Augmented Reality in the Presentation of City Monuments: A Case Study of “Bielsko-Biała AR Guide” Mobile Application

Augmented Reality (AR) is one of the modern technologies used for sharing 3D geospatial data. This article presents possible ways of enriching a mobile application containing information about 50 objects located in the city of Bielsko-Biała with an AR functionality. The application was created in two programs: Android Studio and Unity. The application allows to get to know historical objects of the city, encourages to visit them by adding virtual elements observed in the background of a real-time camera image from a mobile device. The article presents the statistics of the application usage and the results of a survey conducted among a group of testers. Feedback from application testers confirms the validity of using AR technology in the application. ROZSZERZONA RZECZYWISTOŚĆ W PREZENTACJI ZABYTKÓW MIASTA: APLIKACJA „BIELSKO-BIAŁA PRZEWODNIK AR”, STUDIUM PRZYPADKU Rzeczywistość Rozszerzona (Augmented Reality – AR) jest jedną z nowoczesnych technologii wykorzystywanych do udostępniania danych przestrzennych 3D. W artykule przedstawiono możliwe sposoby wzbogacenia aplikacji mobilnej o funkcjonalność AR. Aplikacja zawiera informacje o 50 obiektach zlokalizowanych na terenie miasta Bielska-Białej i została stworzona w dwóch programach: Android Studio oraz Unity. Aplikacja pozwala na poznanie zabytkowych obiektów miasta oraz zachęca do ich zwiedzania poprzez dodanie wirtualnych elementów obserwowanych w czasie rzeczywistym na tle obrazu z kamery urządzenia mobilnego. W artykule przedstawiono statystyki użytkowania aplikacji oraz wyniki ankiety przeprowadzonej wśród grupy testerów. Informacje zwrotne od testerów aplikacji potwierdzają zasadność zastosowania technologii AR w aplikacji.

Ancient parks and gardens of Northern and Eastern India

The 30 ancient gardens of Northern India were studied: 9 palace gardens, 13 memorial gardens (at tombs), 8 gardens of “royal rest”, and 2 ancient botanical gardens of West Bengal (East India) for 11 years (from 2008 to 2019). Brief information is given for each object: the year of the garden' s foundation, the size, historical objects on the territory of the park (garden), the presence of old-age trees and some tree species is noted; inaccessible and / or rarely visited ancient gardens are described in more detail (Mughal Gardens in Delhi, Yadavindra Gardens in Pinjor and others). A full description of the ancient gardens (parks) of India is given in the publications of the authors, a list of which is given.

Devising criteria for the authenticity of historical cold weapons based on X-ray fluorescence analysis of their surface

This paper reports the results of studying the chemical composition of the surface of 4 objects of cold weapons of the 19th and early 20th centuries, made of iron – bayonet knives and sabers. This makes it possible to establish the signs of authenticity of cold weapon samples made of iron in that chronological period. An authentic procedure has been proposed for examining the chemical composition of the surface of historical objects of cold weapons by rubbing the samples with cotton wool swabs and their subsequent investigation. This makes it possible to explore objects of cold weapons, whose size is large, as well as simplify the very procedure for studying objects of historical and cultural value. Using the X-ray fluorescent chemical analyzer Expert Mobile, chemical elements were found at the surface of samples of cold weapons made of iron. The presence of such elements is the result of the process of re-crystallization and self-purification of metal during a long history of its life. Elements found in almost every rubbing sample were identified: calcium, ferrum, zinc, cuprum, and chlorine. The studies of cold weapons samples testify to the heterogeneity of the composition of patina formations on their surface, which confirms the authenticity of ancient objects. In addition, the studies have shown a difference in the chemical composition of surface layers of different parts of individual samples of antique cold weapons, which may indicate different times or different technology for their manufacture. The fluorescence spectra of the obtained rubbing of individual samples of cold weapons were compared with "pure" material, which made it possible to identify elements removed from the surface of objects. The study results are important indicators to confirm the authenticity of cultural monuments and the technology of their manufacture in the past.

Dinosaurs, Racial Anxiety, and Curatorial Intervention: Whiteness and Performative Historiography in the Museum

This essay argues that the staged encounters between museum visitors and dioramic display of dinosaur fossils in natural history and science museum spaces have been designed to capitalize on and performatively reify white anxiety about the exotic other using the same practices reserved for representing other historic threats to white safety and purity, such as primitive “savages” indigenous to the American West, sub-Saharan Africa, the Amazon, and other untamed wildernesses through survival-of-the-fittest tropes persisting over the last century. Dinosaur others in popular culture have served as surrogates for white fears and anxieties about the racial other. The author examines early dioramic displays of dinosaurs at New York’s American Museum of Natural History and conjectural paintings by artists like Charles R. Knight to argue that the historiographic manipulation of time, space, and matter, enabled and legitimized by a centering of the white subject as protagonist, has defined how we understand dinosaurs and has structured our relationship with them as (pre)historical objects. Exposing the ways in which racist tropes like white precarity have informed historiographical practices in dinosaur exhibits offers a tool for interrogating how racist ideologies have permeated the formations of modernity that inform our modes of inquiry.

