
technologies and on the other side the required quality of results. The Getty Conservation Institute in Los Angeles funded a five-
month scholarship for Albert Wiedemann to develop teaching materials on “Simple Geodetic and Photogrammetric Tools for
Conservation Purposes”. The prepared material makes state-of-art techniques more accessible to conservation specialists by
explaining them in plain language. The teaching material ranges from equipment descriptions, a glossary, movie clips to a manual for
architectural survey and easy to use software tools for rectification. Most of the materials are simple digital hypertext documents,
which are available on the Internet.
1. MOTIVATION
1.1 Introduction
Conservation specialists, architects, architectural historians and
conservators need high quality documentation. This is a comer
stone for scientific foundation and high quality work on historic
monuments. Documentation specialists from geodesy,
photogrammetry and laser scanning could provide this data. But
there are many obstacles in communication and mutual
understanding between both groups. The objective of the
RecorDIM (Recording, Documentation and Information
Management) initiative developed by the Getty Conservation
Institute (GCI), the International Council on Monuments and
Sites (ICOMOS) and “The ICOMOS / ISPRS Committee for
Documentation of Cultural Heritage” (CIPA). is to “Bridge the
gap” between these people.
1.2 The RecorDIM-Initiative
The RecorDIM initiative was presented during the CIPA-
Symposium in Potsdam, Germany in September 2001 (Letellier
2002). During the first RecorDIM round table in March 2002
four working groups compiled lists of gaps (Letellier & Gray
2002). They have been summarized in six groups:
1. Communication, terminology, definitions and mutual
knowledge.
2. Training and education on both sides: manuals,
handbooks, courses, etc.
3. Processes, working styles, resources and environment
4. Tools for processing, data management and archiving,
guidelines, comprehensive list of tools
5. Resources, personal and financial. Awareness about
the value and benefits of heritage recording is
required.
6. Professional Accreditation
Based on this list of gaps the participants of this meeting
derived a list of needs to define a range of solutions to bridge
the gaps:
2. SIMPLE TOOLS AND TEACHING MATERIALS
2.1 Getting Started
The Getty Conservation Institute is a sustaining pillar of the
RecorDIM initiative. Motivated by an oral presentation at the
Potsdam Symposium (LeBlanc & Gray 2002) Albert
Wiedemann applied for a five month Conservation Guest
Scholarship at the GCI in autumn and winter 2002/2003 with a
proposal titled “Simple Geodetic and Photogrammetric Tools
for Conservation Purposes”. This proposal was funded by the
GCI to develop teaching materials. The objective was to make
state-of-art techniques more accessible to conservation
specialists by explaining them in plain language under usage of
modem communication techniques. The teaching material
ranges from equipment description, a glossary, movie clips to a
manual for architectural survey and easy-to-use software tools
for rectification. The idea was to contribute the results of this
scholarship to the RecorDIM initiative and distribute this
material to the interested public, primarily via the Internet.
This scholarship could contribute to bridge, or at least to
downsize, the gaps in the fields of communication, by
integrating an information provider in a typical user institution
and by presenting tools and options to information users. The
* Corresponding author. This is useful to know for communication with the appropriate person in cases with more than one author.
