Studio 19
IMAGING - A Museum Made Digital
Ben Waters
Studio Description
‘IMAGING - A Museum Made Digital’ is a research and design unit that introduces students to new approaches to the design of exhibition and archive spaces for cultural heritage within a museum context. Students will develop advanced skills in digital design processes, curatorial practices and virtual reality whilst working in partnership with the Ian Potter Museum of Art.
The initial phase of the studio will be focused on developing knowledge and skills in image capture technology, specifically 3D scanning and photography. Students will work to produce a digital archive of 3D scanned artefacts from the museum’s classics and archaeology collection. Using this scan data, students will explore design methods relating to the concept of “virtuality” whilst developing skills in digital processes such as 3D printing, fabrication and image making.
The propositional phase of the semester will include students designing and curating exhibition spaces of the content captured in the first half of semester within the context of the Ian Potter Museum. Each student will be asked to design a ‘real room’ as an alteration to the museum building, as well as a ‘virtual room’ which digitally exhibits the scan data produced.
Studio Structure
Week 1: Capture Task 01 - “Photo & Photocopy” Students will be asked to photograph the museum, using the camera lens as a way to critically observe the architecture and landscape of the site. Photographs will be reproduced using a process of photocopying. Students are asked to deliberately displace the images whilst copying, developing new distortions and edits of the images.
Weeks 2: Capture Task 02 - “Photogrammetry” Students will be asked to produce 3D digital models of details and objects using 2D images. This process of modelling is known as photogrammetry. Students will produce a digital inventory of objects and details and represent and curate these through multiple mediums.
Week 3: Capture Task 03 - “Scanning” Week 3 will see students begin developing skills and expertise in 3D scanning. The site and building of the Ian Potter Museum of Art will be scanned using a terrestrial LiDAR scanner, producing a digital 3D model of the site. Students will be asked to reproduce this data using multiple mediums, including 3D printing.
Week 3: Mid-Term Review: Mid semester presentations will be in multi-medium format, communicating the 3 design esquisses above. This review will ensure that the students are confident with generating the forthcoming design using the new imaging systems.
Week 4-6: Final presentation requirements will be an amalgamation of proposed exhibition spaces (real and virtual) and capture task processes. Students will present a set of images, drawings, 3d printed material and virtual reality representations.
Studio Leader
Ben WATERS is principal at OSK Architects and founder of SIII Projects. He graduated with a Master of Architecture from RMIT University, and studied at Parsons School of Design, New York. In 2014, Ben was awarded a residency position at Berlin’s Centre for Art and Urbanistics (ZKU), and currently holds a residency at ACMI X Melbourne. He has taught masters design studios at MSD since 2015.
Reading & Reference
- Simulacra and Simulation [Jean Baudrillard]
- Digital Culture in Architecture - Augmented Reality- Event, Simulations and Scenarios [Antoine Picon]
- Nefertiti Hack [Nora Al-Badri and Jan Nikolai Nelles]
- Cave of Forgotten Dreams [Werner Herzog]
- Italy’s Invisible Cities BBC [ScanLab}
Schedule 9AM-2PM Tuesday and Wednesday, 2-7PM Thursday in MSD Room 240