Documenting and Exploring Material Surface Features with Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI)
Dr Kathryn E. Piquette, UCL Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology
Tuesday 22 November, 6.15pm, Anatomy Museum. Followed by drinks.
In this seminar I will discuss Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI), a relatively new method of digital photography with tremendous potential for research involving material object surfaces. RTI involves multiple input images captured from a fixed camera position with a moving light source. This enables the construction of a digital model of object surface form and reflectance. The resulting amalgamated RTI file allows interactive re-lighting, image enhancements and automated identification of visual and morphological attributes. Whether for documentary evidence or other types of material culture, RTI makes visible ephemeral surface features, such as faint incisions or impressions, the strokes of applied pigment, tool marks and so one. The RTI results I will present derive from a recently concluded project ‘Reflectance Transformation Imaging System for Ancient Documentary Artefacts’ (RTISAD), a collaboration between the University of Oxford and the University of Southampton, funded by the AHRC’s Digital Equipment and Database Enhancement for Impact (DEDEFI) scheme. I also discuss how this emerging advanced digital imaging technique works and consider some of the theoretical and methodological implications for e-Research within the humanities. I also consider the impact of RTI more broadly as a tool for increasing access to cultural heritage.
Please register to attend at http://www.eventbrite.com/event/2181868026
About the speaker
Dr Kathryn E. Piquette earned her PhD in Egyptology in 2007 from the UCL Institute of Archaeology, investigating early Egyptian writing and art. Kathryn subsequently became a Research Fellow at Trinity College in Dublin for the PRTLI IV ‘Greek and Egyptian Papyri Digitisation Project’. In 2010 she joined the UCL Centre for Digital Humanities as a Research Associate for ‘Implementing New Knowledge Environments’ (INKE), a SSHRC Major Collaborative Research Initiatives Program. Having recently completed a Research Assistant post at the University of Oxford for the AHRC-funded ‘Reflectance Transformation Imaging Systems for Ancient Documentary Artefacts’ (RTISAD) project, Kathryn is currently Project Manager for 3D Encounters at the UCL Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology.