Gabriel Menotti, a Brazilian Fulbright scholar currently in residence at the Center for 21st Century Studies, will deliver a special lecture on “3D Replication Technologies: Digital Artifacts for the Radical Mediation of History.” 3D replication technologies like highly detailed modeling or scanning have been increasingly adopted in the field of cultural heritage as a tool for the preservation and advertising of historical artifacts. These techniques allow us to codify objects and sites as digital information, thereby allowing for their realistic reproduction as virtual assets. They have been particularly instrumental for the reclamation of relics from territories threatened by adverse environmental conditions or armed conflicts. As more and more material archives are converted into databases, which in turn become their main form of public presentation, how are our social memory structures going to be affected? This talk means to survey the application of 3D imaging technologies in museological and archaeological practices, analyzing how digital replicas may be deployed in ways to create, preserve or dispute historical accounts. A reception with light refreshments will follow the talk at the Center for 21st Century Studies (Curtin 939).
Friday, April 20 @3:30-5PM in Curtin 118