Demystifying Digital Field Recording | CAA Australasia Panel

CAA Australasia Digital Archaeology Panel Series

Join us for a discussion of hot topics in digital field recording! 

Digital recording is becoming standard in archaeological fieldwork, but for many practitioners, the transition from paper forms and manual methods to digital systems can feel unclear or overwhelming. This panel brings together archaeologists with hands-on experience in digital field recording to cut through the complexity and focus on what works in real-world field settings.

Digital recording in the field for archaeologists can take many forms from simple notations on a tablet, Field Database management, geolocation data, photographs, drone work, photogrammetry, lidar and even XRF, EMR, and GPR to name a few. Usually the challenge is not what we can do, but what we have time and budget to do.

Five experts from academia and industry will each share a current challenge they see as pertinent to working with digital acquisition in the field which will lead into a series of open questions in a panel type format.

Whether you're just beginning to explore digital methods or looking to refine your workflow, this session is designed to be practical, honest, and directly useful for fieldwork planning and execution. It will be a great orientation for newcomers and offer insights for more experienced practitioners, covering key considerations in digital data collection and recording in the field.

Hosted by Michael Rampe, this panel will be recorded and later made available via the CAA Australasia YouTube channel.

Meet the Panellists:

Dr Emma Beckett is the Heritage Liaison Research Fellow on the Australian Research Council Desert to the Sea Project. Her research is focused on how digital technologies and visualisations can be used to enhance understanding of human interaction and modification of past landscapes.

Dr Fritz (Frederick) Hardke teaches and researches at Macquarie University. He maintains a strong passion for heritage, which expresses itself through archaeological fieldwork where he has been active in Egypt since 1998. His particular interest is in the area of rock art studies and he directs a Belgian-Australian Mission in Upper Egypt dedicated to the recording and preservation of rock art ranging in date from the Palaeolithic to the present day. His technological background sees a merging with heritage and the use of immersive technologies such as VR/AR/XR and gaming in that domain. Underpinning the technological aspect are his over 30 years’ experience in the use and architecture of simulation and immersive technologies in the Defence and Aerospace sector, including simulators and gaming engines for training and operational analysis.

Dr Andrea Jalandoni is a Senior Research and DECRA Fellow based at the Griffith Centre for Social and Cultural Research (GCSCR) and Australian Research Centre for Human Evolution (ARCHE) at Griffith University. Her research interests are rock art and digital archaeology working extensively in Australia, Southeast Asia, and Micronesia. As a recreational pilot, she is also interested in aerial archaeology and flying herself to work in remote areas. Some of her current projects include documenting all the rock art of the Mariana Islands, combining remote sensing and ethnography in Pohnpei and Kosrae (FSM), developing new methods for studying finger flutings, trialing hyperspectral imaging on some of the oldest rock art in the world in Indonesia, and studying rock art placement in the Northern Territory.

Lauren Roach is an early career archaeologist, who graduated from the University of Sydney in 2023 with a Bachelor of Arts and Archaeology Honours. She currently works part-time as a Heritage Consultant at Niche Environment and Heritage and part-time on a research project at the University of Sydney. Lauren has worked on a range of projects within NSW Australia and has fieldwork experience with excavation, survey, and site recording. She has a background in rock art research, utilising digital techniques of photogrammetry, TLS, and LiDAR. 

Professor Shawn A. Ross FRSN, FSA is a Professor of History and Archaeology at Macquarie University.  Shawn’s research interests include digital archaeology, the history and archaeology of pre-Classical Greece, the archaeology of the Balkans, Greece in its wider context, and the application of information technology to research. Since 2009, Shawn has undertaken fundamental archaeological research in Bulgaria with the Tundzha Regional Archaeology Project, focusing on landscape archaeology and palaeoenvironmental research. Since 2012 Shawn has also co-directed the Field Acquired Information Management Systems (FAIMS) project (developing data capture systems for field research. Shawn was Director of Digitally Enabled Research (2017-2022) and Director, Strategic Initiatives, Digitally Enabled Research (2022-2023) at Macquarie. In 2022 Shawn began a secondment with the Australian Research Data Commons (ARDC) as Product Manager for the Research Activity Identifier (RAiD), developing a global persistent identifier service for research projects. In 2024, this secondment expanded to include the role of Manager, National Information Infrastructure Products. Previously, Shawn worked at the University of New South Wales (Sydney, Australia), the American University in Bulgaria (Blagoevgrad), and William Paterson University (Wayne, New Jersey).

Michael Rampe is the CEO and Founder of Pedestal 3D Pty Ltd and Rampe Realistic Imaging Pty Ltd. Having a career spanning academia and industry with a focus on history, heritage and archaeology digitisation with cutting edge 3D imaging and delivery technologies,

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Event image: Point cloud made using a terrestrial laser scanner of the Graffiti Tunnel, University of Sydney.