Unpath’d Waters: The Needles Voyager
Project location: United Kingdom
The Needles Voyager in an interactive viewer developed as part of the Unpath’d Waters research project, aimed at making UK’s maritime collections more accessible. Unpath’d Waters was part of the Cultural Heritage Framework Programme Affiliated Projects as an Endorsed Contribution. The viewer collates available information on wrecks and maritime historic structures located around The Needles, West of the Isle of Wight in the English Channel. This is a rich area of maritime finds and sites, and was therefore selected as a good pilot study for testing data integration with the Unpath’d Waters aims of creating a national collection of maritime data at the regional and local scale. The viewer supports and delivers information about the site and finds through an array of media, including documents, audio recordings, images, videos, and 3D models thus satisfying the needs of different audiences. The backend database is regularly updated with new information and users are encouraged to submit more data that can be added to the resource once validated. This not only allows the public to learn more about the UCH in the area, but, through the use of the participatory method, encourages stakeholders to engage with UCH first-hand. The structure of the viewer and of its backend database allows it to be adapted and used to display information about sites and finds in other areas combining the need to record information in a structured, comparable way with public engagement through interactive visual portals that make exploring UCH captivating and inspiring.
Themes
- Safeguarding maritime and underwater cultural heritage
- Promoting/Awareness-raising for maritime and underwater cultural heritage