Project Outline

The Cornwall and West Devon mining Landscape has recently been added to the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites for its outstanding universal value. This region of Britain was in the vanguard of industrialisation in hard rock mining and steam technology in the eighteenth and early nineteenth century. Cornish mineworkers took their skills worldwide creating distinctive settlements and helping to bring economic prosperity to places in South, Central and North America, the Antipodes, Europe and Africa. It is possible that anywhere from a quarter to a half million people left Cornwall in the century after 1815.

The 3Diaspora Project aims to bring this socio-economic and cultural legacy alive. It was technology that linked Cornwall to various parts of the world in the nineteenth century through cutting edge steam engineering and hard rock mining techniques. It is both fitting and appropriate that the use of equally pioneering 3D applications will reaffirm and strengthen those technologically inspired ties within the Cornish Disapora today. Moreover, this is timely as it articulates strongly with UNESCO's future strategy of transnationalising WHS's by linking sites together. Cornish mining offers a superb exemplar of the transnationalisation of an industry; cultural landscapes redolent of Cornwall exist on every habitable continent.

We are creating a pilot collaborative art/science/technology multi- disciplinary project involving mining museums in Cornwall UK and Australia. We are bringing together specialists in varied areas of expertise - artists, geologists, programmers, historians, geographers, designers, videographers, futurists, ethnologists...and together we are exploring new ways of presenting imagery and data, new ways of experiencing the past through the technology of the future.

A trial project is proposed involving a visitor centre in Burra, South Australia and a visitor centre in Camborne, Cornwall.

The project involves the use of the latest imaging technologies to enable the juxtaposing of many different forms of imagery and data, from computer generated historical reconstruction through 3D models, stereo video, stereo photography, satellite generated remote sensing data, macro and microscopic crystallography data etc, presented within a strong artistic aesthetic – a stunning multi-media experience designed to entice "Digital Natives" (Generation-D) back into museums.

A collaborative schools project involves Christ Church Grammar School, Perth, Western Australia, and Bolitho School, Penzance, Cornwall. Content creation for the museum and schools project will be developed parallel to a software development program designed to tailor Present3D software to the specifications required for a ground breaking project of this scale.

Project Partners:

Producers: Digital Learning Foundation

3Diaspora is a creative team of people - some of the creators and developers to this point are Dave Carson, Brian McClave, Phil Lavery, John Reed, Suzette Worden and Sharron Schwartz.

Technology Partners

Phil Lavery, Apple Distinguished Educator, Digital Learning Foundation, Scotland

Robert Osfield, Open Scene Graph, Scotland

IVEC, Western Australia

Paul Houghton, KT Studios, eCentral, Perth Western Australia

Museum Partners

Deborah Boden, Co-ordinator, Cornish Mining World Heritage Site Bid, Cornwall County Council

Academic Partners

Dr Sharron Schwartz, expert in the Cornish Diaspora

Professor Suzette Worden, Professor of Design, Curtin University, Western Australia

Professor Bob Fagan, Chair of Human Geography, Macquarie University, Sydney

Education Partners

Peter Murray, Christchurch Grammar School. Perth Western Australia

Simon Elliot, Bolitho School, Penzance, Cornwall

Links

Stereo Images to whet your appetite

Event November 16th Christ Church Grammar School Perth Western Australia