Markus Stoffer joined the DARKLab in August 2020 as a guest researcher from the Netherlands. For a period of three months, Markus is gaining experience in a setting similar to his Dutch workplace, the 4D Research Lab (4DRL) at the University of Amsterdam. At the DARKLab, Markus has come into contact with the multiple projects set up by the main lab members and doctoral students, and works in the context of the Dynamic Collections project.
Focused on the use of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) in archaeological education and visualisation, Markus (in a team of the 4DRL) generally works in the context of ‘blended learning’ (combining physical and digital teaching methods), testing and producing apps to innovate the teaching goals of professors at the University of Amsterdam. Within the Dynamic Collections project at Lund, Markus develops a dynamic archaeological object viewer, using Unity.
This incorporates a reflective process on who the target audience is for presenting visualised data, and how to customise app interfaces to suit their (research) goals. A sample of thirty objects from the available database are assigned a corresponding set of attributes, and these can be explored in a kind of network view, based on the similarity objects have to the currently selected object. Additional functionality allows the user to decide which characteristics count heavier for certain objects: for example, this allows researchers to dynamically test typologies based on measured objects.