“3D models were something you saw in video games,” Emma says. “Now they’re used in science, which is actually pretty cool!”
After graduating in 2012, Emma became a research assistant and lab technician in 2013 and later the technical officer in the UNE archaeology lab. In 2018, UNE archaeologists Associate Professor Melanie Fillios and Professor Mark Moore asked her to make digital 3D models of some of their collections using the lab’s cameras and computers.
While UNE had top-of-the-range equipment, the process for 3D modelling using a digital platform for rendering and uploading objects was new and experience with it was limited, so she turned to the trusted teacher of all DIY skills – YouTube, as well as other online sources, like blogs.
Emma’s persistence, focus and drive have seen her develop her skills to the point where, as her colleagues say, she has become one of the leading practitioners of artefact photogrammetry in Australia.
3D models are opening up new ways of using the artefacts of the past in exciting, modern contexts, and many of our researchers are exploring these. Emma’s work is creating the foundation for this
UNE Archaeology’s Professor Mark Moore says Emma’s skills are highly sought after.
“Emma has a great eye for detail and knows just how to position a tricky object for photography so that the software can correctly render it,” he says. “3D models are opening up new ways of using the artefacts of the past in exciting, modern contexts, and many of our researchers are exploring these. Emma’s work is creating the foundation for this.”
Emma says the opportunity to handle unique and fragile things that are usually behind glass – like the UNE Museum of Antiquities’ collection of ancient Greek and Roman pottery, is “really, really cool”.
And while the process for turning an artefact into a 3D is laborious – Emma says a small object requires 100 photos, on average, and three hours to process, the result is worth it.
“I like that you have something at the end to show for the time spent. I like that it helps people learn, and its super important as we go more and more online,” Emma says.
The models of museum artefacts, stone artefacts and human and animal bones she has worked on have become a critical teaching resource, enabling students who can’t come to campus to study the objects from afar.
For example, “We now have the most comprehensive online collections of 3D models of stone tools anywhere on the internet, and Emma played a huge role in creating this teaching and research asset,” Professor Moore says.
The future of teaching and research
UNE archaeologist Professor Martin Gibbs says it’s work that is setting them up for the future.
“Emma’s work with developing 3D models – and understanding how to develop them – is absolutely integral to where we want UNE to be in terms of both teaching and research,” says Professor Gibbs. With an almost exclusively online cohort who still need the experience of understanding objects, we are working hard to create the equivalent experiences of ‘handling’ artefacts.”
We now have the most comprehensive online collections of 3D models of stone tools anywhere on the internet, and Emma played a huge role in creating this teaching and research asset
Emma’s 3D models are also now playing an important role in protecting and returning Indigenous artefacts. When UNE Cultural Heritage Advisor Steven Ahoy found some stone axes on the site that would become UNE’s solar farm, exactly where oral history passed down through generations of his family said they’d be, they were able to be documented in 3D models and returned to country where they belong. Mr Ahoy says that while Emma’s work is vital for helping to ensure cultural artefacts are protected, it also facilitates broader engagement.
“Education is the key for preservation and protection of cultural heritage and objects,” Mr Ahoy says. “Used in a virtual classroom, they will reach more remote students that would not be able to physically handle the artefacts. The artefacts will also be added to a database, where they can be compared to a variety of artefacts from across Australia and more broadly the world. This will give researchers access to a larger pool of artefacts that can be safely studied with no fear of harm or desecration.”
The demand for 3D models is only increasing, and Emma says she never quite knows where the next request will come from.
She‘s been contacted to create models of the stone tools used by the ancestor of modern humans known as ‘The Hobbit’ to be used in an episode of William Shatner’s TV show, The unXplained. She’s recently been asked to create a model of a preserved heart for UNE’s anatomy lab – which as a malleable object, will be no easy task.
From 3D models to virtual tours
Exciting new possibilities are emerging with new technology.
Emma’s skills are now also being put to use to create virtual tours of historic buildings and sites with a new 3D laser scanner.
“Emma’s most recent projects for and with us are to move into the realm of online archaeological and historical site visits. These aren’t just going to be passive tours around interesting places, but will use the 3D scans to allow the students and researchers to move through those environments,” explains Professor Gibbs.
With the type of expertise that Emma brings, we’re uniquely placed to take a national lead in the production of digitally-enabled research and online learning in the field of cultural heritage
This currently includes working on Armidale’s historic Saumarez homestead, in partnership with the Saumarez Homestead National Trust of Australia, and on UNE Armidale’s Booloominbah House.
“Combining these scans with links to digitised artefacts, documents, photos and even sound and video files, we are trying to create platforms where users can interrogate and research, regardless of where they are. This also becomes our means of teaching practical skills, so that students can get the basics before coming to face-to-face intensives for hands-on learning,” Professor Gibbs says.
“Thanks to some capital expenditure funding supplied by the Faculty of Humanities, Arts, Social Sciences and Education, we now have the capacity to undertake high level 3D recording of objects and sites,” says UNE’s department head for Archaeology, Classics and History, Professor David Roberts.
“With the type of expertise that Emma brings, we’re uniquely placed to take a national lead in the production of digitally-enabled research and online learning in the field of cultural heritage.”
