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| October 18, 2006 -- The Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth College (Hanover, NH) has opened two new installations created by Learning Sites expressly for their latest exhibition and symposium entitled From Discovery to Dartmouth: The Assyrian Reliefs at the Hood Museum of Art, 1856-2006. The museum's collection includes six large reliefs from the Northwest Palace, Nimrud (ancient Assyria, now Iraq). Learning Sites developed a 6-minute animated flythrough of the Palace featuring the Hood's reliefs in their original locations, as well as a virtual reality package that allows users to explore the Palace, view linked photographs of the excavation, and read background text about the site and the sculptures. Both installations were created specifically to place the Hood's reliefs into simulations of their original contexts in order to elucidate their functions within the Palace's overall sculptural program.
In conjunction with the exhibit, a 2-day symposium (November 3-4, 2006) sponsored by the museum is bringing in noted scholars in Assyrian art and archaeology to discuss the significance of the Palace and its decoration.
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| July 30, 2006 -- The local National Public Radio (NPR) affiliate in Cincinnati (WVXU, 91.7FM) will broadcast a news story about Virtual Heritage on Sunday, July 30, 2006, in which the work of Learning Sites will be discussed and during which its president, Donald H. Sanders, will be interviewed. The full program will then be available for repeat listening on WVXU Website starting on August 1, 2006 (go to the Website, click on Programs, then on Cincinnati Edition, then scroll down and click on Cincinnati Edition Archive, and then click on Sunday July 30, 2006; then scroll down and click on Virtual Heritage). |
| March 15, 2006 -- The competitive results are now available for The Archaeology Channel International Film and Video Festival, held last week at Eugene's McDonald Theatre, Eugene, Oregon (USA). The Festival, which took place March 7-11, featured many of the world's best films and videos on archaeology and indigenous peoples, as well as an in-person presentation (“Chaco Canyon: America's Stonehenge”) by leading author and archaeologist Dr. Brian Fagan. Producers and distributors from 15 countries worldwide submitted 56 film entries to the Festival, of which 17 films from 7 countries were screened in front of the McDonald Theatre audience. Awards listed below are in three categories: Best Film (by jury), Best Use of Animation (by jury), and Audience Favorite, as well as a Special Mention Award designated by the Festival jury.
"Our impression that this was our best line-up of films yet for the Festival was confirmed by the audience ballot results and the jury's comments," said Richard Pettigrew, President and Executive Director of nonprofit Archaeological Legacy Institute (ALI), which organized the Festival. “We made a special effort to solicit the best films from around the world and that strategy paid off in terms of the quality of the content viewed by our Festival audience.”
Both top awards (Best Film by Jury and the Audience Favorite Award) went to the American film Queen of the Mountain, a film biography about Theresa Goell, a woman in a man's field who, at the age of 50 in the 1950s, achieved her lifelong dream of excavating the mountain-top archaeological site of Nemrud Dagh in southeastern Turkey. This film was produced by Theresa Goell's granddaughter, Martha Goell Lubell and distributed by Women Make Movies.
The film features several digital reconstructions of the site of Nemrud Dagh prepared by Learning Sites, Inc. The film also has Learning Sites' president, Donald H. Sanders (who published the final excavation report on the site), speaking about the history of the site and Theresa Goell's exploits. See our Webpages about Nemrud Dagh to see some of the visuals and read about where the film will next be screened.
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November
9-13, 2005 -- Donald
H. Sanders, Ph.D., president of the Institute, has been invited to
participate in a Workshop on Digital Archaeology in Mussoorie,
India. Dr. Sanders will be speaking about his decade of
pioneering work in the field now called Virtual Heritage. The Workshop
has been organized by the Indo-US Science and Technology Forum to
provide an opportunity for discussion between selected American and
Indian practitioners on various aspects of the use of computer
technologies in archaeology.
As we proceed forward through the 21st century, archaeologists will
have to reorient their methodologies and approaches to incorporate
emerging digital technologies, despite the challenges that these new
computer-based data-collection and visualization tools bring to the
discipline. The advantages of digital image capture, data mining,
geospatial positioning, virtual reality, and electronic data transfer
technologies are great and expanding. Digital archaeology is now
a rapidly growing field within cultural historical studies with
multidisciplinary and multinational partnerships spawing new avenues of
research. This Workshop will explore many of these new pathways
and their potential. |
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Summer 2004 -- France3TV will be rebroadcasting their program on
the Acropolis, featuring a Learning Sites animation, on their series Des
Racine et des Ailes.
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April
13-17, 2004 -- Donald H.
