2025 Theses Doctoral

From Plot to Bit: The Origins and Evolution of Digitization Technologies in Heritage Documentation (1850s-2000s)

Yin, Shuyi

This dissertation examines the historical evolution of digitization technologies for documenting architectural heritage, spanning from the emergence of plane table photogrammetry in the mid-19th century to the integration of 3D scanning technology and digital photogrammetry in the early 21st century. It examines how evolving tools and techniques — shaped by technological innovation, institutional networks, and shifting disciplinary boundaries — not only redefine how built heritage is documented and preserved, but also how heritage practices actively influence and advance the development of these technologies.

Organized chronologically into three parts, the research focuses on key moments when photogrammetric technologies intersected with heritage documentation practices, shaped by border historical, social, cultural, and political contexts as well as various actors, including individuals, institutions, technological devices, and discourses.

Part I explores the late 19th-century development of plane table photogrammetry as the first method of remote spatial capture, highlighting the work of Albrecht Meydenbauer and the establishment of the Königlich Preußische Messbildanstalt in 1885. It traces how such early techniques supplemented manual surveying, producing new standards of geometric precision.

Part II examines the post-World War II era (1960s–1980s), emphasizing the role of international heritage organizations, including CIPA, ICOMOS, ISPRS, UNESCO, and ICCROM, in formalizing architectural photogrammetry. Figures like Hans Foramitti and Maurice Carbonnell promoted transnational collaborative projects.

Part III investigates the digital turn from the mid-1980s to the 2000s, with a focus on 3D laser scanning and digital photogrammetry. It discusses seminal projects, such as the Digital Michelangelo Project, and contributions from public and private institutions.

Three interludes interweave the main chapters, each focusing on critical shifts in instrumentation and epistemology. Interlude I examines the rise of stereoplotter, originally developed for military and cartographic purposes, which introduced new standards of spatial measurement that later influenced heritage workflows. Interlude II and III chart the emergence of 3D laser scanning and digital photogrammetry, situating these developments within broader developments in computer vision, image technology, and data infrastructure that prefigured the current landscape of heritage digitization.

By reconstructing the genealogy of these digitization technologies, this dissertation reframes the historiography of historic preservation. It foregrounds the reciprocal relationship between heritage and technology, highlights the crucial role of institutions in forming knowledge networks, and broadens the disciplinary scope of historic preservation and heritage studies. It opens new avenues for critical engagement with the technological, cultural, and epistemological dimensions of heritage digitization.