Proportions vs dimensions: shedding a different light on the analysis of 3D datasets
Channel: Recording Archaeology
Date: 2020-10-27

In  the  last  decades,  many  methods  (e.g.,  digital  photogrammetry,  laser  scanning,  computer  vision, etc.) have been introduced that result in a renewed capacity of academics to produce large  3D  datasets.  Naturally  research  objectives,  technological  suites,  levels  of  geometric  ac-curacy  required,  or  scales  of  objects  under  scrutiny  do  strongly  vary  -  hence  a  wide  range  of  “outputs”  corresponding  to  various  data  interpretation  strategies.  But  with  that  renewed  capacity  methodological  questions  emerge:  does  the  “massive  amount”  of  3D  data  a  survey  results  in  really  corresponds  to  the  analytical  need?  Ultimately,  is  the  added-value  of  “going  massive” undeniable? We argue that this capacity to “go massive” can also open opportunities to investigate new analytical filters. We base on two observations: - more 3D data does not imply abandoning our capacity to reduce, to sum up, to spot significant features - flexible, low cost survey suites can give us a chance to revisit fundamental metrics in the history of architecture : ratios, proportions, rather than exhaustive dimensioning. We investigate how a low-res 3D point cloud can be re-read with the aim of identifying simple ratios and geometric relations, in other words of extracting from it meaningful architectural features. The paper underlines the cognitive  potential  of  reading  proportions  in  the  history  of  architecture  (both  at  design  and  analysis levels) and focuses on an experimentation conducted on thirty “comparable” edifices. The approach exemplifies a shift from a one-shot, exhaustive documentation of one edifice to a workflow dedicated at decoding and visualising relations inside a collection.


Jean-Yves Blaise, Iwona Dudek, Gamze Saygi