Thomas Flynn

Hello! I work in the field of cultural heritage specialising in 3D digitisation, online publishing, XR, open access, storytelling, and interoperability.

I run a semi-regular newsletter covering these themes called The Spatial Heritage Review, as well as managing a LinkedIn Group of the same name, followed by professionals from MoMA, Niantic Labs, The British Museum, UK National Trust, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Harvard University, Epic Games, + many more worldwide organisations.

Over the course of my career, I’ve provided expert advise to UNESCO, The European Commission, Oxford University, Creative Commons, UK Research & Innovation, Columbia University, University College London, & many more organisations.

If you’re ready to begin exploring these themes in-depth within your own work or organisation, do drop me a message – I am available for online consultation as well as onsite workshops, keynotes, lectures, and digitisation.

If you’re looking for an introduction to 3D for cultural heritage, please take a read of of glam3D.org: it’s an open access white paper that I co-authored with open access expert Neal Stimler and copyright expert Michael Weinberg.

You can also find me on LinkedIn & Sketchfab.

Now

Consultant
Visiting Fellow, Bournemouth University
Co-chair IIIF 3D Community Group
Advisory Board, 2+3D Photography Conference

Previously

Cultural Heritage Lead at Sketchfab, Epic Games, Inc.
Co-Founder + Design @ Museum in a Box
3D + Digital Design @ British Museum
Motion Design + Digital Content @ Barbican Centre
Digital & Motion Design @ Southbank Centre

In another life I also ran freelance for… Design Council, Dorling Kindersly, Audible, Horniman Museum, Nowness, Sprout Pictures, Jackal Films, Villa Lunera, Knock Knock Productions, Princess Productions, Celleste Dell’Anna, Agile Films, Caviar Content, These Tales Games, Kaber Games & more.


Training for GLAM Professionals

I have delivered training sessions, workshops, roundtables, and panel discussions with heritage and technology professionals. To date, I have taught 3D & XR skills to staff from:

The British Museum
The Tate
Royal Horticultural Society
Natural History Museum London
Princeton University Art Museum
The Postal Museum
Royal Philatelic Society
The Society of Antiquaries of London
Royal Academy of Arts
University of the Arts London
The Museum of London
Royal Collection Trust
The Horniman Museum & Gardens
Jewish Museum, London
Alexandra Palace
Wilton’s Music Hall
Cuming Museum
Museum of Crime
Museum of the Order of St John
Hitchin British Schools Museum
Oxford University
Brighton University

SS Robin Trust
The Science Museum
National Portrait Gallery
Islington Museum
UK Government Art Collection
Stevenage Museum
Bournemouth Arts University (VFX graduate lecture)
Imperial War Museum
Museum of English Rural Life
Wellcome Trust
RAF Museum
Black Cultural Archive
Royal Institute of British Architects
Museum of the University of St Andrews
King’s College London
Birmingham Museums Trust
Reading Museum
North Hertfordshire Museum
Luton Museums
Arts University Bournemouth

+ many more!


3D Digitisation & Interactive

The image shows a statue of a seated bodhisattva, Guanyin (Avalokiteshvara), a revered figure in East Asian Buddhism known for compassion. The figure is adorned in flowing robes and a detailed crown, seated in a relaxed pose with one leg hanging down and one arm resting on a support, conveying both grace and serenity.

An expert in photogrammetry, 3D editing, gaussian splatting, and XR, I’ve created and captured 3D content for the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Culture, The British Museum, National Museums Scotland, Horniman Museum, UK Government Art Collection, RMO Leiden, RMN Grand Palais, Cleveland Museum of Art, Cuming Museum, Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures, Science Museum Group, & more.

Interact with some of these model in this collection, and more of my scans here.


Industry Activity

Beyond my personal practice, I love to learn from and contribute to activities and initiatives across the cultural heritage sector. To this end, I regularly participate in conferences and online events to share my knowledge and learn from my peers.

I co-chair IIIF 3D Community Group, sit on the Advisory Board of the Rijksmuseum’s 2+3D Photography Conference, and am a Visiting Fellow to the Faculty of Science & Technology in the Department of Archaeology & Anthropology at Bournemouth University.

An extended record of my industry activity can be found below.

