美国国家公共电台 NPR 3D Scans Help Preserve History, But Who Should Own Them?

 

ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:

Google is giving millions of people access to 3D scans of ancient sites before they disappear. What happens to those scans is controversial. We take a look in this week's All Tech Considered.

(SOUNDBITE OF ULRICH SCHNAUSS' "NOTHING HAPPENS IN JUNE")

SHAPIRO: 3D scanning can make accurate models of historic sites, especially important for ones in the path of wars, natural disasters or climate change. But as NPR's Laura Sydell reports, some archaeologists and historians worry about the way these digital replicas¹ are being used.

LAURA SYDELL, BYLINE²: Bagan is an ancient city in Myanmar. It happens to be located on a seismic³ fault. On August 24, 2016, a tourist, David Greco, was there videotaping.

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DAVID GRECO: There was just an earthquake. That temple crumbled⁴. Oh, my God, I was just standing⁵ there. It just crumbled.

SYDELL: And it wasn't just one temple. Dozens were damaged. One temple stands out for Chance Coughenour, a manager at Google Arts & Culture.

CHANCE COUGHENOUR: This is a temple that has incredible murals floor to ceiling across the interpassageways and the interchamber of the temple.

SYDELL: The temple is called Ananda Ok Kyaung. It's covered with murals about Buddhism⁶ and key moments in the Buddha's life. It was popular with tourists. But since the earthquake...

COUGHENOUR: That temple itself is inaccessible⁷ if you physically⁸ go to the site today.

SYDELL: Fortunately, Ananda Ok Kyaung was one of many temples that was 3D scanned before the earthquake. The scans are on Google's Arts & Culture site. They allow you to virtually wander the halls of the temple, look up close at paintings, turn the building over and look at its chambers⁹ from below. Or you can take a virtual tour with Bettany Hughes, a historian and broadcaster.

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BETTANY HUGHES: On the face and wall and the wall to to the right are garudas, a type of mythical¹⁰ bird.

SYDELL: Google Arts & Culture is a little different from the rest of Google. It's a nonprofit inside the company. It works with museums and other nonprofits such as the Frick Collection and the Center for Jewish history to put high-quality images online, though Google is still collecting data on you. The images of the temples in Bagan are part of a collaboration¹¹ with CyArk, a nonprofit that does 3D scans of historic sites. Scans include Mayan ruins like Chichen Itza or the Al Azem palace in Syria - around 200 in all. John Ristevski, the CEO of CyArk, says its original mission was to create high-quality scans that could be used as a blueprint¹² to rebuild sites. But the scans were just sitting on a private server where the public couldn't see them.

JOHN RISTEVSKI: CyArk has had the will to open it up for a long time, but we haven't had the way or the means.

SYDELL: CyArk partnered with Google Arts & Culture because they offered free cloud storage and the tools to create an accessible online experience. Google's Coughenour says the company doesn't make money off the site, but it does fit in with Google's mission to make the world's information available and useful. Or it could be that it's an attempt by a large corporation to wrap itself in the sheen of culture.

ETHAN WATRALL: Google is not a cultural institution. Google is not a museum.

SYDELL: Ethan Watrall is an archaeologist, a professor at Michigan State University and a member of the Society for American Archaeology¹³, a professional trade group. Watrall believes it's all about promoting Google.

WATRALL: They want to make this material accessible so people will browse¹⁴ it and be filled with wonder by it. But at its core, it's all about advertisements and driving traffic.

SYDELL: Watrall thinks these images belong on a museum site. There's another issue for some archaeologists and art historians. CyArk owns the copyright of the scans, not the countries where the sites are located. That means the countries need CyArk's permission to use these images for commercial purposes.

Erin Thompson, a professor of art crime at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City, points to a long history of Western nations taking cultural artifacts for their own use. Egypt's been fighting for years to get back a bust¹⁵ of Queen Nefertiti from Germany. It took decades for the Metropolitan¹⁶ Museum of Art in New York to return items from King Tut's tomb. Australia's indigenous¹⁷ people have been fighting with the British Museum for the return of ancestral artifacts. Thompson calls CyArk's copyrighted scans digital colonialism.

ERIN THOMPSON: The real problem is that you have to trust whoever owns the copyright to do the right thing with those images. And there's no legal way for a country to protest the use of its cultural heritage sites.

