Projects

3D Reconstruction

Powerful computational tools allow the creation of virtual representations of past and future buildings, landscapes and objects and, through augmented reality, to merge these representations into physical environments. CAST projects range from the complete recreation of the lost 1940s Japanese internment camp of Rohwer, and the early 1820s town of Old Davidsonville, to the Roman city of Gabii and the Native American rock art of Petit Jean Mountain State Park. Other projects involve the creation of possible alternative future conditions in realistic 3D, for example creating photorealistic and dynamic representations of planned offshore wind farms. These creations and reconstructions provide powerful tools to allow the public to explore an otherwise hidden or difficult to access past and future while providing scholars tools to explore different interpretations about the lives of the inhabitants or decision makers to assess the visual impacts of proposed construction.

Rohwer Reconstructed

One of ten Japanese-American internment camps established during World War II, the Rohwer Relocation Center in rural Desha County, Arkansas opened on September 18, 1942. The documents, maps, and visualizations presented here are fragments of that narrative, pieced together in a technological framework, in an effort to bring the story to life.

Old Davidsonville

Davidsonville, Arkansas was once a flourishing community founded on the banks of the Black River in 1815. Today, archeologists have uncovered remarkable evidence of streets, foundations, and thousands of objects that tell a fascinating story of Davidsonville, its residents, and life on the early Arkansas frontier. Researchers at CAST have combined this information into a highly detailed, 3D reconstruction that depicts what Davidsonville could have looked like in the summer of 1824.

Visualizing Forgotten Heritage at Petit Jean

The 3D Petit Jean project uses state-of-the-art, laser scanning technology to create 3D models of the bluff shelters and the rock art that was created in them by Native Americans hundreds of years ago. This effort aims to precisely document the dozens of pictographs and petroglyphs and the complex environment they were created in as well provide a means to help visitors locate and understand them.