Source
What evidence actually exists?Identify original photographs, maps, documents, oral histories, material traces and known gaps. Do not allow generated detail to silently fill an evidentiary absence.
WAIIVPA METHOD FRAMEWORK
RDR / WORKING FRAMEWORK / v0.1
Responsible
Digital
Reconstruction
A practitioner framework for using restoration, visual reconstruction and AI-assisted interpretation without confusing new imagery with historical evidence.
ORIGINALsource evidence
RESTOREDsource repaired
RECONSTRUCTEDnew representation
AI-ASSISTEDinterpretive visual
THE PRINCIPLE
“The more convincing a reconstruction becomes, the more important its label becomes.”
A digital reconstruction may help viewers understand a lost building, a damaged photograph or an inaccessible historical setting. Its value depends on being useful without pretending to be something it is not.
SIX GATES
Before a reconstruction is shown, six questions should be answered.
This framework is a working practitioner model. It may evolve through community use, specialist review and future research collaboration.
EVIDENCE REGISTER
Authority
Who has the right to decide?Determine consent, community authority, cultural rights, ICIP considerations and whether some knowledge should remain restricted or unrepresented.
Context
What meaning could be lost?Record what is known, what is uncertain and what cultural or historical context must accompany the visual so that it is not reduced to decoration.
Reconstruct
What is evidence, and what is interpretation?Build only what the available evidence and clearly stated interpretation can support. Where uncertainty is material, make that uncertainty visible.
Label
Can a viewer tell what they are looking at?Use a visible evidence-status label. Do not hide the distinction between original archive material, restoration, reconstruction and AI-assisted interpretation.
Return
Does the outcome remain accountable to community?Return the visual, metadata and decision record to the people or community connected to the story, and define how it may be stored, shared or revised.
EVIDENCE STATUS
Do not collapse four different things into one image.
Original Archive
The source as received, with provenance and context.
Restored
The source repaired or enhanced while retaining the historical source boundary.
Reconstructed
A new visual built from evidence and research. It is not an archival photograph.
AI-assisted Interpretation
A generated or transformed visual used for interpretation and always labelled accordingly.
MINIMUM RECORD
A reconstruction should leave an audit trail.
The final image is only one part of the record. A responsible reconstruction should retain enough information for a future viewer, community member or researcher to understand how it was made.
01Source list
What materials informed the work?
02Known / unknown
Which elements are evidenced and which remain uncertain?
03Rights & consent
Who authorised the use and under what conditions?
04Method
What restoration, compositing or generative processes were used?
05Version history
What changed between drafts?
06Public label
How is the evidence status communicated to audiences?
RED LINES
Some things should stop the process.
01 No reconstruction presented as original historical footage or photography.
02 No culturally restricted material made public simply because it can be digitised.
03 No fabricated certainty where evidence is incomplete or contested.
04 No AI-generated identity, attribution or cultural detail treated as verified fact.
05 No removal of community authority after consent has been given.
WORKING FRAMEWORK
Technology can help us see what is gone.
Responsibility tells us how to look.
This framework is intended as a transparent practitioner starting point. It can be refined through community governance, specialist review, research collaboration and real-world use.