Last spring, I went to London on a Carleton OCS program that had a big studio art component. One of our classes consisted mostly of trips to museums all over the city, at which we’d be asked to pick one or two objects to sit down and sketch. We were supposed to spend at least an hour drawing each one. Attempting to 3D model reminds me of this a little bit — in the process that we’ve used, there’s not as much emphasis on forming the line and shade of the object ourselves, but the modeler’s ability to see one object in its full complexity through the act of representation strikes me as similar. You probably wouldn’t view one object in a museum from every possible angle and in every possible combination of light and shade, for instance — in fact, it’s usually impossible to do that in a traditional museum setting — but when you’re making a model, you have to.
There’s also an element of curation in museum settings that can be either mitigated or enhanced by the introduction of 3D model elements. I’ve been more and more interested in this as the unit has progressed. When I worked in the college’s preservation room one summer, my boss told me about how every aspect of how the object is presented is considered and curated — for instance, if the gold leaf on a manuscript should be positioned to catch the light or not. 3D modelling can do away with a lot of that choice — it’s placed on the viewer instead. But then there are things like the Smithsonian Chandra X-ray Observatory that we looked at in class, things that aren’t possible to really represent in a “true” or literal way, and those seem like models that rely on a heavy element of invention and curation on the part of the modeler. If 3D modeling is going to become the forefront, or even a very significant element, of the educational museum experience, I’m really curious to see how that give and take will affect the way we see the world.
3 thoughts on “Blog Post: Reflecting on the Museum project”
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Great point! When I worked in a museum over the summer, I was in the Collections unit, which focused on processing and preservation. From that perspective, 3D scans and modeling seems like a great idea, since it allows safe, easy access to objects not on display (~99% of the collection where I worked). I hadn’t considered the curatorial downside, though – there certainly is so much in terms of presentation that just can’t get replicated digitally yet (or at least, I haven’t seen it). Thanks for bringing that up!
This is a very interesting post! I really like the connection you draw between sketching and modeling. I agree that with both sketching and modeling you are forced to consider the object’s every detail in every combination of light and shade. I think this is a really valuable process and is why I personally knew so much more about our group’s personal modeling object after spending lots of time inspecting and photographing it.
Great points, Becca! I totally agree that it definitely is different to model an object in 3D than to simply view it in a museum as most of the time you really don’t get a full scope of the object like you do when making a 3D model. I also agree that museum curation is either enhanced or diminished with 3D modeling because lazy 3D modeling does not serve the purpose of helping a viewer get a good understanding of the object.