Sanders, Ph.D., president of Learning Sites, has been invited to speak
and chair a session at the Computer Applications and Quantitative
Methods in Archaeology (CAA) conference in Prato, Italy. His session
will focus on Virtual
Reconstructions in Archaeology, and offer an international array
of speakers on a wide range of current topics in Virtual Heritage.
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December 3-4, 2003 -- Donald H. Sanders, Ph.D., president of
Learning Sites, has been invited to speak on the importance of cultural
heritage protection and preservation at the 2nd
Rebuilding Iraq Conference. Members of the Iraqi
Governing Council, the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), major
companies and foundations, as well as several panels of Iraqi and
international experts will unveil a comprehensive plan to accelerate
reconstruction and mobilize free trade throughout Iraq. Sanders
will be representing the discipline of Virtual Heritage and a
consortium of hardware and software partners organizing to create a
massive digital library of all Iraqi heritage information to serve as a
resource for all parties interested in the redevelopment of the country.
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| December
3, 2003 -- Group TF-1, France
(First
Channel) television will air another program in their "Ushuaïa
Nature" series. Program #22, entitled Sudan will
feature
visualizations from the Learning Sites digital re-creation of the
ancient
Nubian religious center of Gebel Barkal. |
| November
12, 2003 -- Learning Sites has
entered
into a licensing agreement with the Institute
for the Visualization of History, to provide them with content to
be
repurposed and expanded for their educational mission. The
Institute
is a unique noncommercial, nonprofit, 501(c)(3)-registered educational
organization focusing on innovative methods of presenting historic
monuments,
sites, and events through vivid visual experiences, especially by means
of advanced computer graphics. It intends to reach the widest
possible
public both as a developer of educational materials and as a
museum. |
| July
6, 2003 -- MSNBC will air (at 8pm
Eastern
time) a National Geographic Television special entitled Iraq's Lost
Antiquities about the ongoing destruction and looting at ancient
sites
throughout Iraq. The program will include a special
computer-generated
walk-through of the Northwest Palace at Nimrud created by Learning
Sites
showing how the Palace might once have appeared when in use by the
Assyrians.
This view will contrast with the current state of the building and
on-going
destruction of the wall reliefs at the Palace due to gun battles and
attempts
to steal fragments of the reliefs for sale on the illegal antiquities
market. |
| May
21, 2003 --
France3 public television will be broadcasting a program entitled Des
racines et des Ailes about the history of the Acropolis, which will
include a flyover created by Learning Sites, from our 3D computer model
of the site as it may have appeared in the late 5th century BCE. The
program
should be repeated a few days later on France TV5 by satellite all over
the world. Further information can be found at the studio's Website
once the program airs. |
| March
8-9, 2003 -- CNN-International
and CNN-Headline News Network are broadcasting a short story (at
various
times throughout the weekend) about Learning Sites' 3D computer model
of
the Northwest Palace, Nimrud (in Iraq) and threatened antiquities
should
war breakout. |
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| October
15, 2002 -- Discovery Channel TV,
Canada,
broadcast a story about the possibility of war looming over Iraq.
The war threatens more than Iraq's future. It threatens its
past.
The story reviewed the efforts of a team of ancient art scholars,
programmers,
and scientists at the University at Buffalo (New York, USA) to learn
and
teach about Iraq's distant past using Learning Sites' 3D computer model
of the Northwest Palace at Nimrud. Part of the story and a short
video are available at the Discovery
Channel Website. |
| May
2, 2002 -- Learning
Sites and the field of virtual archaeology are featured in today's Circuits
section of the New York Times.
The article reviews some current projects and the impact that
interactive
graphics technologies are having on the field of archaeology.
Individuals
who now comprise Learning Sites were the pioneers (back in 1994) in the
approach now known worldwide as "virtual archaeology." |
| March
25, 2002 -- Donald H. Sanders,
Ph.D.,
President of Learning Sites, Inc., was invited back as a speaker at the
European Union-sponsored EUR0-CHER
II Conference (a follow-up meeting
to the
December 2001, Chania, Crete, sessions -- see below) also entitled
"Advancing
Archaeological Sites: exploring technology and the theme park
experience"
held in Thessaloniki, Greece, on March 14-15, 2002. Sanders
discussed
how contemporary 3D computer graphics technologies can enhance the
storytelling
experience visitors' can get at archaeological sites. The
conference
brought together specialists in computer graphics, theme-park design,
law,
government, landscape design, and virtual reality. |
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| December
1, 2001 -- Donald H. Sanders,
Ph.D.,
President of Learning Sites, Inc., has been invited to be a featured
speaker
at the European Union-sponsored EUREKA
Conference entitled "Advancing
Archaeological
Sites: exploring technology and the theme park experience" to be held
in
Chania, Crete, on December 13-14, 2001. Sanders will address the
challenges and opportunities presented by contemporary computer
technologies
for improving the attractiveness of European archaeological sites to
visitors.
