The Optics for Arts, Architecture and Archaeology Conference, 8th under O3A series and 10th since its conception, is being held again in Munich as part of the SPIE Optical Metrology Symposium at the World of Photonics Congress in June 2021. We are proud to celebrate 20 years of this optics community in 2021.

O3A is an established event for discussing advanced methods and new instruments for the historical study, conservation and documentation of cultural heritage. The symposium is a unique forum focused on optics research in the field of heritage science. Optics applications in cultural heritage has a long and dynamic history owing to the non-destructive nature of optical imaging starting with microscopy, infrared photography and X-radiography. Optical imaging provided the most popular methods of examination for cultural heritage before micro-chemical analysis became possible. In recent years, the development of new imaging and spectroscopic techniques have revitalized the application of optics in cultural heritage. The non-invasive nature of these techniques has meant that whole objects and collections can now be examined with multiple techniques which will inevitably result in unprecedented amount of data collected that will in turn push new boundaries in data and image processing methods. The demand of the developing European Research Infrastructure for Heritage Science (www.e-rihs.eu) for news instruments, data processing methods and facilities will no doubt advance the field even further.

The 2021 symposium will cover instruments and techniques that span the entire electromagnetic spectrum covering a broad range of scales along with the associated data and image processing and visualization methods. New instruments and techniques, multi-modal imaging and multi-technique integrated analysis and data fusion techniques that meets the challenges of big data analytics are expected to be the focus.

Contributions are welcome and will be considered in all fields of research for cultural and natural heritage including the following areas of interest: