Last Minute Details and Finishing Everything Up

While approaching the end of my thesis, my check list of things I have to do is getting shorter and shorter. At this point, my second and final print is completed, the paper only needs minor revisions and the poster is complete.

The complete poster is shown above.

Things to do include, adding a few more paragraphs to my paper about how people are interacting with these objects and how this project could proceed in the future. For example, Richard Minsky suggested to print the facsimile as is but sand down, with a belt sander, the back of the object to remove the backing and reveal holes in its lowest points. Having an object with correctly placed holes makes it flexible enough to add a real silk backing just like the original. This is instead of painting it red where the silk should have gone in the crevasses between the raise papiermache areas.

I am really excited for the poster session becasue I would have both the image of the original, images of the scans and both physical copies present to show each part of the process and exhibit the level of detail and accuracy achieved. Having the facsimiles with me also helps illustrate how easy it is to pass around and hold away from an archive experience. This is an experience that you could not have had with the original which qualifies my research question.

After the paper is submitted, the poster is printed and everything is signed off, I will be giving the Cary both physical copies as well copies of the 3D scans.

Almost done!

Finishing Strong

Well I have officially turned in my poster for the presentation portion of my thesis. We had a long day of poster critiquing yesterday and I feel as though it is now stronger than ever. I am also working very hard on editing my final draft of the paper portion to be able to turn it in on Monday. After that my readers will read it for one final time and hopefully (fingers-crossed) sign off on it. I am very excited that it is all wrapping up and that I am coming out of this with a great piece of academic research.

I am also gearing up to do an oral presentation for a research conference that RIT is hosting for public history and museum studies research to be presented. I am looking forward to showing the crowd my work.

It's the Final Countdown

Hello again,

I have just finished the writing portion of my thesis paper. Over the past few weeks, I have slowly been building upon the content and finishing up on collecting and configuring the data received from the Rochester Museum and Science Center. Here is a list of items I have accomplished so far:

Received feedback from Joelle, Dr. Lent, and Dr. Decker on my 2nd draft of my thesis went through the feedback; wrote more about the survey results; revise revise revise!; Continued to work of edits; finished all charts and inserted photos; asked Joelle a few questions over email; Finished editing with all of the feedback from my readers and Dr. Decker; finished up the survey section, interview, recommendations, and conclusion sections; and finally FINISHED MY FINAL DRAFT! It feels great to have all of my ideas down on paper and I am looking forward to editing on last round of feedback.

The Home Stretch

My first full draft has been submitted and I am turning my attention to my poster now. I still have some work that needs to be done for my paper, such as finalizing the pictures I want to use, and adding in some small sections here and there, but for the most part, all of the content is there. I am looking forward to getting the feedback from my advisers so I can really fine tune it. My poster draft is coming along, I have a much  better idea of the content I want to include and how I want to lay it out. I have not added added the content to my template, but I am confident in what the final product will be. I am looking forward to getting feedback from the Museum Studies faculty and alumni at our presentation next week.

We're in the home stretch!

Hey everyone! I've been hard at work getting all my podcasts edited and filling my site up. Here is the website that I put together. On it as of right now is one completed podcast episode with Dick Bolt as well as some other photos and videos that relate to my project. As of right now I am working on editing a second episode with ethnomusicologist James Kimball and have a third interview scheduled tonight with noted fiddler in Rochester, Bill Henrie. Things are coming together finally, it feels go to have everything really take shape.

Updates as of March 30th - Some Hiccups

While approaching the end of the thesis and the semester, I am finishing my project as well as the thesis paper. Currently, I am trying to figure out some hiccups created by holes in my scan. With these holes present the computers and 3D printers crash making it hard to finish the printing section and conclusion of the paper. The holes create tunnels through the model and create too many triangles. This is depicted in the image below:

However, once this is complemented the book can be printed in gold PVA to preserve detail, paint can be applied to make it look like the authentic object and the paper can be finished. However, to prepare for the rapidly approaching deadline on Thursday I am going to predict the outcomes in order to finish the paper. Similarly, I am going interview Dr. Galbraith to finish the archival statement and give advice into how to implement the 3D model on to the Cary's website to complete the project on time and as promised. The last thing on my list is to capture a picture of the Cary Collection to finish the appendices. Hopefully, the model can be printed soon so I can finish the paper and focus on the poster.