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!

Updates on My Digitization Thesis

Since my last blog post a lot of digitizing and process has happened. Progress on my thesis "The Process of Creating Accurate Reproductions of Fragile Objects: The Fabrication of 3D Facsimiles with Limited Resources" includes downloading the ScanStudio software, scanning the parts of the book, aligning them together and doing research on the book binding.

The ScanStudio software, as seen below, gives the digitizer access to scanning the 3D object, cleaning the scans and fusing the parts of the scan together to create a complete model.

Figure 1. Screenshots of ScanStudio 
Upper Left: The scanning screen on the ScanStudio software supplies options including the number of scans per sessions, the contrast of the object being scanned, the range and time frame of the scan. What the scanner is viewing is presented in the middle of the page and the digitizer can drag and click the section the digitizer wants the scanner to focus on.
Upper Right: After a piece of the object is scanned, the digitizer can use the trim tool to delete sections of the scan that are extraneous or unneeded.
Lower Left: After, at least, two pieces of the object are scanned and trimmed, the digitizer can align them together. Three pins are necessary to combine the images. As seen in the image above the red pin is placed in the same place - underneath the chin of the face – in both scans.
Lower Right: After all the pieces are stitched together the digitized object will look whole but include some missing data from shadows or the dark coloring.

Other updates include researching the history about the book. What I found includes the book's title and the binder was known for this type of binding. The title of this book was found to be Sentiments and Similes by William Shakespeare. Henry Noel Humphreys bound the book and used papiermache, terracotta and silk to form these intricate bindings. Papiermache was learned to be created from three different methods. The one method that most likely was used to create this binding was using a panel or blank sheet of softened papiermache and a mold.

Figure 2. Front cover of Sentiments and Similes by William Shakespeare and bound by Henry Noel Humphreys with profile of Shakespeare – papier-mâché. 

All other progress was made in writing all of these findings down and setting up my appendices. Next steps include aligning the rest of the scans of the back cover and edges together to create a complete model with the help of Mike Buffalin. After this I will start my print test and create an exportable model. I also began designing the poster for the end of the year symposium. I cant wait to give you all another update and when I do I will probably be completed with the model and print of Sentiments and Similes by William Shakespeare.

Updates on the thesis "The Process of Creating Accurate Reproductions of Fragile Objects: The Fabrication of 3D Facsimiles with Limited Resources"

At first glance, I have changed my title from "The Advantages of..." to "The Process of Creating...." The majority of my other edits consisted of omitting anything that spoke about digitizing the book's pages and creating a complete facsimile. These decisions were made based on the time frame I have and the fragility of the book.

On Monday, January 30th, I met with Dr. Galbraith and Mike Buffalin at the Cary to pick scanner and get it approved. We were between two scanners and we made our decision based on the safety the scanner can allow the object and the accuracy of the scan. The first scanner, the Fuel 3D, was handheld, had a DSLR styled flash, auto stitched using targets, and is sold around $3,000. The second scanner was the Next Engine 3D scanner which sits on the table and scans horizontally, I am the most familiar with it because I have used it before, creates beautiful scans, requires the book to be on a stand, and costs about $2,800. We decided on the Next Engine and the use of a clear plastic stand. I will also use the Next Engine software on my own computer.

       

I will most likely digitize and scan the papiermache bound book with William Shakespeare on the cover. This is due to its size and the ability to concentrate on the portion of the profile when I start printing.

Also on Monday, we were able to scan and stitch two images of the book's front cover together.

All other updates consist of finishing and getting my proposal signed, writing the first 12 pages of my thesis and starting to plan when I will start the scanning process. Tomorrow, 2/10/2017, I will download the software and learn the set up of the scanning equipment. Hopefully I will start scanning next week.

Blog 6: The Continuing Evolution of My Thesis

My original thesis was entitled "The Effect of Accurate Reproductions in the Research Environment: The Use of 3D and 2D Facsimiles in Replacement of Fragile Objects." Over the course of this semester my thesis has evolved to be entitled "The Effect of Accurate Reproductions in the Research Environment: The Use of 3D Facsimiles in Replacement of Fragile Objects." As you can see, there was only one change in the design of my thesis which includes dropping the focus on 2D facsimiles. 2D facsimiles were going to be create and printed in the real world; however, having a 3D facsimile in real life will include printed out pages and a 3D printed cover so I combined the idea. Physical 3D reproductions and digital versions on the computer will increase the object's accessibility and preserve its original form. The focus on digitization and 3D reproductions is still the topic of the thesis; the way it is described in the title is the only change.

