[Music plays and text appears: The Power of 3D Scanning Myth + Magic Art of the Sepik River, Papua New Guinea]

[Image changes to show different artworks within the exhibition]

Crispin Howarth: Visitors to the National Gallery, to this particular exhibition, Myth and Magic Art of the Sepik River,

[Image changes to show people entering the Myth and Magic Art of the Sepik River exhibition]

they are going to see artworks which have never been on public display before.

[Image changes to show Crispin Howarth, Curator Pacific Arts, National Gallery of Australia]

And these are artworks from very exotic, faraway cultures in a remote area of Papua New Guinea.

[Image changes to show different artworks within the exhibition]

[Image changes to show Clyde D’Rosario, Head of Digital Strategy, National Gallery of Australia]

Clyde D’Rosario: We worked with CSIRO on this opportunity to take this exhibition and do something, something different, especially in the interactive space. We’ve never really done anything like this before.

[Image changes to show Matt Adcock, Research Engineer, CSIRO]

Matt Adcock: As well as moving our own collections into the digital world, we realised that there’s a large number of galleries and museums around Australia that are realising that there’s this digital economy that they need to be part of. So we’ve been doing a number of projects that help museums move into that space.

[Image has changed back to Crispin Howarth]

Crispin Howarth: It is our role here at the National Gallery to ensure that these works are shown as bright, shining ambassadors of the previous cultures and also as great works of art.

[Image changes to show 3D scans of the artworks within the exhibition]

Matt Adcock: We’ve been able to 3D scan the works of art, we can annotate different parts of the 3D scan, so we can deploy that into a touch screen environment, almost with a click of a button, and allow people to investigate those bits of extra information that the curators want the visitors to experience.

[Image has changed back to Crispin Howarth]

Crispin Howarth: With the 3D scanning project, there is an ability there to reveal an extra layer of these static sculptures.

[Image changes to show 3D scans of the artworks within the exhibition and Matt Adcock can be heard off camera]

Matt Adcock: The 3D models are able to be rotated, the public can view them from any angle. 

[Image has changed back to Crispin Howarth]

Crispin Howarth: It’s also a way to add layers of information beyond the normal small museum label text. 

[Image changes to show a member of the public viewing one of the computer generated images of the artworks]

[Image has changed back to Crispin Howarth]

You are able to zoom in and see the subtle, dappled area of the woods, and you are able to detect where the objects have been carved with adzes with stone blades, they have been scrapped backward with pigs tusks, and I think that’s fascinating, and we point this out on the 3D scans, it makes people look again. 

[Image changes to show a member of the public viewing one of the computer generated images of the artworks]

And if the 3D scanning project can help people look at the objects again in a different light, I think it’s really won. 

Clyde D’Rosario: The confidence I had in CSIRO to deliver it was high, because I saw what they had done previously.

[Image has changed back to show Clyde D’Rosario] 

I think they exceeded every one’s expectations, including the curator.

[Image changes to show 3D scans of the artworks within the exhibition

Crispin Howarth: This form of technology has excited me.

[Image has changed back to Crispin Howarth] 

From a curatorial point of view, I think, 3D scanning is in its infancy and it will become a vital tool within museums.

[Image changes to show 3D scans of the artworks within the exhibition] 

Clyde D’Rosario: I’ve had nothing but positive responses from everyone, and I’m hoping it will start to change the mindset and the culture of the Organisation to take it in this direction.

[Image has changed back to Matt Adcock] 

Matt Adcock: So looking more broadly, the application for publishing 3D scans is huge.

[Image changes to show 3D scans of the artworks within the exhibition] 

You can look at education, even journalism as other different applications where there’s stories to be told about physical objects.

[National Gallery of Australia logo appears on screen] 

[Music plays, CSIRO logo appears on screen with text: Big ideas start here www.csiro.au]