How can you play this object? 3D modelling and VR as tools for documentation and preservation in performance-oriented collections

1. Museum documentation

The long development of documentation systems for museum and collection documentation has seen several significant stages. Earlier forms were linear, as we see in written or printed protocols, such as acquisition protocols. Each object or collection of objects is described, often in great detail which can include different kinds of contextual information. The level and detail of documentation varies significantly, however, and includes the laconic museum record which translated into English in its entirety, reads ” A long Chinese pipe of bone. Donated 12th May 1853 by Kildal-Lund”, as discussed in Jordal et.al. (2010). As for document description, the format of the protocol is well suited. For searching objects, especially in larger collections, however, it is hard to use.

The development into index card represented a significant step forward as to the flexibility of the catalogue. As each card can be moved freely relative to other cards in the drawers, they can be sorted and re-sorted whenever needed, and by making several copies of each card, they can be sorted in different ways. For instance, one could have three library catalogues sorted on author, title, and topic, respectively. Further flexibility was offered by digital catalogues. Free text search and interlinking, as well as additional modalities beyond text and image, made the catalogues a richer and more accessible source of information about objects. Catalogues were also made accessible online, in principle enabling use from anywhere in the world, even if language barriers and technical limitations make the claims of everything everywhere partly unfulfilled.

2. The use of objects

Documenting the use of objects usually happened outside the protocols and catalogues. There could be a link from the catalogue to books or other publications where their use and cultural context would be described, if such existed. If the object is on display, the exhibition itself could include descriptions of work processes, sometimes with representatives of the ones making or using the object present in periods of time. To negate the absence of socio-cultural practices of the objects, sometimes a physical model would be present that could be tried out and used. At Tromsø Museum, the boat builder Gunnar Eldjarn has been hired several times since 1989 to build boats outside the museum, making it possible for the public to see the process in practice (Solhaug 2010, cf. Foldvik 2018). Other museums offer sailing in historical boats. The British Museum invited Dr Cornelia Kleinitz, an archaeologist with expertise in rock art, along with Liam Williamson, a modern rock drummer, to explore how a rock gong might have been played. Such projects focus on demonstrating the practical aspects of the objects exhibited, which fleets from formal documentary or exhibitory practices. ¹

In the context of a collection, it was often possible to understand the nature and use of objects through the combinatory presence of an object itself, collection experts and the object specific literature. Museum visitors could learn many things about what they saw and the cultures being documented. The catalogues, being written or printed, as protocols or index card, or in computer systems, were usually meant to document what was in the collection, how it could be identified, its physical characteristics, and its provenance. In the situation where the catalogue was only used inside the museum, it worked as a complementary tool together with other means of documentation as outlined above. With the development of online catalogues, a significant change has occurred: finding aids are now not only used to locate physical objects in a collection, enabling the combination of informative textual sources with the presence of material objects. Instead, online access to digital representations creates the impression of this combinatory practice, but the materiality of the physical object is absent (Stoyanova et.al. forthcoming 2024). In the following, the effect of this, and a possible path for further development of better and more contextualised services for users everywhere, will be outlined for one specific collection, The Theatre Collection at the University of Cologne (TWS). ²

3. Digital staging

Objects entering museums and collections are separated from their socio-cultural practices and circulations. They are de-contextualised, but also re-contextualised into the collection (Malraux and Gilbert 1954, 14). In the TWS, theatre-performance objects were used actively in teaching since the creation of the collection – this was one of the main purposes for its creation (Probst 2023). However, the use of an object in a collection is determined by its preservation needs. Many objects originally collected for their practical properties can no longer serve this purpose due to their fragility. One solution to this problem is to transfer the active use from the object to a model of it. One significant advantage of a digital models over a physical one is the accessibility over the net and the resilience to material degradation. We will focus on digital models though three concrete examples, which will be described in more detail in the poster.

1. Turkish shadow theatre: In a project organised by Enes Türkoglu, Turkish shadow theatre figures from the TWS were digitised and integrated in an interactive system creating an interactive system that replicates the movement of shadow figures in such plays was created in the game engine Unity.
2. Laterna Magica: The Werner Nekes Collection ³ documents the history of visual art from early modern times to the late 19 ^th century. In a project organised by Ibrahim Tuna, two types of Laterna Magica-Slides were modelled, and simulations of their usage were created in Unity.
3. Early modern theatre stage: In a project organised by Julia Haschke, a stage for a religious performance in 1627 in the Jesuit church St. Mariä Himmelfahrt in Cologne has been replicated based on visual and textual documentation. This was, for instance, used to study the amount, quality and direction of daylight present on stage, considering the dates and times of day for the plays.

4. Simulation as documentation

When digital representations of cultural artefacts or processes do exist, they often lack some essential aspects of the original. Such aspects include materiality lacking in photographs and 3D models of buildings and sculptures, but also the different nature of embodiment and aura in digital forms such as virtual reality, compared to analogue counterparts (Eide and Schubert 2021). However, digital models can be created with a specific type of use in focus, enabling the models to re-create certain affordances despite its materiality being different from the original (Türkoǧlu 2019). This depends on a clear understanding of the mediality of the modelling process (Ciula et.al. 2023 chapter 4). ⁴ The affordances developed in the process of creating digital models can be targeted towards a process of coming to know and to experience the use of the object which can help the user in understanding more of the historical and cultural context of the objects. This can be the practice of shadow theatre within the Ottoman sphere of influence, the usability and limitations of laterna magica from the 19 ^th century, or the role of light in 17 ^th century religious performances.

5. From bibliography to simulation

The cultural and historical contextualisation of objects in the physical space of the museum and the information space of the library is being complemented by digital contextualisation through online accessible simulations. There are still many challenges in this line of work, including the development of good accessible online systems for using, interacting with, and discussing the models and the relationship to their originals. ⁵

Due to their ephemeral nature, preservation of performances is not possible. In performance-oriented collections, the documentation of processes is therefore central. Simulations are part of such documentation and can become an integrated part of the documentation strategy for a collection, where aspects of the cultural and historical context of objects can be learned through interaction with digital models of them. As these simulations represent core aspects of the objects and processes in question, it also leads to a better preservation of same process and also of documentation of the objects in discussion. Thus, such simulations can become an important part of the preservation strategy for museums and other collections.