BSc Dissertation: Inside the Metallurgist’s Workshop
WebGL Heritage Reconstruction.
Runtime approx. 3 minutes.
Developed in collaboration with the Casa del Alabado Museum of Pre-Columbian Art
In
cooperation with the Casa del Alabado museum in Quito, Ecuador and Dr Emilia Ferraro of Dundee University and the British Museum’s Endangered Material Knowledge Project, in my BSc Dissertation, I developed
an interactive reconstruction of a Pre-Columbian
smelting workshop. The reconstruction establishes a new pedagogical tool for Ecuadorian educators teaching
indigenous heritage. One of the design challenges navigated in the development process is constructing a
critical approach to visualisation, which responds to the problem of building virtual reconstructions of the
past using fragmentary evidence. To this end, the project combines 3D scans of museum objects
(evidence) with hand-drawn elements (hypothesis and interpretation).
User-centred design and evaluation
methods were deployed in collaboration with researchers and local museum educators to devise a tool
that can have a meaningful impact on their work.
Evaluations with experts revealed the virtual workshop as an effective pedagogical tool that offered
inherent advantages compared to ‘static’ learning materials: museum objects are discovered and recontextualised through interaction, exploration and use, allowing learners to better imagine how they
would have been used and to insert themselves in an imagined past world.
The project was showcased at the Casa del Alabado museum between June and September 2024 as part of the Keeping the Hammers’ Voice Alive exhibition.
©2024 Maximiliano (Maki) Wardle