Establishing a Dialogue Between Textual Sources and 3D-Spatialised Annotations: A First Experiment Within Notre-Dame's Scientific Data Corpus

Abstract. Structured 3D annotations offer a powerful means of documenting and localizing scientific and professional observations within spatial models. However, the production and transmission of knowledge in heritage science ultimately relies on narratives—discursive forms that explain how and why these observations were made. Reconciling the precision of structured, queryable data with the contextual depth of scholarly reasoning remains a central challenge in digital humanities and cultural heritage research. How can these two descriptive trajectories—analytical and narrative—be interconnected? How can we enable researchers to move fluidly between the what / where / when and the how / why within a single exploration environment? This article presents an experimental framework developed in response to that challenge, situated within the unprecedented multidisciplinary effort launched after the fire at Notre-Dame de Paris on April 15, 2019. Capitalizing on the extensive research activity that followed, we sought to interconnect two complementary corpora: (1) a rich body of spatialized 2D/3D annotations created on the Aïoli platform, and (2) textual sources—including diagnostic reports and academic publications—produced by researchers and heritage professionals. The paper introduces automated mechanisms for linking these two forms of documentation and describes an interactive visualization system that allows users to explore and assess these connections both semantically and spatially.