He will present the latest innovations in the new field of virtual
heritage
(the use of interactive 3D computer graphics, including virtual
reality,
for the collection, study, visualization, and publication of cultural
heritage
information), a field pioneered by Learning Sites in the mid-1990s (a copy
of the talk is available here for review). |
| September
12, 2001 --
Read
more about the collaborative work being undertaken between Learning
Sites
and the University at Buffalo (State University of New York) in an
online
article published by the Chronicle
of
Higher Education. |
| May 29,
2001--Read
about the latest innovations in virtual archaeological
reconstructions
and glimpse the future of interactive education. Learning Sites
collaborates
with the University at Buffalo (State University of New York)
Department
of Classics, the Virtual Reality Laboratory in the UB School of
Engineering
and Applied Sciences, the UB Center for Computational Research, and the
New York State Center for Engineering Design and Industrial Innovation |
March
22, 2001 -- Scheduled TV
appearances
by Learning Sites staff and of Learning Sites®
archaeological visualizations:
- May 23 and 24,
2001
- History
Channel -- documentary entitled the Hidden Tomb of Antiochus, about
the site of Nemrud Dagi featuring an interview with Donald H. Sanders,
President of Learning Sites and visualizations of the site created by
Learning
Sites especially for the broadcast.
- Mar. 27, 2001
- VARA,
Dutch Public Broadcasting -- their television show called De
Ontdekking
(Discovery) presented a documentary about new technologies in
archaeology,
featuring interviews with Donald H. Sanders, President of Learning
Sites,
visualizations of ancient worlds created by Learning Sites, and
innovative
blue-screen interviews inside two of Learning Sites' virtual
worlds.
To view the program online, go to: http://www.omroep.nl/vara/ontdekking/
and then click on 'digitaal'
in the upper right corner; then click on 'verleden
van de toekomst' just below; this will
open
a new window; once this opens, click on 'kijken',
then 'video'
and finally 'start'
to begin the video segment.
- Feb. 20, 2001
- Turkish
Public Television -- documentary entitled Mount Nemrud: the
throne
of the gods, by Ekip Film, Ltd. of Istanbul, featuring interviews
with
Donald H. Sanders, president of Learning Sites and a 3D
computer re-creation of the 1st-century BCE sanctuary site.
- Jan. 2001
- CNN-TURK,
interview with Donald H. Sanders, President of Learning Sites,
concerning
the site of Nemrud Dagi, Turkey, its history, current deterioration,
and
prospects for preserving the site for future visitors and scholars.
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| March
15, 2001 -- The Virtual
Heritage Network (VHN), the leading coordinator of activities,
information,
and conferences about the expanding community interested in virtual
reality
re-creations of our global cultural heritage, has featured a story
about
Learning Sites on the VHN Website's homepage. The cover story
highlights
the history of Learning Sites, its goals, its vision for
virtual-reality-based
archaeology and education, and some of its current projects. |
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| November
14, 2000 -- Donald
H. Sanders, Ph.D., President of Learning Sites, Inc., has been chosen
as
a keynote speaker for the upcoming VAST - Euroconference on Virtual
Archaeology,
to be held November 24-25, 2000, in Arezzo, Tuscany, Italy.
Although
entirely funded and normally attended by members of European Community
countries, an exception was made with the consent of the European
Commission
in order to invite Dr. Sanders, because, in the words of the conference
organizers, "[Sanders is] an internationally recognized expert in the
topic
concerned giving a substantial contribution to the conference
success."
Dr. Sanders will expand on a theme he
presented recently
in Japan regarding the paucity of virtual reality-based exhibits in
museums
with collections cultural heritage artifacts, such as art and
archaeology
museums, archaeological site museums, and local history museums. Noting
the increasing usage around the world of wireless digital technologies,
Dr. Sanders believes it is time that museums take advantage of new
methods
for providing each visitor independently and directly with interactive
text, sound, and 2D and 3D image information for each object on display.
Building on other recent conference
invitations and
contracts (with the government of Sicily, Italy, for a virtual reality
model of a newly discovered ancient Greek dining hall complex or hestiaterion;
with the Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, MA, USA, for a
detailed
computer fly-through of the Northwest Palace of Ashur-nasir-pal II,
Nimrud,
Assyria, for that museum's upcoming 75th anniversary celebrations; and
with the Dalton School in New York City to create innovative
virtual-reality-based
educational materials), Learning Sites continues to lead the newly
emerging
field of virtual cultural heritage--creating innovative interactive 3D
computer models of ancient and other historical settlements, buildings,
and artifacts, for museums, site interpretation centers, television
programs,
teaching materials, and scholarly publications.
