Even more than text, images are critical in engaging (digital) audiences with cultural heritage, to illustrate stories, present collections, explore old manuscripts and documents, or illuminate colourful parts of our history. Presenting or sharing small groups of images is technologically straightforward, but as the quality, size and quantity of images increase, implementation and delivery rapidly becomes more complicated. For example, it can be problematic and costly to download gigabyte-sized images on a mobile network. The complexity increases as users combine images from different institutions or countries. There are also many IPR and technological concerns when memory institutions are asked to provide high resolution copies of their images for collaborative projects. The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) continues to be developed to help solve these and many more issues. It provides a standard framework for institutions to present their own content in a consistent, trackable manner, using freely available software. IIIF resources from multiple institutions can be virtually combined (without sending images to each other) to provide shared presentations, allowing users to explore huge zoomable images on different devices without needing to copy or download whole images. However, though well described, setting up and re-using IIIF resources can still be complex, particularly for smaller institutions or individual researchers. In addition, better understanding of how to deploy IIIF to combine virtual collections across institutions and how to support more diverse audiences is needed. This research project will assess current use of IIIF systems across the sector and gather requirements and ambitions for further development via a series of targeted workshops and surveys. These will be used to produce a landscape report and to inform the design and development of a small selection of working IIIF technology pilot demonstrations. A: Working with and presenting datasets and research outputs from different institutions, focusing on resources created within a separate ongoing research project on Tudor/Jacobean portraits. B: Examining how IIIF resources can be used as supplementary information to support and enrich online publications or exhibitions. C: Demonstrating how individual non-technical researchers can create new aggregated IIIF presentations based on existing resources (overcoming a significant barrier to its adoption). This work will involve specific user analysis, with different potential use communities, in order to feed user needs and feedback into the resulting report. The project will also explore what new IIIF tools/services are needed in the sector and how they might be created, used and maintained. An important premise is to involve both tech and non tech people, to develop use cases as well as defining tools. Workshops 1: Showcase and discuss current best practice. Explore how IIIF resources are currently used for research and public engagement (and by whom), identify available resources/tools, and how people would like to use these in the future. 2: Discuss the potential of shared IIIF services. Explore what IIIF related services are available or could be useful/required for institutions or researchers new to IIIF to present public/private images via IIIF, considering shared image repositories, improved image servers, training & knowledge requirements etc. 3: Developing practical IIIF solutions. A practical workshop and discussion designed to create working examples of aggregating, using and presenting IIIF resources, and develop use cases showing how end users can exploit these tools. 4: Towards a National Collection: Developing a road map for the future. A shared workshop bringing together work from the proposed PID and Linked data projects and others, to develop a clear proposal of how the outcomes of these might be used in developing and maintaining a digital National Collection

CoSTAR (Convergent Screen Technologies And performance in Realtime) aims to establish a worldleading national infrastructure for multidisciplinary applied creative R&I, harnessing and driving the convergence of advanced digital technologies transforming the creative industries' Screen and Performance sectors and beyond. Its resources will catalyse collaboration between HEIs and creative businesses to drive innovation in new products, platforms and experiences. A programme of work is now underway to develop the business case for this major new investment and two Fellows are being recruited to support this work through additional evidence gathering and engagement activities, and to bring in additional research and sector expertise. This is an exciting opportunity for a senior academic or manager from a UK IRO or university to help shape a transformative new research and innovation infrastructure for the sector. The AHRC Infrastructure Engagement Fellows in the Creative Industries will support the development of the CoSTAR Business Case, helping to transform the initial proposal into a clear programme for delivery and implementation. Outputs will include the delivery of workshops and other engagement activities, direct input to the business case, as well as the production of specific reports related to the above areas of activity. The Fellows will work closely with AHRC's Infrastructure Team and other senior colleagues across UKRI and report to the CoSTAR Steering Group, chaired by AHRC's Chief Operating Officer.