2025

Metaverse Interoperability & Standards eDelphi Survey (Queen’s University Belfast, supported by UKRI under the DCMS Science and Analysis R&D Programme)
Expert contributor.

3Dise Conference 2025, Prague
Presentation: Current trends, opportunities, and challenges in the heritage 3D sector.

3D Scanning Workshop, UK, January
MA Digital Fashion Innovation, Arts University Bournemouth

2024

Workshop: Introduction to 3D for Cultural Heritage Professionals & Volunteers, UK, November
Funded by UK Shared Prosperity Fund, hosted by AUB Innovation Studio.

Department of Archaeology & Anthropology at Bournemouth University, UK, November
Accepted invitation to become a Visiting Fellow to the Faculty of Science & Technology.

10th International Euro-Mediterranean Conference (EuroMed 2024), CY, November
Opening keynote: Everything, Everywhere, All At Once.

Heritage Management Organization, Online, October
Webinar: From Digitalization to Global Interaction, in partnership with Kharkiv School of Architecture and Skeiron , and supported by the Public Diplomacy Section of the U.S. Embassy to Ukraine. Video.

Analysis and Recording of Cultural Heritage in Venice, online, September
Webinar, introduction to IIIF 3D. Video.

British Museum Digital Methods Working Group, UK, August
Presentation, British Museum 3D in context.

Mused.com, online, July
Interview link.

VR Voyaging, online, July
Interview link.

The European Astronaut Centre / Wekit ECS, DE, July
Digitisation: International Space Station Columbus Module mockup.

Smartify Advisory Board, Online, June
Presentation: Overview of the Spatial Heritage

Digital Skills Network in Arts & Humanities, Brighton University, UK, June
Workshop: Accessible Methods in 3D Digitisation.

Smithsonian Institution 3D Interest Group, Online, June
Presentation, Smithsonian 3D in context.

Global Digital Heritage’s World Conference, ES, May
Presentation: GDH in Context: Trends in the Spatial Heritage Sector.

Europeana Digital Storytelling Festival 2024, Online, May
Opening keynote, Storytelling with 3D.

Rijksmuseum’s 2and3D Photography 2024, NL, May
Roundtable workshops on cahllenges and aspirations for imaging professionals working with 3D.

XRchiving.london, UK, April
Panel discussion, 3D in the heritage sector.

Academy Software Foundation USD Working group, online, March
Webinar: Introduction to IIIF 3D.

Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford and The Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities, UK, February
Undergraduate seminar & 3D workshop.

Digital Skills Network in Arts & Humanities, Brighton University, UK, January
Webinar: Publishing & Re-use of Cultural Heritage 3D for Narrative.

Rijksmuseum’s 2and3D Conference, online, January
Advisory board.

IIIF 3D Group Summit, US, January
Co-chair, expert contributor.

2023

Historic Environment Scotland Digital Skills SIP Roundtable, November
Expert contributor.

Japanese Perspectives in 3D Cultural Heritage Documentation, ICCROM, September
Online lecture.

Sunoikisis Digital Classics, University College London, July
Online lecture.

Digital Humanities Conversation Day, Oxford University, March
Expert contributor.

Digitizing Heritage: A Kulturo Share Event, February
Podcast.

3D Scanning for Cultural Heritage Preservation, Access and Revitalization, Creative Commons, February
Expert panel.

UNESCO Dive Into Heritage Expert Workshop on Data Standards, February
Expert contributor.

Digital Imaging & the Preservation of Tangible Cultural Heritage, Hadassah Academic College Jerusalem, February
Online lecture.

2022

Computational Methods for Cultural Heritage @ British Museum, September
Conference presentation.

UNESCO Dive Into Heritage Expert Workshop, July
Expert contributor.

2and3D Conference, May
Expert roundtable.

Towards a National Collection Sensemaking Session, March
Expert contributor.

UK National Archives, February
Staff digitisation training.

Digital Imaging & the Preservation of Tangible Cultural Heritage, Hadassah Academic College Jerusalem, January
Online lecture.

2021

Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology UK, December 2021
Conference presentation.

Eurographics Workshop on Graphics and Cultural Heritage, October 2021
Conference presentation.

