![[Fracturing Artefacts Into 3D Printable Puzzles To Enhance Audience Engagement With Heritage Collections]](rodriguezechavarria2020fracturing-400x300.jpg)
Karina Rodriguez Echavarria1, Myrsini Samaroudi1, Tim Weyrich2
1 University of Brighton
2 University College London
Three-dimensional (3D) puzzles of heritage artefacts are typically used to engage audiences in the interpretation of archaeological objects in a museum gallery. The reason for this is that a puzzle can be seen as an enjoyable educational activity in the form of a game but also as a complex activity that archaeologists undertake when re-assembling fragments, for instance of broken pottery. Until now the creation of this type of experiences is mostly a manual process and the artefacts used rarely reflect those in the collection due to the complex nature of the process. The contribution of this paper is a novel digital worfklow for the design and fabrication of 3D puzzles which overcomes these limitations. The input to the workflow is an authentic artefact from a heritage collection, which is then digitised using technologies such as 3D scanning and 3D modelling. Thereafter, a puzzle generator system produces the puzzle pieces using a cell fracture algorithm and generates a set of puzzle pieces (female) and a single core piece (male) for fabrication. Finally, the pieces are fabricated using 3D printing technology and post-processed to facilitate the puzzle assembly. To demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed novel workflow, we deployed it to create a puzzle activity of the Saltdean urn, which is exhibited at the Archaeology Gallery of the Brighton Museum and Art Gallery. The workflow is also used with further artefacts in order to demonstrate its applicability to other shapes. The significance of this research is that it eases the task of creating puzzle-like activities and maintaining them in the long term within a busy public space such as a museum gallery.
Karina Rodriguez Echavarria, Myrsini Samaroudi, Tim Weyrich. ACM Journal on Computing and Cultural Heritage (JOCCH), 13(1), 6:1–6:22, February 2020..Karina Rodriguez Echavarria, Myrsini Samaroudi, and Tim Weyrich. Fracturing artefacts into 3D printable puzzles to enhance audience engagement with heritage collections. ACM Journal on Computing and Cultural Heritage (JOCCH), 13(1):6:1–6:22, February 2020.Rodriguez Echavarria, K., Samaroudi, M., and Weyrich, T. 2020. Fracturing artefacts into 3D printable puzzles to enhance audience engagement with heritage collections. ACM Journal on Computing and Cultural Heritage (JOCCH) 13, 1 (Feb.), 6:1–6:22.K. Rodriguez Echavarria, M. Samaroudi, and T. Weyrich, “Fracturing artefacts into 3D printable puzzles to enhance audience engagement with heritage collections,” ACM Journal on Computing and Cultural Heritage (JOCCH), vol. 13, no. 1, pp. 6:1–6:22, Feb. 2020. [Online]. Available: https://doi.org/10.1145/3351343 |
We thank the Brighton Museum and Art Gallery, and in particular Alex Hawkey, Andrew Maxted and Richard Le Saux, for their input and support during the development of the research. We would also like to thank Russell Webb, the artist who painted the puzzle pot to resemble the original artefact. Finally, we thank the 3D printing technicians Trevor Taylor, Oliver Keatch and Dan Brooks.
