Welcome to Ashes2Art
Ashes2Art combines art history, archaeology, graphic and web design, 3D animation and digital photography to recreate monuments of the ancient past online. With faculty guidance, students from Coastal Carolina University and other universities, including Arkansas State, AR and Alexandria University, Egypt, conduct focused research on specific monuments, visit the locations, shoot high resolution digital panoramas, build interactive maps and 3D models, write essays that summarize scholarly opinions based on published archaeological reports, and document those sources with extended bibliographies. QuickTime digital panoramas and immersive 3D models are built and posted online utilizing technologies including Panoweaver, Tourweaver, 3D Studio Max, Adobe Photoshop, Google Sketch Up, Google Earth, RealViz Stitcher, Mud Box, Final Cut Pro, Dreamweaver and Macromedia Flash.
All materials are designed by undergraduate students.
News Updates
April 2013: Ashes2Art students Marcello Garofalo and Brandon Rudolph have had their research selected into the prestigious Posters on the Hill undergraduate research competition in Washington DC. Garofalo & Rudolph's research, which focuses on "Kinecting Cultural Heritage Sites With Immersive Audio-Gesture Based Learning Environments", was 1 of 60 undergraduate research projects selected in the nation in this year's competition.
March 2013: Dr. Flaten and Professor Case along with students Marcello Garofalo and Brandon Rudolph attended the annual Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology conference, Perth. Flaten and Case chaired the session " Immersive Digital Archaeology? Emerging Technologies to Envision the Past"; Garofalo presented a paper on the digital reconstruction of the Cyrene Treasury while Rudolph demoed a programmed Audio-Gesture based learning environment using a Microsoft Kinect.
April 2011: Flaten and student Taylor Baldwin attend the annual Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology conference, Beijing. Flaten chairing sessions and presenting a paper on Ashes2Art; Baldwin presenting a paper on the Agile Process in 3D reconstructions.
January 2011: Ashes2Art begins for the sixth time. Our collaboration with Alexandria University, Egypt starts
June 2010: Flaten presentation on Ashes2Art at Arqueologica 2.0 in Seville, Spain; video on display in the Leonardo da Vinci Center
March 2010: Flaten and Olsen visit Alexandria, Egypt to meet with university officials and Dr. Emad Khalil, director of the Center for Maritime Archeaology and Underwater Cultural Heritage. A Memorandum of Understanding between Coastal Carolina University and Alexandria University is expected in August 2010
October 2009: Campus Technology magazine article, "Expanding the Canon" which discusses three programs nationwide: Ashes2Art and projects at Harvard and Duke Universities (Matt Villano); also available in an online version. Ashes2Art described as "inspiring a new kind of undergraduate education that is immersive, experiential, and contributive at the same time."