Advisory Board, Pure3D

Introduction to publishing 3D online, University of Plymouth School of Art, Design and Architecture, March 2021
presentation deck + notes

Sourcing and Optimising 3D Scans for VR & AR, Educators in VR, March 2021
videopresentation deck + notes

Advisory Board Member, 2+3D Photography Conference Online, Rijksmuseum, Jun 2021
https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/nl/zien-en-doen/lezingen-talkshows-symposia/2and3d-photography-online?

“Publishing 3D models & intellectual property”, Sunoikisis Digital Cultural Heritage, Mar 2021
presentation deck + speaker notes | event recording

“10 Ways to Use Cultural Heritage 3D”, Innovating your Approach to Online Audience Engagement, Curatours / Virtual Umbrella, Feb 2021
presentation deck + speaker notes | event recording

“Developments in Online 3D”, Technological Revolutions and Art History, MoMA / Frick Collection, Jan 2021
presentation deck + speaker notes

2020

“Realtime Online 3D” 3Dvis Symposium 2020 Keynote, Oxford University Museum of Natural History / Warwick University, Dec 2020
presentation deck + speaker notes | presentation recording | panel discussion

IIIF 3D Community Group Report, IIIF Week
https://iiif.io/event/2020/iiifweek/#iiif-week-iiif-3d—-next-steps-&-dimensions?-iiif-3d-community-group-updates

Co-author glam3d.org, launched May 2020

Group Panel on “Recovery”, 3D digital Cultural Heritage for resilience, recovery and sustainability, May 2020

“The Sketchfab CC0/Public Domain Launch” Data Islands, Fitzwilliam Museum, March 2020
bit.ly/fitzldi

2019

Advisory Board, 2+3D Photography – Practice and Prophecies – 2019, Rijksmuseum, NL
https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/2and3d

2018

Publishing Timely 3D Narratives Online, Workshop, Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY, Dec 2018
goo.gl/4UQV8V

Guest seminar, Digital Materiality & Cultural Practice, Columbia University, November 2018

Explorable, Shareable 3D, DigiDoc 2018, Engine Shed Edinburgh, October 2018
https://www.engineshed.scot/digifest-2018/digidoc-timetable

Sharing 3D Online, Cultural Heritage Imaging Professionals Conference / Digipalooza 2018, Stanford Libraries, July 2018
https://library.stanford.edu/projects/cultural-heritage-imaging-professionals-conference

What happens when you put cultural heritage collections online in 3D?, 3D/VR Creation and Curation in Higher Education:
A Colloquium to Explore Standards and Best Practices, Oklahoma University, March 2018
http://vrpreservation.oucreate.com/Colloquium/speakers

Contributor, MAKERS MARKET PILOT REPORT, Europeana, January 2018
PDF Report

2017

Digital Art History Research Group Lunchtime Seminar, November 2017
link

3D & Photogrammetry Workshop @ 3D Imaging in Cultural Heritage Conference, Iperion / British Museum, Nov 2017
programme

Digital Art History: Practice & Potential, Oct 2017, Paul Mellon Centre / Courtauld Institute
programme

Museum Showoff, Sep 2017
https://museumsshowoff.wordpress.com/2017/08/31/sept-19-line-up

VRX, May 2017
http://vr-intelligence.com/europe/conference-agenda.php

Museums and the Web 2017
http://mw17.mwconf.org/proposal/getting-your-museum-into-the-3d-and-vr-realm

SXSWEdu 2017
http://schedule.sxswedu.com/events/event_PP68002

MuseumSHARE Conference 2017
http://sharemuseumseast.org.uk/events/managing-digital-images-seminar

2016

VHN Ireland 2016
http://www.vhnireland.org/conference-2016/programme

Nottingham Explorers Fair 2016
https://nearnow.org.uk/events/explorers-fair

Museum Association Tech 2016
http://www.museumsassociation.org/download?id=1153182

British Library 2016
Staff briefing.

2015

Micropasts Conference Feb 2015
https://youtu.be/tVq8qlUVLRw
http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/1332714

Museum Showoff x2
https://museumsshowoff.wordpress.com/2016/01/15/feb-2-line-up
https://museumsshowoff.wordpress.com/2014/11/21/dec-2-line-up