Paper title: Bringing Sculptures Out of the Internet Stone Age - The Mourners: Sculptures from the Court of Burgundy

In brief:

Earlier this year, 38 magnificent, medieval, alabaster statues surrounding the tomb of John the Fearless, Duke of Burgundy, and collectively known as "the Mourners," left the Musée des Beaux Arts de Dijon to embark on an unprecedented two-year, seven-museum U.S. tour: The Mourners: Tomb Sculptures from the Court of Burgundy. This presentation describes the process by which more than 14,000 hi-res photos of these statues were rapidly taken just prior to their journey and transformed into multi-perspective and stereo 3D web- and gallery-based interactives, with individual photos made accessible to students, scholars, educators, and the public for years to come. The presentation will comprise photos and technical descriptions of the actual process, along with a discussion of the underlying principals behind creation, design and dissemination. Interviews with project participants as well as art curators, critics and educators add perspective on the value of this project and the implications for the future of presenting sculpture online. The audience will come away with a new sense of the potential for sculptures and stereo-3D on the web and in the gallery, as well as mechanisms for broad dissemination.

Abstract:

Earlier this year, 38 magnificent, seminal, medieval alabaster statues surrounding the tomb of John the Fearless, Duke of Burgundy, collectively known as "the Mourners," from the Musée des Beaux Arts de Dijon set out on a two-year, seven museum U.S. tour, likely the only such tour of these masterpieces for generations to come. This resulted in a unique opportunity for the creation and sharing of new photography and an evolutionary new way of presenting such sculptural objects on the web and as a gallery interactive. The goal was to provide 360-degree, very high resolution images, manipulable and zoomable from three vantages: above, below and straight on --- much in the way one would look at the sculptures in a gallery. In addition, we sought to present the sculptures online in anaglyph stereoscopic 3D.

This paper and presentation describes the process by which the more than 14,000 required photographs, web site, and gallery interactive were rapidly created for the exhibition: The Mourners: Tomb Sculptures from the Court of Burgundy. This includes technical descriptions of the actual process, much of which was created for this project, along with a discussion of the underlying principals of design and dissemination. Brief interviews with those involved with the project, as well as independent art curators, critics and educators add perspective on the value of this project and the implications for the future of presenting sculpture online.

The audience will better understand the process and potential for the presentation of sculpture and stereo-3D on the web and in the gallery, as well as a basic understanding of the tools and techniques needed to embark on similar projects at their institutions.

The Mourners: Tomb Sculptures from the Court of Burgundy was produced under the auspice of FRAME (French Regional American Museum Exchange) and organized by the Dallas Museum of Art. Funding for The Mourners Photography Project was provided by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation. The Mourners website can be viewed at www.themourners.org .

Session Info:

• Type: Individual Paper
• Keywords: sculpture; interpretation; photography; workflow; stereo; 3D; high resolution
• Relevance: Target audience includes any museum professionals interested or engaged in the dissemination of images and data related to, and the interpretation of, cultural objects for general, educational and scholarly purposes. The audience will come away with a new sense of the potential for sculptures and stereo-3D on the web and in the gallery, as well as a basic understanding of the tools and techniques needed to embark on similar projects at their institutions.

Presenter:

Leonard Steinbach

Principle, Cultural Technology Strategies

Leonard Steinbach is a technology strategy consultant to museums and other cultural organizations. He also teaches “The Business of Museums” for the Graduate Program in Museum Studies at Johns Hopkins University. He has served as Technology Coordinator for the French Regional American Museum Exchange (FRAME), a consortium of French and American museums, for whom he recently directed The Mourners Photography Project which created high resolution, 3D and stereoscopic images of medieval sculptures for presentation on the web and as a public and scholarly resource. Steinbach has been a technology manager for more than 25 years including CIO positions at The Cleveland Museum of Art and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (NY). He is a past president of the Museum Computer Network currently serves on the Boards of several cultural institutions. His essay, Analyzing Return on Investment….Process of Champions, appears in Museums in a Digital Age:A Think Guide, published by the American Association of Museums.