A “digital twin,” a detailed 3D model of Notre Dame became the blueprint for rebuilding the gothic cathedral after the devastating 2019 fire.
In 2010 the late Andrew Tallon set out to make a 3D scan of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. His purpose was pure research, a way to look at the construction and planning of the gothic masterpiece. The craftsmen left no record of why they made decisions about construction, no records of technique, no firsthand accounts.
In interviews Tallon said that looking at the details of construction was like looking into the mind of the builders. The best way to take in those details as a whole was to build the cathedral digitally. He used state of the art 3D scanners to collect billions of datapoints. Tallon built a digital twin of the Cathedral.
LUX has an excellent post about this (here). And a podcast for those who would like to listen.
So what does this have to do with rock art? Notre Dame is a case study for how digital twins can not only be used for restoration of cultural heritage, but how detailed preservation can help us understand the minds of people who left us no written records. They allow us to immerse ourselves in the world of the makers and understand them better, see them as people making intentional decisions, solving problems to construct something larger than themselves.
This is what we do with rock art sites. We create Digital Twins of the sites. The digital model offers a hedge against losing the artwork. There are lots of threats out there to artwork on the landscape from weather to vandalism. Its seems that every week we read about another artistic treasure being defaced, and wildfire worldwide is a constant threat to artwork on the landscape (here).
The models also allow for repeated visitation, immersion, visualization. Most people will never go to places like the Great Gallery of Horseshoe Canyon in Utah but they can visit our digital twin of the site and maybe get an insight into the mind of the creators.