Since the summer, I pictured my thesis as one that focused on making fragile objects accessible to the public in person and online. It is evolving through the connections I make. At first, my thesis was an idea formulated through research. It has now expanded to include the Construct, the Library Company in Philadelphia, the Cary Archive and Shawn Foster. These connections are allowing an idea to become a functioning project. Without their help and support my thesis would only be theory based and unable to make concrete determination on feasibility of reproduction creation for a small institution. Choosing the papiermache book has solidified my ideas. I will soon include research on the digitization of books. Similarly, my thesis might change after the first round of testing at the Construct. This week, I went to the Construct to start the tests for 3D scanning and found that the portable scanner is not good at picking up reflections but it is good for picking up detail. If I am able to scan the papiermache book with this scanner the next step is to determine the necessary level of resolution. If these tests do not exhibit the high resolution prints I desire, I may have to find an alternative 3D printing connection to ensure the reproduction can be used as an alternative to the fragile original.

What I'm Learning From My Thesis Research

The vanguard field of Digitization is one that is broad yet specialized. Most of my research consists of descriptions of procedures and technology such as the article "Digital Three-Dimensional Modelling of Donatello's David by Frequency-Modulated Laser Radar." On the other hand, some authors focus on the implications surrounding the accessibility and variety of the World Wide Web as defined by the paper “The Future of Museums in the Digital Age: New Models for Access to and Use of Digital Collections." Most researchers are worried about what laser, scanner or camera to use while others focus on how to monetize their digital collection. Along with this focus on the feasibility technology, authors such as Francoise Benhamou and Victor Ginsburgh of the paper “Is There a Market for Copies?” look in to whether reproductions can be used to deceive the art world as forgeries and if preservation through this method is detrimental becasue of it. Overall, on the technological side, I have learned what I should look for when scanning an object to make sure it is an accurate reproduction and how to 3D print. On the theory side, I learned how to organize and upload this information on the internet in a way to preserve its authenticity and increase its accessibility.

I have a handful of things I wish to know other than the feasibility of 3D scanning and printing archival objects as replacements which is the basis for my thesis. Some questions I still have include, can I 3D scan a book and upload it to an archive's website without the author's knowledge? If I need permission and the author is deceased, when does the content become public domain? The answers to these questions ensure that I would not run into any legal trouble while pursuing my thesis. I also would like to find out what is the best practice to scanning pages in a book. When a book is bound, a camera is unable to capture a flat surface as it might have it if the object was a singular piece of paper. The only way to solve these questions is through continued research and that is what I aim to do.

Senior Thesis and Research Question

The working title for my thesis is "The Effect of Accurate Reproductions in the Research Environment: The Use of 3D Facsimiles in Replacement of Fragile Objects." The question this thesis will answer will be "what are the implications of creating and using accurate reproductions of objects for the research environment for in person and online use?" The object that will be featured in this thesis will be picked from the Melbert B. Cary Graphic Arts Collection's vast resource of rare books and objects with the help of Dr. Galbraith. I will try to work with The Construct - that I have recently visited - to scan fragile objects in three dimensions. If a book is chosen as the featured object, it will be reproduced online as well as a 3D object. As a purely digital object, this data can be used to give access to these materials online on the Cary Collections website. To make an accurate reproduction of a book as a replacement object the surface of the cover and spine will be scanned with the 3D scanner and printed if it has a notable topography such as the bolt book. Its pages will be photographed and printed in a high resolution. To use this item as a replacement object the pages will be bound and the 3D cover will be adhered to that foundation. After, the way these objects are interacted with will be recorded and analyzed. I can also look in to creating a perfect copy of an deteriorated object to show what the object might have look like when it was first created or look into printing the final object in a 3D press that uses layers of paper rather than plastic.