DRAGEN Tales features work and projects from the DRAGEN Lab and Environments of Change.
The University of Waterloo’s Medieval Digital Research in Arts and Graphical Environmental Networks Laboratory (DRAGEN Lab) was founded in 2016 to provide high-quality research training opportunities for students at all levels. Our digital humanities lab deploys its award-winning collaborative, learner-centred approach to research to generate new knowledge through partnerships.
Welcome to Environments of Change! We are a transdisciplinary research network of scholars and industry partners who seek to use emerging digital technologies to provide research and tools to a wide audience (scholars, members of the general public, policy makers) on the historical relationship between humans, nature, and culture. Our network provides hundreds of training opportunities for students and emerging scholars to produce the next generation of digitally-inclined environmental thinkers.
3D Scanning Neolithic, Iron Age, Roman and Anglo-Saxon Artifacts from Streethouse and Norton
Week three of the work term for members of the DRAGEN Lab team led them to North Yorkshire, to engage with artifacts discovered during archaeological excavations at Streethouse from 1979 to the present day.
Wrapping Up: 3D Scanning & Hands-On Archaeology Exhibit at Gravesend, UK
From June 5-16th members from the DRAGEN lab team travelled to Gravesend, UK to participate in 3D scanning and public history Hands on Archaeology: Unearthing Gravesham’s Past exhibition at the Woodville Civic Centre. Throughout the two-week work term at this exhibition, team members were trained to 3D scan local Roman and Anglo-Saxon archaeological finds…
Explorations in Shorne Woods: Archaeology in Action
During their time in Gravesend, UK, members of our team visited Shorne Woods County Park in Kent to see Randall Manor with Andrew Mayfield, Community Archaeologist with Heritage Conservation Group, Kent County Council. The Randall Manor is a medieval manor house that was the focal point of a 10-year archaeology excavation funded by a Heritage Lottery Fund from 2006 to 2015.
The Use of Communications Tools to Engage Communities in Public History: Unearthing Gravesham’s Past
Effectively engaging general public audiences in history and the importance of historical artifacts can be quite troublesome in most cases. In particular, promoting events that involve elements of history and scientific research is considerably difficult to gain public interest.
3D Scanning at the Woodville Civic Centre in Gravesend, UK
During the first week of June 2023, a small group of students from the DRAGEN Lab began a two-week research assignment at the Woodville Civic Centre in Gravesend, England, in partnership with the Hands on Archaeology: Unearthing Gravesham’s Past project.
Musings on Decay: Announcing Deimer’s Exhibit
Over the past several months, Kendall Diemer has developed familiarity with the historical and material aspects of the medieval past in order to curate two exhibitions based on the collection of medieval objects housed at the University of Waterloo’s DRAGEN Lab. We are happy to announce the start of Kendall’s second exhibition, which explores the collection through the lens of decay. The exhibition will take place from Monday, March 13th to Monday, April 3rd at St. Jerome’s University (SJ1, second floor). This blog post serves as an introduction to the inspiration behind the exhibition and to Kendall’s views on the topic.
Conservation (and a 3D Scanner!) Comes to the Castle
In early May 2022, the science lab of the Bader International Study Centre (BISC) became the nexus where hundreds of artefacts with drastically different histories, material properties, and provenance all came together. Iridescent glass fragments, WWII Royal Air Force porcelain, and archaeological iron horseshoes, all found on the grounds of Herstmonceux, currently occupy the same space as a large collection of Roman artefacts on loan from local Bexhill Museum. The former, temporarily removed from the Castle’s Visitor Centre, have been assessed, documented, and digitised by graduate students in Art Conservation and in Digital Media, and the latter, catalogued by undergraduates participating in the BISC Archaeology Field School.
Emerging Digital Interpretive Opportunities for Visitors at Herstmonceux Castle
While the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in drastic social and economic impacts, the need for an escape through tourism remains steady. Heritage Tourism remains one of the industry’s most popular forms. Heritage Tourism can be as ‘travellers seeing or experiencing built heritage, living culture or contemporary arts’. Encountering a site and its stories can transport you back to a different time and place, which is something many people could use given the current state of the world. A great example of a heritage site with striking tangible features, and various compelling, hidden stories is the Herstmonceux Castle Estate.