The use of 3-D printing technologies in Victoria University of Wellington’s Classics Museum has students using ancient Greek artefacts the way they were intended—from interacting with 3-D printed ancient objects to designing their own amphorae (storage jars).
Dr Diana Burton, senior lecturer in Victoria’s School of Art History, Classics and Religious Studies, wanted students to have practical experiences with the objects in the Museum without risking damage to the historic pieces.
“In Greek art, pretty much everything is functional—they don’t really have art for art’s sake,” she says. “In order for students to really get to grips with the way the use of an object has informed its design and decoration, they need to be able to use it and handle it in the ways the ancients did. 3-D printing objects is a safe way to facilitate this.”
Together with Victoria’s School of Design, Dr Burton has been taking digital scans of items in the Classics Museum and having them 3-D printed. The first project was 3-D printing a kylix, a drinking vessel that ancient Greeks used to play drinking games.
“We have a collection of ancient pottery in the Museum and one of the shapes is a shallow bowl with a stem and handles,” says Dr Burton. “The ancient Greeks used it in a drinking game where they held the handle and flicked the dregs of the wine at a target. So we filled them with water and had the students engage with the object in the way it was designed by the Greeks.”
Students also had the opportunity to design their own amphora. The students drew black figure illustrations using a supplied template, which were then digitally scanned and mapped.
Read full story here.
RELATED TOPICS: Greece, Greek tourism news, Tourism in Greece, Greek islands, Hotels in Greece, Travel to Greece, Greek destinations , Greek travel market, Greek tourism statistics, Greek tourism report
Photo Source: Wikimedia Commons Copyright: Tilemahos Efthimiadis License: CC-BY-SA
Source: greekreporter.com
