up to and including 10 January 2009
Sgraffito in 3D
From 25 October the museum exhibited its wonderful collection of sgraffito objects from the period 1450-1550. Sgraffito is an ancient decorative technique in which patterns are scratched into the wet clay. The Dutch plates, bowls and cooking pots are part of the Van Beuningen-De Vriese collection. The artist Joachim Rotteveel has made this archaeological collection accessible in a spectacular way using 3D reconstruction techniques from the worlds of medicine and industry. The exhibition was accessible free of charge to everyone.
Innovative visualisation techniques have been employed to scan and archive the objects and to generate 3D reconstructions. This process was used specially for this exhibition as an experiment on sgraffito earthenware. The collection will be made accessible on the internet and will even be cloned. The relief decorations on the handmade plates, bowls and pots are beautifully rendered in the virtual representations and 3D reconstructions.
The exhibition 'Sgraffito in 3D' allowed the public to explore the process of recording, archiving and reconstruction for the first time, step by step. Video projections showed the actual CAT scans. The virtual renderings enabled visitors to view the objects from all angles. The workings of the 3Dprinter were demonstrated and the printed clones competed with the hundred original sgraffito objects in the exhibition.
'Sgraffito in 3D' was on show in the museum's renewed entrance area, and was freely accessible to everyone. Joachim Rotteveel also developed a website sgraffito-in-3D.com, thus making the threedimensional objects accessible worldwide.
The exhibition was made possible by the Erasmus Medical Centre (Radiology department), TNO Science and Industry (Rapid Manufacturing Demo Centre), the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague (AR+RFID Lab) and the Erasmus Foundation.
