n-Dame_Heritage

n-Dimensional analysis and memorisation ecosystem
for building cathedrals of knowledge in Heritage Science

The research on cultural heritage makes the confrontation between material objects and multidisciplinary studies the arena for the production of collective knowledge. In the digital age, this is then a privileged framework for studying the collective analysis and interpretation of facts, objects and phenomena that bring together a new generation of data towards the construction of new scientific and cultural resources - our tomorrow’s heritage. How can one memorise these bundles of individual gazes converging on the same object of study? How can one analyse their dynamics of construction, of overlap and of fusion leading to new knowledge? 

This project introduces a new field - a territory of multidisciplinary and multidimensional digitally born data - as raw material for studying the mechanisms of knowledge production in cultural heritage. Introducing a pioneering approach in computational modelling and digitisation, this project benefits from the exceptional experimental framework of the scientific worksite on Notre-Dame de Paris (involving today 175 researchers coming from disciplines like archaeology, anthropology, architecture, history, chemistry, physics and computer science) to build an emblematic corpus of data on scientific practices in heritage science, in the digital age. 

Within this unique opportunity to produce and analyse masses of born digital scientific data, n-Dame_Heritage will deliver a generalisable approach, a replicable methodology and an open and reusable digital ecosystem to build cathedrals of knowledge by the collaborative research on material objects. By introducing and experimenting next generation methods and tools for the semantic-driven data production and analysis, this project shifts the cursor of digitisation, from the physical object to the knowledge for understanding it, in order to analyse the interdependence between its complex features and the related knowledge objects built by scholars through their research practices.

ERC Advanced Grant 2021

Host Institution: CNRS . Principal Investigator: Livio De Luca

news

The ERC n-Dame_Heritage Project and its host institution CNRS are inviting applications for seven open positions:

Click on each position below for further details and instructions on how to apply.
 

Two years (renewable up to four years) researcher position in Digital Humanities
Knowledge formalisation, data curation and analysis in cultural heritage

Two-years (renewable up to four years) researcher position in Computer Science.
Knowledge engineering, machine learning, multimedia content classification and retrieval

Two-years (renewable up to four years) research engineer position in Computer Science.
Full stack development, Cloud computing, Web services

Three-Years PhD student position in Data Science for Cultural Heritage
n-Dimensional analysis and exploration of heritage science data in mixed reality

Two-years (renewable up to four years) study engineer position on multimodal 3D digitisation
Laser scanning,  photogrammetry, RTI, geometric and visual processing applied to architecture and remains

Two-years (renewable up to 4 years) study engineer position on digital curation of heritage science data
Data collection, Data curation, FAIR principles, heritage science.

Two-years (renewable up to 4 years) study engineer position on semantic annotation of heritage data
Semantic annotation of heterogeneous data (text, images, videos, 3D models, …) 


Application deadline: June 22, 2022. Extended deadline : June 30, 2022. Interviews (only for selected candidates) : July  2022
Contracts are expected to start between October and December 2022.

Candidates can apply for several positions, depending on their education and skills. Nevertheless, each application should be considered as a unique context and the cover letter should be targeted according to the specific activities of each job offer.

project

With the dual aim of memorising and analysing the plurality of perspectives on the same cultural heritage object, this project fuses state-of-the-art methods in conceptual modelling with different branches of digital humanities and computer science for the development of a collective knowledge system, a digital ecosystem to unlock a value layer that is both rich in human participation and driven by well-structured information.

n-Dame_Heritage will be the means to build a semantically enriched corpus of data, by introducing a groundbreaking approach by the cross-section of:

a data enrichment process capable of describing digital assets not only through conventional metadata, but also by storing the different steps that scientists take on their way from raw data to interpretation and knowledge.

an n-dimensional correlation engine able to produce and reveal masses of overlapping regions of interest (by basing on the spatial, temporal or semantic proximity of 2D/3D data & annotations) belonging to the involved "disciplinary profiles" acting on the same heritage object.