The National Gallery (NG) has a long history of technical research from its inception: the first Director Charles Eastlake publishing a seminal work in the 19th century on materials and history of oil paintings. X-radiography at NG began in the 1930s, and the results were published in scholarly catalogues as early as the 1940s. The Scientific Department was established in 1934, one of the first in a museum or gallery. Since then NG has developed a world class reputation for its distinctive highly integrated technical research in which scientists, conservators and curators work closely together. A correlative imaging approach from macro (on the painting itself) to micro (on samples) is now adopted for technical examination, following acquisition in recent years of spectroscopic imaging equipment. Multiple techniques (or imaging and analysis modalities) are used together during a single examination to obtain complementary information. Certain other core elements of its technical examination infrastructure have, however, reached the end of their lives and investment for replacements is therefore requested (e.g. a film-based X-radiography system over 30 years old). Update is also needed of certain existing equipment to ensure NG research is not compromised by falling behind with new technologies. This will allow NG to take advantage of developments in instrumentation and software so it can continue to achieve research excellence. Research on its internationally renowned collection during conservation projects or the scholarly cataloguing programme will be a regular source of demand for the infrastructure, as will research feeding exhibitions and the associated public engagement programmes. NG regularly conduct and publish technical research on works from other collections, including both national and non-national institutions. The new infrastructure would also benefit the NG's wide range of national and international research collaborations. Another emerging strategic driver is the greater emphasis on digital engagement and sharing of data through digital platforms. NG's unique archive of technical documentation is extensive due to the long history of scientific examination. This and other material in its photographic archive are used as a valuable research resource by both NG staff and external researchers, who access it through the NG Research Centre. The requested investment in equipment for high-volume digital image capture will be crucial in advancing at a faster pace NG's strategic long-term ambitions for a 'digital dossier' of archive documentation on each painting, so that all our research data is more findable, accessible and re-usable (FAIR) and its use as a research resource is expanded, supported by remote access to information. NG is well placed to take forward these advancements due to its past track record in digital documentation and digital humanities research. Digitisation of data will also make interoperable Linked Data a more achievable goal. This offers the prospect of data and images being more easily available for a wide range of purposes, stimulating not only academic research in a range of fields but other activities such as teaching or exhibitions (and the ensuing economic benefits). NG is a highly appropriate host for the requested investment in infrastructure. The expertise of its staff and the relatively large team mean that maximum value in terms of use can be extracted from it. The equipment would be placed within well-established scientific and photographic departments, complementing or filling gaps within the existing facilities. Its track record in utilising technical research result in its public programmes is also relevant. The iconic nature of the NG collection means the research is of international interest. The demonstrable strong commitment of NG to heritage science research and its high profile within the institution also supports the case for investment in its scientific infrastructure.

This project uses an exhibition at the National Gallery in London to explore the fictive architecture which became a strategic and conspicuous feature of Italian Renaissance painting. Most historians of this period of Italian art have focused on the figure, and those who have studied pictorial space have tended to concentrate on mathematical perspective. A new study of the buildings and architectural frameworks created within images entirely changes the way we perceive these paintings. The exhibition and research project 'Architecture in Italian Renaissance Painting' addresses a fundamental question: what does architecture do for painting? It investigates how and why fourteenth, fifteenth and sixteenth-century Italian artists not only incorporated buildings in their work, but often took an architectural approach to painting. The exhibition is designed around 5 themes: 1) 'Building the picture' investigates the ways in which architecture underpins painting. Rather than being something added on or subordinate to the rest of the image, an architectonic approach often structures the whole painting at the initial planning stage. In setting out the composition, painters designed the architectural framework first, constructing a space and placing figures within it, as the technical evidence of underdrawing, incised or ruled lines and pin-holes often demonstrates. 2) 'Inhabiting the picture' explores the ways in which inner frameworks create the illusion of pictorial space.The way in which we visually enter and inhabit the picture greatly depends on architectural devices: frames and portals that invite the spectator into pictorial space, streets and piazzas through which we imagine strolling, or deep perspectival passages and barrel vaults that direct us inexorably to a vanishing destination. Certain architectural frameworks were favoured to make virtual buildings accessible to viewers: façades were opened up to create cut-away views, and the advantages of the loggia or portico were explored. It is painted architecture that creates an entry to the image which is virtually built by the painter. 