APAC LABORATORIES INAUGURATION
The Andreas Pittas Art Characterization Laboratories (APAC Labs) and STARC have recognized the potential and relevance of historic graffiti as a written source able to provide valuable insights into little known aspects of the life of past societies, such as the thoughts, feelings and emotions of everyday individuals. Overall, graffiti provide evidence of the visual culture and the everyday practices of people in the past. During the past few years, APAC Labs/ STARC researchers have been involved in an array of research projects aiming to foster the study and promote the preservation of historic graffiti in Cyprus and the Eastern Mediterranean region.
A structured methodology for the documentation, analysis, and study of this material is still missing. This gap threatens the development of this field of studies and limits our knowledge concerning this long-lasting phenomenon, too often mistakenly associated with vandalism and destructive activities. Responding to these needs, the use of advanced digital technologies applied to Cultural Heritage is helping the development of a specific pipeline for the documentation, analysis, and study of historical graffiti in different contexts.
The main aim of APAC Labs/ STARC research activities is to enhance the study of historical graffiti through the application of innovative and ad-hoc technologies. The output is to enrich our knowledge concerning past societies with new and untapped information through the ‘voices’ of common people. Moreover, recovering past people’s voices creates a virtual connection with the past, lively visible in the scratched, incised and painted graffiti on the surfaces of buildings and monuments that we still experience in our daily life. Graffiti represents the deep human need to communicate and to relate to the surrounding space by leaving signs that mark their presence and passage. In Cyprus and the Eastern Mediterranean, graffiti can be found on numerous buildings from Antiquity until today.
Centre de Recherche et de Restauration des Musées de France (C2RMF), France
Department of Antiquities, Cyprus
NCSA, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
A. G. Leventis Gallery, Cyprus
Leventis Municipal Museum of Nicosia, Cyprus
Byzantine Museum, Cyprus
Historical Museum of Crete
Benaki Museum
Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR), Italy
Israel Antiquities Authority, Israel