Beyond highlighting convergent thematic foci within typical multi-actors research activities, this experimental data integration approach will generate new data analysis perspectives for studying the way in which each discipline, coming from its own territory, is confronted with the test that crosses all disciplines. What do we really know about what distinguishes the way an architect, an archaeologist or a chemist looks at the same object? How do we know what links them? How can we know where differences in vocabulary denote the same realities? 

workplan   

The methodology is based on the intersection of two axes of scientific activity (which reveals the profound interdisciplinary nature of the project). The first axis ranges from knowledge formalisation to IT implementation of data correlation mechanisms. The second axis, which runs across the first, addresses ways to produce and analyse the next generation of semantically enriched data by being based on two case studies within Notre-Dame general scientific action

  • the forest (timber roof), which implicates researchers interested in materials (wood, metal), construction techniques, chronologies and mechanics;
  • the collapsed vaults, which combine research on materials (stone, metal), archaeology (constructive details, lapidary signs), architecture (composition, geometry) and structural behaviour with intangible aspects like acoustics and heritage emotions. 

The timeline counts two main phases (initial research for data production; exploratory research on data analysis) and is articulated with the ongoing activities of the Notre-Dame worksite (which ends in 2024). 


Data already collected (and partially documented) from cultural institutions, research laboratories, private companies include (i) 180 000 photographs (before and after fire, during the restoration); (ii) 5000 3D point clouds (before and after fire, during the restoration); (iii) hundreds of technical drawings (before fire); (iv) dozens of structured 3D models relating to the cathedral's condition before and after the fire; (v) 5000 documentary sources (archives, bibliography, iconography) relating to the cathedral's history.


Data types produced by scholars involved in the Notre-Dame Scientific action (from different disciplinary profiles) - to be included in the data corpus in the next years -  concerns bibliography, material sampling analysis (from multiple physico-chemical characterisation process), technical surveys, drawings, photographs, NDT (Non Destructive Techniques) imaging, mechanical and acoustic simulations, press and web resources, interviews, video documentaries, citizen surveys, multi-scale (from architecture to remains) 3D digitizations based on laser scanning, photogrammetry and RTI (Reflectance Transformation Imaging), 3D reconstructions of hypothetical states, … 


The first modules of a digital environment integrated into the CNRS Very Large Facility HumaNum are available to all members of the Notre-Dame scientific and restoration action from the beginning of 2021. The platform provides today more than 100 registered users with dedicated web services for the managing of deposits (HumaNumBox), the indexing of multimedia content (ArcheoGrid), the structuring of thesauri (Opentheso), the visualisation of  3D digitizations of the remains (3DHOP), the annotation of 2D/3D representations with semantic tags (Aïoli) and the analysis of 4D datasets merging past-present-future states of the cathedral (NDPV). 

team   

n-Dame_Heritage ERC project


Principal investigator: Livio De Luca


ERC project Research staff 


Post-doctoral open positions

  • Researcher position in Digital Humanities 
  • Researcher position in Computer science
  • Research engineer position in Computer Science


PhD Student open position

  • PhD student position in Data Science for Cultural Heritage


Engineering positions

  • Study engineer position on multimodal 3D digitisation 
  • Study engineer position on digital curation of heritage science data
  • Study engineer position on semantic annotation of heritage science data

Associated CNRS-MAP research team 

Jean-Yves Blaise, Iwona Dudek, Pascal Benistant, …

CNRS project management staff

Florence Hac, SPV DR12

Notre-Dame scientific action: 


Digital Data Working Group: Livio De Luca (cord)

MAP: Violette Abergel, Isabelle Cao, Livio de Luca, Anaïs Guillem, Kévin Jacquot, Ariane Néroulidis, Anthony Pamart, Roxane Roussel, Renato Saleri.

Archeovision: Loïc Espinasse, Sarah Tournon, Xavier Granier.

CITERES: Thomas Pouyet, Xavier Rodier, Olivier Marlet.

ETIS: Dan Vodislav.

LaSTIG: Marc Pierrot-Desseilligny, Valérie Gouet-Brunet, Sidonie Christophe, Matthieu Brédif,…. 

LRMH: Anaïs Guillem, Lise Leroux, Olivier Malavergne, Véronique Vergès-Belmin, Thierry Zimmer.
LS2N: Florent Laroche
MIS: El Mustapha Mouaddib
MOM: Miled Rousset

PhD Students :  
Laura Willot (ETIS/LaSTIG/MAP),
Antoine Gros (MAP/LMGC),

Thematic Working Groups : 


Stone: Yves Gallet (cord.)

Wood: Alexa Dufraisse (cord.)

Metal: Maxime L’Heritier (cord.)

Stained Glass: Claudine Loisel (cord.)

Structure: Stephane Morel (cord.)

Acoustics: Mylene Pardoen & Brian Katz (cord.)

Heritage Emotions: Claudie Voisenat (cord.)

Decors: Dany Sandron (cord.)