Findings
The juxtaposition of high-end and consumer-grade scanning technologies reveals more than a contrast in image fidelity—it reflects a deeper set of questions around infrastructural equity, technological gatekeeping, and cultural authorship. While the Leica RTC360 captures millimeter-precision point clouds, tools like Scaniverse or Polycam on a smartphone offer accessibility, portability, and immediacy—qualities that are vital in community-based documentation. Field improvisation, such as using a flashlight to augment iPhone RGB data in low-light interiors, underscores that the value of a scan is not solely determined by its device but by the embodied knowledge and adaptive skills of the person capturing it.
Methodological Implications:
This multi-device methodology challenges the conventional hierarchy of “best practices” in digital documentation by foregrounding flexibility, affordability, and improvisation. It asserts that to achieve equity in spatial preservation, planners and researchers must intentionally use a range of tools—not only for comparative analysis, but to disrupt the dominance of elite, inaccessible technologies. By embracing limitations as integral design conditions—such as lighting constraints, terrain, or weather—this approach reframes constraints as methodological choices rather than deficits. This work advances the idea that spatial documentation is not a purely technical process, but a lived and political methodology rooted in the dynamics of access, adaptation, and authorship.
Takeaway:
Technology is not neutral. In cultural preservation, the tools we choose—and who we empower to use them—signal our values. Prioritizing accessibility over elite precision reframes documentation as a democratized, community-centered act.