The Authors-Archivists-Artists-Archaeologists-Computer-Scientists-Engineers-Activists Behind Open Access Antiquarianism

Once upon a time, at the University of California, San Diego, a computer scientist and an archaeologist were fatefully teamed up together to work on a PhD-related project. One project became ten projects and then some. San Diego became Jordan and then Italy and then San Diego again. Science became art and art became science. And then they just couldn’t stop…

And along the way, they collected a wonderful structural engineer who calmly puts up with their eccentric antics and unflagging over-enthusiasm.  And so the three of them sallied forth to tackle the strange little niche between all of their respective fields.

 The Computer Scientist

Vid Petrovic

Vid is a computer scientist whose work on visualization for cultural heritage and neuroscience transcends code and is pure art. He’ll hate that I’ve written that and try really hard to make me edit it out. […] [rest of paragraph redacted by Vid, who indeed wanted to argue against that first sentence too, until he realized that he actually does like to think of programming as an art, and code as an art medium–one that he considers well worth mastering, or at least getting better at.]

Vid is a PhD Candidate in Computer Science at the University of California, San Diego. He is part of the Center of Interdisciplinary Science for Art, Architecture and Archaeology (CISA3), at the Qualcomm Institute. He has had the opportunity to conduct cultural heritage diagnostic fieldwork in Italy, Jordan, Greece, France, and the United States.

The Archaeologist

Ashley M. Richter: The Far Too Bubbly & optimistic Leslie Knope of Archaeology

I, on the other hand, am an overly sparkly Pollyanna with far too much creative energy and muchness for my own good.

I promptly ran away from my Silicon Valley homeland after high school to live in a Castle in the depths of Northern England for university (University College, Durham University to be exact). In between soul-searching and cultural heritage tech themed gap years, I continued on to graduate studies with the University of Leicester and then the University of California, San Diego–all on exciting archaeological, ancient history and heritage related topics.

I’ve been sent hither and yon for a variety of field work related to laser scanning and archaeology, including Jordan, Cyprus, Greece, Italy, France, the United States and the United Kingdom. In amongst all of that, I’ve worked for schools, international financial analysts, science non-profits –like the fabulously wonderful digital monument archive CyArk, and private institutes, like the pre-eminent North American New Age institution- the College of the Sacred Mists.

The Structural Engineer/Architect

 Have you met Mike? Here he is, and we are terribly excited to have him on board with us for OAA.

Mr. Mike Hess is a structural engineer of extreme awesomeness currently participating in the National Science Foundation’s IGERT at the University of California, San Diego as part of his Masters program. He is literally in Florence right now (probably enjoying all of the lovely pizza places all of us frequented together last year). More on his background and his adventures coming soon!

Mike, Vid, & Ashley above Florence Fall 2013 Field Season

Ash, Vid, Mike–pizza in the incredibly delicious depths of Calabria

Vid & Ashley in Greece for their Digitizing Athens Project & the 2013 Virtual Archaeology, Museums, & Cultural Tourism Conference

Ashley & Vid on top of the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore (the Duomo Cathedral) during fieldwork in Florence in 2013

Vid & Ashley in Aix-en-Provence in France following the International Digital Heritage Congress.

For more about our Digital Archaeology Adventures around the world, check out our scrapbook blog. For more about the various techno-art projects we’d like to attempt as Open Access Antiquarians, explore the rest of this website. If you’d like to check up on our credentials–you can scope out Ashley’s LinkedIn.