This week we started working on digitizing objects in the Perlman Teaching Museum’s collection. At this initial stage we used photogrammetry to create a 3D model of one object in this collection. This process definitely made me observe the object a lot more closely than if I had simply been viewing it in an exhibition. When I am viewing an exhibition I am prone to wandering around, looking at one object and then relatively quickly moving on. This was not the case in this scenario. There was only one object to observe which meant that I had to interact with this one object instead of diluting my attention across a larger number in an exhibition. Part of this more intense interaction with one object gave rise to a lot more questions both about the origin of the object itself and how it came to be in Carleton’s possession. One of the aspects that struck me the most over the last couple weeks was the wide variety of objects that the Perlman has in their possession. It makes me wonder about what makes people want to donate historical objects to Carleton and also on a larger scale, the ways that historical objects move around the world. There are stories in both the objects themselves as well as the paths they have taken across time and space.
So far we have taken pictures of a large covered jar covered with swirling patterns, created a 3D model using the pictures and shared our model on the Omeka site. This is adding to the number of digitized objects and creating a database that can be used to share and encourage further use of the collection. A more complete digital collection of the objects that Carleton posses will hopefully allow for more members of the Carleton community to interact with the objects in the Perlman’s collection. I am excited to continue working on this project and help fleshing out Carleton’s digital collection.
4 thoughts on “Week 5: Museum Project Beginnings”
Comments are closed.
I like the point you made about how we don’t often think about where objects come from or where they are going. It can be so easy to divorce those things when we are doing more modeling/virtual things. But getting our hands “on” the actual object can help us un-abstract from this virtual setting.
I agree that the amount of object the museum has is very impressive! Alumni are awesome! I always wonder how they transport the object to Carleton? I’m sure some of the object are heavy and fragile (a bad combo) so the shipping cost must be substantial. I’m excited to view your model.
I totally agree with what you said about being in a museum and just moving from one object to the next without much thought. I have definitely fallen victim to that as well, so this project has been a nice change of pace in focusing intensely on one object and all of its elements rather than glancing at it and moving on.
One point that you made which is extremely obvious yet I never thought of is the fact that in a museum we tend to look at the object quickly. I think that a museum is not meant for people to study objects in great detail but to just appreciate their artistic value. If one wants to really analyze something, one has to do it mostly alone in my opinion.