Research Group HistStadt4D- Urban History in 4 Dimensions
Imagine you’re exploring the historic center of a city with its impressive town houses, churches and monuments. What if you could just use your mobile to find out about the historic buildings around you, with detailed visual information about how they were built and the story behind them, making history come alive before your eyes?
To visit our 4D browser, please click here.
This project on four-dimensional research and communication of urban history aims to make just this sort of scenario possible. Funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, it is a cooperation project between the Technische Universität Dresden and University of Würzburg.
The aim is to investigate and develop methods and technologies to transfer extensive repositories of historical media and their contextual information into a three-dimensional spatial model, with an additional temporal component. This will make content accessible to different target groups, researchers and the public, via a 4D browser. A location-dependent augmented-reality representation can be used as an information base, research tool, and to communicate historical knowledge.
The data resources available for this research include extensive holdings of historical photographs of Dresden, which have documented the city over the decades, and digitized map collections on the Deutsche Fotothek (German photographic collection) platform. These will lay the foundation for a prototype model which will give users a virtual experience of historic parts of Dresden.
Architectural history issues
The architectural history issues are research and communication about interactions between urban landscape and its depiction, based on a case study of Dresden’s architectural development in the 20th century. This includes questions about the evolution and transformation of an urban landscape, photographic documentation strategies, and how these shape history.
Methodology issues
The methodology issues are meeting the research requirements for digital image and map source repositories and developing technical support options for these. This involves naming and systematizing the need for support, such as identifying, contextualizing, or visually comparing sources. Another aim is to develop different usage scenarios, for example for communicating architectural history.
Information technology issues
The information technology issues are needs-based information modelling and its technical applications, based on a case study of the Deutsche Fotothek. This involves aspects of processing and linking historical media and knowledge, including time and place, into a virtual research environment. It also includes researching and developing visualization and information access, via a 4D browser and as location-based augmented reality
The junior research group of 11 people- including 4 post-doctoral and 4 PhD researchers- are working until April 2021 on how digital image archives and media repositories can be used for urban historical research and on how to communicate the results of this research.
Prof. Dr. Sander Münster- Educational Technology
My goal: To sketch the research landscape of image-oriented digital humanities and use this in teaching and research.
Dr. Mathias Hofmann- Psychology
As an architectural and environmental psychologist, I am interested in the applicability of the developed approaches and tools for citizen science and citizen participation.
Dr. Florian Niebling- Computer Science
How are objects from media repositories integrated spatially into the environment to enrich or modify reality? How can we interact with this data in an augmented reality?
Cindy Kröber- Information Science
How do researchers use photo archives and how can we support research, the contextualization and evaluation of media objects, including user-gererated and user-assessed content?
Ferdinand Maiwald- Geodetics and Photogrammetry
My vision: To develop automated workflows for georeferencing and dating large image collections and use photogrammetry to create an historical 3D city model.
Jonas Bruschke- Media Informatics
My research is about exploring and developing approaches to interactive information linking, presentation and research support, using desktop and tablet-based 4D browser interfaces.
Rebekka Dietz/ Dr. Heike Messemer- Art History
As art historians we would like to explore the possibilities of combining art history and new technologies in order to improve skills for research and teaching with digital media.
Research support
Richard Joos
Student Research Assistant
Sandra Leik
Student Research Assistant
Anne Schimmeck
Design
Former team members
Kristina Barthel
Marcus Breitenstein
Toni Das
Leyla Dewitz
Dr. Kristina Friedrichs
Sandra Horeni
Dr. Frank Henze
Wolfgang Hertzig
Lukas Klose
Layantha Perera
Anna Riedmann
Gerit Rother
30 April 2021: After more than 4,5 years, the project came to an end but the development of our research tool is not over yet. Several projects will continue to work on and with the 4D Browser, p.ex.: "Denkmalschutz4D – Digitale stadträumliche Vermittlung von anthropogenen Einflussfaktoren und Schutzmaßnahmen zu baulichem Kulturerbe" or "HistKI – Untersuchung, Modellierung und multimodale KI-basierte Unterstützung von Bildquellenrecherche und -kritik als komplexe und grundlegende geschichtswissenschaftliche Arbeitstechnik".
19 May 2020: On May 12, 2020 Heike Messemer’s doctoral dissertation „Digitale 3D-Modelle historischer Architektur – Entwicklung, Potentiale und Analyse eines neuen Bildmediums aus kunsthistorischer Perspektive“ was published by arthistoricum.net in Heidelberg. The book offers for the first time a wide and thorough overview of the genesis of digital 3D reconstructions of historical architecture from an art historical perspective.
23 October 2019: The junior research group UrbanHistory4D hosted the workshop „Research and Education in Urban History in the Age of Digital Libraries“ under the patronage of CIPA on 10-11 Oct ober 2019 in Dresden. Organized by Florian Niebling (Universität Würzburg), Heike Messemer (Universität Würzburg) and Sander Münster (TU Dresden), it was a joint international event of the University of Würzburg and the Technical University Dresden. The workshop took place at the Deutsche Hygiene-Museum in Dresden and was co-located with the Time Machine Conference.
16 May 2019: Best Paper Award for Ferdinand Maiwald, Frank Henze, Jonas Bruschke, and Florian Niebling at the GEORES 2019 (2nd International Conference of Geomatics and Restoration).
18 March 2018: An arcticle is published in the newspaper FAZ about the collaboration between HistStadt4D and the Time Machine project: "Back to the middle ages with the Time Machine" ("Mit der Zeitmaschine zurück ins Mittelalter").
15 May 2018: An article was published in the Sächsische Zeitung, a daily newspaper, about our project under the headline "Dresden wird lebendig" ("Historic Dresden comes alive").
27 September 2016: The press office of the Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg has published a press release at the start of the project.
List of publications about the HistStadt4D project.
Mr Dr. rer. nat. Mathias Hofmann, Dipl.-Psych.
Science and grant proposal coordination
Tel: +49 351 463-34367
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