Jim Concha, collections manager for painting and sculpture, settles Ship Caterpillar by Tatyana Zhurkov on the photography surface.
Luce Foundation Center staff are very excited about our new digital imaging project, which will create three-dimensional images of some of our artworks. Our objects are safe in their cases, but the glass barriers don't really allow our visitors to fully experience what's inside. A lot of the objects in the Luce Center, like Memory Vessel with Encased Photograph and Honeymoon Motel, are as richly detailed on the back as they are the front. Once an object is photographed as part of our digital imaging project, people will be able to use a series of images to rotate the object around its vertical axis on our computers and on the Luce Center Web site to get multiple views of the piece. You will also be able to zoom in (really close!) on each object before you rotate it!
The project requires cooperation among different departments in the museum. We worked with the conservation staff and Registrar's Office to select twenty objects that we believed would be the most interesting to see from all angles. Over the course of five days, a two-man team photographed the twenty objects in the museum's photography suite. Members of the Registrar's staff moved the objects from their cases in the Center to the suite and placed them on a small platform that had the ability to spin. After each photograph, the disk was turned ten degrees for the next picture.
With the photography completed, the next stage of the project is to combine each object's pictures so they transition seamlessly into one another. We've seen some sneak previews, and they look fantastic! (You can check out Christmas Basket by Ed Rossbach here.) These images allow us to offer another dimension (no pun intended) of information to our visitors. Be looking for them on our web site and kiosks early this year!
