3D Scanning in Museums: A Q&A with the Smithsonian’s “Laser Cowboys”

7-2-2013 | Heather Ewing

In the nineteenth century, cast collections—plaster copies of famous statues and architectural monuments primarily from antiquity and the Renaissance—enabled working people to study and enjoy works of art that previously had only been available to the wealthy elite who could travel to see the originals. Museums like the Victoria & Albert in London and the Cooper Union in New York were established precisely with this aim of providing the working public access to excellent design and education. Many other colleges and museums around the world acquired their own cast collections, but by the mid-twentieth century the value of plaster casts were questioned—causing most institutions to dispose of their collections. Some still exist, but very few are on permanent display. Today some of these early plaster copies, particularly of the Elgin marbles, for example, can hold special value as they capture elements of the originals that have been lost or damaged over time.

This Kickstarter campaign got me thinking that we are about to experience a new and improved 21st-century version of cast collections and open access to art. Artist Cosmo Wenman has been given permission by the Skulpturhalle in Basel, Switzerland, to 3D scan any of their vast cast collection and make the files freely available to the public. In the not-too-distant future people will have the ability to download free 3D printable files from the web for their own use. Then anyone could generate their own cast collection, or their own curated collection of objects drawn from museums around the world. Whereas in the nineteenth century, it was institutions that commissioned casts for study collections, or wealthy individuals who could afford to acquire them for their mansions, when 3D printers become more affordable and accessible, it will be elementary school classrooms and art students and the rest of us. And unlike in the 19th century, where one was reliant on the offerings of a formatore, like Domenico Brucciani, who supplied the Victoria & Albert and the British Museum, in the future it could be up to the individual to pick their own originals to make models from (barring copyright restrictions). And it doesn’t have to rely on extremely high-end technology. As Wenman explains in this interview, he is using his eight-year-old standard digital camera to take the photos used to create the 3D models.