PhD project: The (R)evolution of Reconstruction: an analysis of digital facsimiles

Discussions about the use of facsimile in art history have a long history. The use of photographic reproductions of artworks caused strong reactions amongst art historians throughout the 19th century. Although the facsimile debate took place almost a century ago and focussed on ‘traditional’ physical reconstructions of artworks, this discussion is again relevant today with the development of the digital facsimile. This project focusses on reconstructions as a type of facsimile, in which an art object that no longer exists in its original form is reconstructed as exactly and technically accurate as possible. In the present day, such facsimiles are not exclusive to the output of research but are considered methodological tools in themselves, that are helpful in understanding historical production processes, materials and the earlier versions of artworks.
This project focuses specifically on digital 3D facsimile. In the humanities, digital 3D facsimiles have been in use since the 1980’s and 1990’s, starting mostly with digital reconstructions of historical architecture and archaeological environments. At the end of the 1990s, humanities researchers started experimenting with 3D scanning technologies, with the first scanned artifacts including sculptures, artifacts and even buildings.4 In newer digital humanities projects, such 3D scans are often used in the making of reconstructed facsimiles. Several recent publications on the topic of digital facsimiles note that, although digital reconstructions are becoming increasingly common in the field, the methodology of creating and working with these reconstructions has not been fully developed. The design process of reconstruction models often remains untransparent for viewers of the finished product, and the visualisation of a hypothesis remains an issue. This project aims to develop a methodological approach towards these facsimiles and to explore both the benefits and the challenges that 3D facsimiles can present in the study of artworks.

PhD candidate: Christien Schrover
Supervision team: Sven Dupree, Thijs Hagendijk, Sanne Frequin