The Guam Rock Art Study: Digital archaeology and creative/artistic expression | Reyes | CAAA2025

Описание: The Guam Rock Art Study: Digital archaeology and creative/artistic expression
Aja Reyes

The Guam Rock Art Study (GRAS) is an ongoing passion project started in 2020 by a diverse team of professionals to survey previously reported rock art sites on Guam, the southernmost and largest island in the Mariana Islands Archipelago. As of 2024, the GRAS has surveyed 12 sites out of 16 known sites (additional sites were recently reported to the GRAS) using non-intrusive technologies and methods of digital archaeology. This included 360° recordings, laser scanning, structure-from-motion photogrammetry, Dstretch and was one of the first test cases for chiaroscuro photogrammetry. The findings of the GRAS study are preliminary and have led to more questions for the GRAS to consider. Still, the GRAS has allowed the most comprehensive assessment of Guam rock art to date. Furthermore, it has led to the interest of rock art recording in other Mariana islands and contributed to the repatriation rock art taken for the B.P. Bishop Museum collection in Honolulu, Hawaii a century ago.

In this presentation, I share how the GRAS has influenced my creative work in abstract figuration, conversely, how my art practice has improved my capacity to observe, identify and describe different motifs found in Guam rock art. I will compare art pieces created before and after joining the GRAS team (from 2021 to 2025), and GRAS examples of improved post-processing effort. Additionally, I explore how multi-disciplinary perspectives contribute to the discussions and interpretations of rock art, and how creative arts provide a way to visualize and communicate abstract gestating ideas.

Presented on October 2 2025 as part of CAA Australasia Digital Archaeology Conference.

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