[ISEA2011] Panel: Car­o­line Wilkin­son – De­pict­ing the Dead

Panel Statement

Panel: Serious Animation: Beyond Art and Entertainment

This pre­sen­ta­tion dis­cusses how 3D hap­tic tech­nol­ogy is used to de­pict faces of the dead. The paper de­scribes 3D anatom­i­cal mod­el­ling and the util­i­sa­tion of skele­tal mod­els from clin­i­cal imag­ing data and ex­plains how this can be em­ployed to aid recog­ni­tion and iden­ti­fi­ca­tion in foren­sic in­ves­ti­ga­tions or au­then­ti­ca­tion and de­pic­tion in ar­chae­o­log­i­cal re­search. The pre­sen­ta­tion will show de­pic­tions of An­cient Egyp­tians, Bog Bod­ies and fa­mous his­tor­i­cal fig­ures, such as J.S. Bach and William Shake­speare.

  • Car­o­line Wilkin­son is cur­rently Pro­fes­sor of Cran­io­fa­cial Iden­ti­fi­ca­tion at the Uni­ver­sity of Dundee, Scotland. Her work in­cludes cran­io­fa­cial de­pic­tion from skele­tal and par­tially de­com­posed human re­mains for use in foren­sic and ar­chae­o­log­i­cal in­ves­ti­ga­tions and she is au­thor of Foren­sic Fa­cial Re­con­struc­tion. Dr Wilkin­son has also been in­volved in many ar­chae­o­log­i­cal in­ves­ti­ga­tions and her work is ex­hib­ited in mu­se­ums around the world, in­clud­ing fa­cial de­pic­tions of bog bod­ies (Moes­gaard Mu­seum, Den­mark & Na­tional Mu­seum of Ire­land), An­cient Egyp­tians (The British Mu­seum) and British Ar­chae­ol­ogy (Mu­seum of Lon­don & Na­tional Mu­seum of Scot­land).  She has ap­peared on tele­vi­sion in pop­u­lar ar­chae­ol­ogy pro­grammes such as Meet the An­ces­tors (BBC2), Se­crets of the Dead (Chan­nel 4) and His­tory Cold Case (BBC2). Her research group, Forensic & Medical Art, was formed through a collaboration between the Centre for Anatomy & Human Identification and the Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design in 2005. Her research includes the craniofacial depiction of unidentified bodies for forensic identification or the depiction of historical figures, Egyptian mummies, Bog bodies or people from the past for archaeological investigation. She is also involved in the study of craniofacial changes during transsexual treatment, the evaluation of Tsantas, medical avatars, disaster victim identification and the depiction of disease and trauma in museum exhibitions. Her research utilises 3D haptic technology, clinical images, stereolithography, 3D animation and 3D laser capture.