New Horizons

Context

For a long time, history was just a hobby to me. Something that was experienced through Wikipedia and trivia competitions. It wasn’t until January of 2024 when that changed.

I made a wrong turn into Alviso. Once a thriving port that ferried the South Bay’s harvests to San Francisco, Alviso now felt like an overlooked corner. Unpaved, pothole-filled roads led past abandoned warehouses, and the nearest grocery store was miles away. The Alviso I read about in the books and the Alviso my eyes were staring at could not have been more different. 

Curious, I returned, notebook in hand, chasing answers that only multiplied: floods, lawsuits, and decades of neglect. One day, Francisco, a lifelong resident, pointed to a derelict factory building and joked, “This was our Google 100 years ago, but now it’s our museum.” His words struck me. For the first time, history was rusting right in front of me, and I had to save it. That impulse soon blossomed into a website and my research paper for National History Day.

My experiences in Alviso showed me that history is dying. Throughout the world, historical buildings are fading away due to factors such as gentrification, natural disasters, and war. This puts the rich history that they contain in jeopardy. Additionally, it is very expensive and time consuming to manually preserve the building, leading to debates over whether or not the preservation of historical buildings is even necessary. In recent years, some have posited the idea of digital restoration in order to more efficiently preserve these buildings, but I believe this process can be further streamlined. I aim to answer if the digital restoration historical buildings using cutting-edge technologies such as virtual 3D modeling and artificial intelligence (AI) is possible.

What I did this week

This week wasn’t all that eventful(senior projects are just beginning), but I was still able to get some preliminary work done. For starters, I contacted the owners of the “Endangered Eight” properties and got some responses. I’ll be spending the next two weeks trying to get all the green lights I need for my onsite work. In addition, I’ve also been learning to use the three softwares my project will revolve around(Artlist, Photoshop, and Blender). Honestly, I think my skills right now are good enough, but I do want to make sure they’re polished enough while I’m still on a relatively loose schedule.

I guess I also met with my internal and external advisors, but that’s a given every single week. In future blogs, I won’t explicitly mention this unless I wasn’t able to meet with them.

Research Question

My original research question was “How can certain AI models such as generative AI and image to image be utilized to more efficiently model and digitally preserve historical buildings?” However, during my proposal, someone suggested that my project didn’t involve that much artificial intelligence to begin with.

Should I roll with this question and if not, how should I rephrase it?

Goals for next week

• Finish learning to use Artlist, Photoshop, and Blender
• Read Multiple View Geometry in Computer Vision and Historic Preservation: Curatorial Management of the Built World.