SYDELL: CyArk says it copyrights the scans so no one can use them in an inappropriate way. But critics like Thompson think the countries where these sites live should be the ones making these choices. Laura Sydell, NPR News.

1 replicas   

n.复制品( replica的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• His hobby is building replicas of cars. 他的爱好是制作汽车的复制品。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The replicas are made by using a thin film of fusible alloy on a stiffening platen. 复制是用附着在加强托板上的可熔合金薄膜实现的。 来自辞典例句

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 seismic   

a.地震的，地震强度的

参考例句：

• Earthquakes produce two types of seismic waves.地震产生两种地震波。
• The latest seismic activity was also felt in northern Kenya.肯尼亚北部也感觉到了最近的地震活动。

4 crumbled   

（把…）弄碎， （使）碎成细屑( crumble的过去式和过去分词 )； 衰落； 坍塌； 损坏

参考例句：

• He crumbled the bread in his fingers. 他用手指把面包捻碎。
• Our hopes crumbled when the business went bankrupt. 商行破产了，我们的希望也破灭了。

5 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

6 Buddhism   

n.佛教（教义）

参考例句：

• Buddhism was introduced into China about 67 AD.佛教是在公元67年左右传入中国的。
• Many people willingly converted to Buddhism.很多人情愿皈依佛教。

7 inaccessible   

adj.达不到的，难接近的

参考例句：

• This novel seems to me among the most inaccessible.这本书对我来说是最难懂的小说之一。
• The top of Mount Everest is the most inaccessible place in the world.珠穆朗玛峰是世界上最难到达的地方。

8 physically   

adj.物质上，体格上，身体上，按自然规律

参考例句：

• He was out of sorts physically,as well as disordered mentally.他浑身不舒服，心绪也很乱。
• Every time I think about it I feel physically sick.一想起那件事我就感到极恶心。

9 chambers   

n.房间( chamber的名词复数 )；（议会的）议院；卧室；会议厅

参考例句：

• The body will be removed into one of the cold storage chambers. 尸体将被移到一个冷冻间里。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Mr Chambers's readable book concentrates on the middle passage: the time Ransome spent in Russia. Chambers先生的这本值得一看的书重点在中间：Ransome在俄国的那几年。 来自互联网

10 mythical   

adj.神话的；虚构的；想像的

参考例句：

• Undeniably,he is a man of mythical status.不可否认，他是一个神话般的人物。
• Their wealth is merely mythical.他们的财富完全是虚构的。

11 collaboration   

n.合作，协作；勾结

参考例句：

• The two companies are working in close collaboration each other.这两家公司密切合作。
• He was shot for collaboration with the enemy.他因通敌而被枪毙了。

12 blueprint   

n.蓝图，设计图，计划；vt.制成蓝图，计划

参考例句：

• All the machine parts on a blueprint must answer each other.设计图上所有的机器部件都应互相配合。
• The documents contain a blueprint for a nuclear device.文件内附有一张核装置的设计蓝图。

13 archaeology   

n.考古学

参考例句：

• She teaches archaeology at the university.她在大学里教考古学。
• He displayed interest in archaeology.他对考古学有兴趣。

14 browse   

vi.随意翻阅，浏览；(牛、羊等)吃草

参考例句：

• I had a browse through the books on her shelf.我浏览了一下她书架上的书。
• It is a good idea to browse through it first.最好先通篇浏览一遍。

15 bust   

vt.打破；vi.爆裂；n.半身像；胸部

参考例句：

• I dropped my camera on the pavement and bust it. 我把照相机掉在人行道上摔坏了。
• She has worked up a lump of clay into a bust.她把一块黏土精心制作成一个半身像。

16 metropolitan   

adj.大城市的，大都会的

参考例句：

• Metropolitan buildings become taller than ever.大城市的建筑变得比以前更高。
• Metropolitan residents are used to fast rhythm.大都市的居民习惯于快节奏。

17 indigenous   

adj.土产的，土生土长的，本地的

参考例句：

• Each country has its own indigenous cultural tradition.每个国家都有自己本土的文化传统。
• Indians were the indigenous inhabitants of America.印第安人是美洲的土著居民。