Implementation of AHP Methodology for the Evaluation and Selection Process of a Reverse Engineering Scanning System

Generally speaking, the proper selection of a suitable system for various uses is key to its full use in practice. In all areas, there is a large number of technologies, equipment, and systems to choose from, so it is necessary to determine the individual parameters and their weight, which are important for selection. In the field of reverse engineering, several technological devices are particularly expensive, and the selection of one will influence the long-term functioning of the system. Reverse engineering systems are widely used for the registration and documentation of historical objects in the sense of cultural heritage, and the presented scanning systems are suitable for this purpose. In this case, the selection of a scanning system is discussed. This paper deals with the methodology of selecting the most suitable reverse engineering system by the method of pairwise comparison of expert evaluation criteria (analytical hierarchical process (AHP)). This paper contains a comparison of several systems and the selection of the most suitable solution for the particular company.

Hunter-gatherer or the other ethnographer? The artist in the age of historical reproduction

This essay revisits Hal Foster's essay in Marcus and Myers’ The Traffic in Culture (1995), “The Artist as Ethnographer,” through the lens of the Danish-Vietnamese artist Danh Vo's practice of collecting historical material. While Foster problematizes Western artists’ “primitivist fantasies” in the 1990s world of “postcolonial and “multinational capitalism,” I will consider Vo’ 21st century method of acquiring objects through auction sales, negotiations with their owners, and excavating them from their sites of origin, as reversing the roles of “self” and “other.” In purchasing White House memorabilia dated to the Vietnam-American war at auctions and salvaging antique statues from Vietnamese Catholic churches as artistic practice, Danh Vo illustrates what Hal Foster considered the problem of “othering” the self instead of “selving” the other. This essay will consider how Vo could present a case of alterity that returns the gaze and projects Vietnamese history back to the Western viewer. In her review of Vietnamese-Danish artist Danh Vo's Guggenheim retrospective in February 2018, Roberta Smith hesitated to call the artist an artist Instead, she dubbed him, somewhat pejoratively, a “hunter gatherer” and called his collection of historical objects to be illustrative of the “usual fate of non-Western countries: the debilitating progression of missionaries, colonization, military occupation and economic exploitation.” The tone of her review is precisely the kind of attitude on the part of the contemporary art world that an artist such as Danh Vo, and others who have been marginalized from institutions such as the Guggenheim, have been fighting against Yet, Vo's very presence in a solo exhibition at the Guggenheim serves to disprove Smith's own “assumption of outsideness” (Foster, 1995: 304).

Upaya Peningkatan Kesadaran Masyarakat Terhadap Benda Peninggalan Sejarah Lubang Jepang Di Kelurahan Gunung Pangilun Kecamatan Padang Kota Padang

The purpose of community service is to provide knowledge, motivation and increase public awareness about the importance of maintaining historical awareness through the preservation of historical objects in the Japanese hole in Gunung Pangilun Village, North Padang District, Padang City. Methods of Community Service, namely conducting outreach to the community and evaluation consisting of before evaluating the activity, at the time it was carried out and at the end of the activity which was made notes and then recapitulated. The results of this service show that the community increases knowledge and awareness of the importance of historical sites in the area where they live. This encourages the role of the community, protection and preservation of the reserve in preserving history as a cultural relic of the past.

Colour Analysis: An Introduction to the Power of Studying Pigments and Dyes in Archaeological and Historical Objects

Nature offers a myriad of colours and the desire to replicate them is intrinsic to human nature [...]

Merchant development of the city of Yalutorovsk (XIX – early XX centuries)

The architecture of stone buildings, built at the expense and with the assistance of merchants and small traders, which form the basis of the architectural and historical environment of the center of Yalutorovsk, was considered. For the first time, on the basis of composition and style analysis of merchant buildings, the specifics of style directions in the architecture of the city were revealed. Changes in the functional purpose, the original appearance of historical objects and development in general were traced. The materials of complex scientific research and restoration project of two merchant trading houses and previously unpublished photo documents are presented.

NOŻE WOLUTOWE – O FUNKCJI I POCHODZENIU ZAGADKOWYCH PRZEDMIOTÓW W KULTURZE SŁOWIAŃSKIEJ

The text presents spiral knives, objects of clearly exceptional nature. The data, the map and table included here are meant to update information on the subject after 32 years. Identification of the specific regional groups and a metric analysis of the historical objects highlight the differences between the groups. The text also touches upon objects which are morphologically close to the spiral knives used by nomadic communities. A critical look at the theories in literature on the subject allowed to limit the functions to two, possibly mutually complementary.