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| September
15, 2000 -- Donald H. Sanders, Ph.D.,
President
of Learning Sites, Inc., of Williamstown, has been chosen as "The
Invited
Speaker on Virtual Heritage" at the 6th International Conference of the
International Society on Virtual Systems and MultiMedia, October 4-6,
2000,
at the Softopia complex, Gifu, Japan. Dr. Sanders will speak on
the
integration of virtual reality-based computer displays into museum
galleries.
The presentation will be a summary of past and current uses of virtual
reality in science and technology museums and the curious lack of its
use
in art and history museums. Several roundtable meetings will
follow
at which Sanders will participate with museum personnel, artificial
intelligence
specialists, and other virtual heritage content providers in
discussions
about future plans of action to bring the museum and virtual heritage
communities
closer together. Proponents believe that such collaboration will
benefit the visiting public by helping them to visualize and
understand,
through interactive computer displays, how past cultures used and
created
the objects now in the museums' collections.
In recent years Learning Sites has been at
the forefront
of the fast-growing field of virtual cultural heritage--creating
interactive
3D computer models of ancient and other historical settlements,
buildings,
and artifacts, for museums, site interpretation centers, television
programs,
teaching materials, and scholarly publications.
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| July 5,
2000 -- LEARNING SITES®,
Inc., of Williamstown, Massachusetts, USA,
is pleased to announce that it has been awarded the contract to create
a three-dimensional computer model of the Hellenistic sanctuary of Nemrud
Dagi (Turkey, 1st century BCE) for
inclusion in
a television documentary. The program will cover the history of
the
sanctuary, the king who commissioned it, and the American excavator who
braved climatic, economic, and logistical hardships to unravel the
mysteries
of the site, where colossal sculptures ring a central mound set atop
the
highest mountain (c.7000 ft.) in southeastern Turkey. Filming for
the program, by the Turkish company Ekip Film, Istanbul, begins this
summer
and will include animated flyovers of Learning Sites' digital model as
well as live historical re-enactments of battles waged by the king
against
the invading Romans. |
| April
20, 2000 -- In
1998, LEARNING SITES®
(Williamstown, Massachusetts, USA), an internationally
recognized
leader in the creation of accurate and detailed, interactive 3D
visualizations
of the ancient world, co-sponsored a series of special sessions on
virtual
reality at the Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in
Archaeology
conference in Barcelona, Spain. One result of those sessions was
the founding by Learning Sites of the Virtual
Worlds in Archaeology Initiative, an international clearinghouse
dedicated
to sharing information about, visualizations from, and techniques for
the
many virtual ancient worlds being built around the globe. A
second
result of the sessions is the publication of a comprehensive
"state-of-the-discipline"
book and CD-ROM elaborating on the papers and projects presented in
Barcelona: Virtual
Reality in Archaeology, co-edited by Juan A. Barceló (Universitat
Autónoma de Barcelona, Spain), Maurizio
Forte
(Institute of Technology Applied to Cultural Heritage, Rome,
Italy), and Donald H. Sanders (president of Learning Sites, Inc.). |
| January
1, 2000 -- LEARNING SITES®,
Inc. is pleased to announce that it has been chosen as a partner in the
development of educational materials based on the ancient kingdom of
Nubia
(present-day Sudan). Funded by a National Science Foundation
grant,
the Education Development Center (EDC, Newton, Massachusetts, USA) will
embark on a three-year project entitled The Science, Mathematics,
Engineering,
and Technology of Discovery: Unlocking the Secrets of Nubian Culture.
Learning Sites will produce virtual reality models of ancient Nubian
sites
for the project intended to enable students of all ages to learn by
exploring
re-creations of Nubian temples, palaces, pyramids, and settlements.
update
June 26,
2002 -- Our
participation
in the EDC project has taken a different turn. LEARNING SITES
will be developing an excavation simulation game for their traveling,
Web,
and education package called digNubia!. The game should become
available
early in 2003.
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| December
10,
1999 -- LEARNING SITES'®
virtual reality re-creation of the 9th-century BCE Northwest
Palace of Ashur-nasir-pal II at Nimrud, Assyria, was chosen by the Metropolitan
Museum of Art, New York City, as the basis for the redesign of its
Assyrian galleries, which displays one of the world's premier
collections
of sculpture from that Palace. Newly added features to the
Gallery
include ceiling beams over the main space to simulate the Palace's
Throne
Room; the beams were based on research and computer models by Learning
Sites. More decorative elements and details will follow, also
guided
by our visualizations, which have corrected century-and-a-half-old
misconceptions
about the size, construction, and decoration of the Throne Room. |
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