3) 'Place making' is an essential part of painting as the subject and the story need a location for the action or event. Architecture very often creates the place, whether it be real or imaginary, foreign or local, a city square or street, a church, monastery, stable or palace, an exterior or interior.The subtle characterisation of place plays a key role in visual story telling and is often achieved by architectural means. 4) 'Architectural time' investigates how painters imagined and constructed a time for the visual narrative. Although we might expect a straightforward rendering of, say, ancient buildings in a mythological subject, notions of history are often confused or complicated by hybrid architectural inventions, so that architecture in painting might seem at first to establish a time, but on looking more closely, a clear sense of period often collapses or is destroyed. 5) 'Fantasy architecture' explores what painters can do that architects cannot, displaying the power of the painter to create what could never be built. Extravagant buildings held a special appeal for artists, patrons and architects themselves, as the aesthetic principle is allowed to rule over the practical in a way that would never be possible in real structures. This section is about architectural desire: exhibiting unachievably complex or structurally impossible designs, dream-like colours and materials including bronze capitals or priceless coloured marbles, and surprising or grotesque decoration. The project will also generate a program of scholarly and curatorial events and publications, including a website with an online catalogue, pod casts, and inventive digital reconstructions; a pre-exhibition conference session to explore the field; and an international symposium and student workshop during the exhibition period.

The conservation, preservation and interpretation of our cultural heritage requires a multi-disciplinary approach, bringing together experts in the fields of science and the arts and humanities. Analysis of the materials of our cultural heritage collections has a vital role in understanding how and why they were made and used, their conservation history, the origin and mechanisms of material decay, and how deterioration has affected appearance and perception. It is part of a responsible modern approach to conservation. \n\nMicrosamples from paintings and objects are often prepared as cross-sections to examine their highly revealing microstructure and stratigraphy. The distribution of materials within the layer structure, or even within an individual layer, reflects the working practices of the artist/maker, the changes that have been initiated by environmental conditions, pollutants or the passage of time, as well as the use and conservation history, including interventions by restorers. The distribution helps to differentiate between original materials and later restorations or additions, as well as deterioration products, which is crucial when undertaking conservation treatments and interpreting the original appearance of the object. It is also important in understanding the causes of decay, informing decisions on storage and display of objects. Although analysis of inorganic components in a cross-section is reasonably straightforward, this is not the case for organic materials, which are very difficult to characterise with the techniques currently available to heritage scientists.\n\nThe project will develop the application of micro-ATR-FTIR spectroscopic imaging combined with data processing using multivariate methods to the analysis of cross-sections from cultural heritage paintings and objects. Other conventional IR spectroscopic techniques are of proven value in the field but this emerging technique is the only one that has the potential to become a routine and rapid method to simultaneously characterise both organic and inorganic materials directly (at a molecular level) on cross-sections, at the same time as determining their distribution with the necessary high spatial resolution. This would greatly improve analysis of organic surface coatings or components, understanding of which is crucial for solubility behaviour during cleaning of objects. It will ensure that advice from heritage scientists on the care and conservation of collections is based on the best possible data, improving conservation practice and our ability to preserve our national collections for future generations. \n\nThe spectroscopy expertise at Imperial College London (host organisation) will be combined with expertise in the heritage field at the National Gallery and the British Museum (project partners). The postdoctoral researcher, hosted at Imperial College London, will develop the methodology of ATR-FTIR imaging on test samples, before applying it to a wide range of samples from real objects (involving time working at the partner institutions). This will demonstrate the versatility of the technique and at the same time generate new information which can answer unsolved questions about the objects and paintings studied that cannot be obtained using current techniques. The new skills that the postdoctoral researcher will develop during the research, and the experience gained from working in a leading spectroscopic imaging group as well as two prominent cultural heritage institutions, will increase capacity in heritage science. Interaction with curators and conservators will ensure that their needs influence the development of the research and that the new insights gained into the objects studied can directly improve the way in which the National Gallery, the British Museum and other institutions charged with the care of cultural heritage interpret, study and present their collections to the public.