Why do people deliberately destroy cultural heritage?
By doing so,
do they believe they're erasing our history?
Our cultural memory?
It's true that we are losing cultural heritage to erosion
and natural disasters,
but this is something that is simply difficult to avoid.
I'm here to show you today
how we can use pictures --
your pictures --
to reclaim the history that is being lost,
using innovative technology,
and the effort of volunteers.
In the early 20th century,
archaeologists discovered hundreds of statues and artifacts
at the ancient city of Hatra,
in northern Iraq.
Statues,
like this one,
were found in fragments,
some of them missing their heads or arms.
Yet the clothing that they are wearing
and their pose
can still tell us their story.
For example,
we believe that by wearing a knee-length tunic
and open bare feet,
this was representative of a priest.
However, with a closer look at this particular piece,
we can see that this tunic being worn
was elaborately decorated,
which has led many researchers to believe
this was actually a statue of a king performing his religious functions.
When the Mosul Cultural Museum opened in 1952 in northern Iraq,
this statue,
as well as others,
were placed there to preserve them for future generations.
Following the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003,
a few statues and artifacts were relocated to Baghdad,
but this statue remained.
Then in February of last year,
a video was released,
and it instantly went viral.
Maybe some of you remember seeing it.
Here's a short clip.
(Video) (Arabic singing)
Not a very pleasant sight, right?
Did you notice anything familiar in the video?
There it is.
There is that very statue,
as it was toppled over,
breaking into pieces.
When Matthew Vincent and I saw this video,
we were shocked.
Since we are archaeologists using innovative technology
for digital preservation,
an idea sprung to mind.
Maybe we can crowdsource the images that were taken of these artifacts
before they were destoryed
to create digital reconstructions.
If we can do that,
maybe we can put them into a virtual museum
to tell that story.
And so two weeks after we saw this video,
we started the project called Project Mosul.
Remember the pictures of the statue I showed you before?
This is actually the crowdsourced reconstruction of it
before it was destroyed.
Now, many of you may be wondering,
how exactly does this work?
Well, the key to this technology is called photogrammetry,
and it was invented here,
in Germany.
It is the technology that allows us to use two-dimensional images
taken of the same object from different angles
to create a 3D model.
I know you may be thinking this sounds like magic,
but it's not.
Let me show you how it works.
Here are two crowdsourced images of the same statue.
What the computer can do is it can detect similar features
between the photographs.
Similar features of the object.
Then, by using multiple photos,
in this case,
it can begin to reconstruct the object in 3D.
In this case,
you have the position of the cameras when each image was taken
shown in blue.
Now, this is a partial reconstruction,
I admit,
but why would I say partial?
Well, simply because the statue was positioned against a wall.
We don't have photographs taken of it from the back.
If I wanted to complete a full digital reconstruction of this statue,
I would need a proper camera,
tripods,
proper lighting --
but we simply can't do that with crowdsourced images.
Think about it,
how many of you,
when you visit a museum,
take photographs of all parts of the statue,
even the back side of it?
Well, maybe if some of you find Michelangelo's David interesting,
I guess --
(Laughter)
But the thing is,
if we can find more images of this object,
we can improve the 3D model.
When we started the project,
we started it with the Mosul Museum in mind.
We figured we may get a few images,
some people interested,
make one or two reconstructions,
but we had no idea that we had sparked something that would grow so quickly.
Before we knew it,
we realized it was obvious:
we could apply this same idea to lost heritage anywhere,
and so we decided to change the name of the project to Rekrei.
Then in the summer of last year,
the Economist magazine's media lab reaching out to us.
They asked us,
"Hey, would you like us to build a virtual museum
to put the reconstructions back inside
to tell the story?"
Can you imaging us saying no?
Of course not.
We said yes.
We were so excited.
This was exactly the initial dream of that project.
And so now,
any of you can experience "RecoVR Mosul" on your phone,
using Google Cardboard,
or a tablet,
or even Youtube 360.
Here is a screenshot from the virtual museum.
And there it is:
the partial reconstruction of the statue,
as well as the Lion of Mosul,
the first reconstruction completed by our project.
Although the video doesn't explicitly show the Lion of Mosul being destroyed,
we have many other examples
of large artifacts being destroyed
that were simply too large to have been stolen.
For example,
the Gate of Nimrud in northern Iraq.
This is a digital reconstruction from before,
and this is actually during the destruction.
Or the Lion of Lion of al-Lāt,
in Palmyra, Syria:
before ...
and after.
Although virtual reconstructions are primarily the main focus
of our project,
some people have been asking a question.
Can we print them in 3D?
We believe 3D printing doesn't offer a straightforward answer to lost heritage.
Once an object is destoyed,
it's gone.
But 3D printing does offer an addition to tell that story.
For example,
I can show you here ...
there is the statue from Hetra,
and the Lion of Mosul.
(Applause)
Thank you.
Now, if you look closely,
you'll notice that there are some parts that have been printed in color,
and some parts that are in white or gray.
This part was added simply to hold the statues up.
This works the same way if you visit a museum,
and a statue is found in fragments;
it's put together for the people to see it.
This makes sense, right?
However, we're much more interested in what virtual reality has to offer
for lost heritage.
Here is an example of one of the tower tombs
that was destroyed in Palmyra.
Using Sketchfab's online viewer,
we can show that we've reconstructed three parts of the exterior of the tomb,
but we also have photos of the inside,
so we're beginning to create a reconstruction
of the wall and the ceiling.
Archaeologists worked there for many, many years,
so we also have architectural drawing plans of this lost heritage.
Unfortuantely, we are not only losing cultural heritage to areas of conflict
and at war,
we're also losing it to natural disasters.
This is a 3D model of Durbar Square in Kathmandu before the earthquake
that ocurred last April,
and this is after.
You may be thinking,
you didn't create these 3D models with only tourist photographs.
And that's true,
but what this represents
is the ability for large, public organizations and private industry
to come together for initiatives like ours.
And so one of the major challenges of our project really,
is to find photogprahs that were taken before something happens, right?
Well, the Internet is basically a database
with millions of images,
right?
Exactly.
So we have begun to develop a tool
that allows us to extract images from websites like Flickr
based on their geotags
to complete reconstructions.
Because we're not only losing cultural heritage to natural disasters
and in war,
but we're also losing it to something else.
Any idea,
just looking at these two pictures?
Maybe it's a little difficult to remember,
but only a few weeks ago,
this was the example of human destruction by human stupidity.
Because a man --
a tourist in Lisbon wanted to climb onto this statue,
and take a selfie with it,
and pulled it down with him.
So we're already finding photographs
to complete a digital reconstruction of this.
We need to remember
that the destruction of cultural heritage isn't a recent phenomenon.
In the 16th century,
European priests and explorers burned thousands of Mayaan books in the Americas,
of which we only have a handful left.
Fast forward to 2001,
when the Taliban blew up the Bamiyan Buddhas in Afghanistan.
You see,
cultural heritage is about our shared global history.
It helps us connect with our ancestors and their stories,
but we're losing pieces of it every day to natural disasters
and in areas of conflict.
Of course,
the loss of human life is the most heartbreaking loss,
but cultural heritage offers us a way to preserve the memory of the people
for future generations.
We need your help to reclaim the history that is being lost.
Will you join us?
(Applause)