ARCK

Since 2018, The Arc/k Project has partnered with Institutional Assets and Monuments Venezuela (IAM VZ) a non-profit organization dedicated to protecting and preserving the cultural heritage of Venezuela.Together, we have worked with five cultural institutions and museums, four photographers, and two universities to document cultural heritage across six cities in Venezuela. In 2019, we continued to create many more 3D models out of the images sent to us from volunteer photographers at the Quinta de Anauco Colonial Art Museum and the Palace of the Academies in Caracas, an essential building that headquarters 4 other National Academies within the country. We began phase two of our work at the University City in Caracas, including photogrammetry workshops with students presented by a local volunteer photographer. Our workshops in the El Calvario barrio were a huge success. The community members of the town chose which iconic cultural artifacts/structures/statues to capture, and we created 3D models from their images. A journalist Cheo Carvajal hosted "Memory Explorers", a workshop for children in Venezuela to explore El Calvario barrio + motivate them to value their cultural heritage. We also hosted a workshop called "El Calvario Puertas Abiertas" (Open doors to El Calvario) in which children were taught about the importance of cultural heritage in the community. The Cultural Heritage of Venezuela Collection grew to 220 objects in 2019.We partnered with Libnova to create our DAM (digital asset management) platformfor all Arc/k supporters & viewers to access our models. We worked closely with Libnova to fine tune our archive database and make it available to academics, volunteers, and the general public alike, in order to interact with our ever growing collection of 3D models. Its our hope that by making the data behind each solve as transparent as possible it will allow scholars to utilize this knowledge to the fullest to move preservation initiatives forward in the community.The Arc/k Project seeks to empower indigenous communities to document and archive their own cultural heritage in new and powerful ways, while adhering to ethical practices. Our Archivist continued his writing on the Ethics chapter, Indigenous Community Partnership Case Study of the Community Standards for 3D Preservation (CS3DP). We also updated our Collection Policy for Partnerships with Indigenous Communities in response to research and engagement with indigenous communities in the U.S. and in Canada.THE ORGANIZATION TRAINS INDIVIDUALS AND INSTITUTIONS ALIKE ON HOW TO CAPTURE AND ARCHIVE THEIR HERITAGE DIGITALLY, MAINLY THROUGH THE PROCESS OF PHOTOGRAMMETRY WHICH ALLOWS FOR A DETAIL AND TEXTURE RICH 3D MODEL THAT IS DERIVED THROUGH ANALYTICAL MEANS VIA PHOTOSET DATA. BY FOCUSING ON ENDANGERED HERITAGE SITES WORLDWIDE, EDUCATING PEOPLE ON THE PROCESS NOT ONLY ALLOWS FOR THE SAFEGUARDING OF THIS CULTURE BUT ALSO MEANS THAT THOSE WHO LEARN THE SKILLS CAN GO ON TO FURTHER THEIR INDIVIDUAL ECONOMIC STATUS AND BY EXTENSION THAT OF THEIR COUNTRY. THROUGH TEACHING THE PRECEPTS OF PHOTOGRAMMETRY TO OTHERS WHOSE CULTURE IS UNIQUE OR ENDANGERED THE ORGANIZATION AIMS TO SAVE HERITAGE DIGITALLY FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS WHILE PROVIDING VALUABLE TOOLS AND SKILLS TO PRESENT DAY CULTURAL HERITAGE VOLUNTEERS AND PRACTITIONERS.