There was quite a bit of media buzz the other week when it was revealed that the venerable Smithsonian of Washington DC has been digitizing and 3D printing some of their famous works. Imaged is the famous statue of second US president Thomas Jefferson that was scanned & modeled by Studio EIS and 3D printed using 3D print service RedEye on Demand. Why are they doing this? Perhaps it’s because the museum has bazillions of items and can only display a fraction of them in their limited (yet still gigantic) physical galleries. By cloning some of their holdings they’ll be able to more easily “loan” the items to other galleries, enabling far more people to enjoy the pieces.
It appears that they’re doing only institutional lending at this time, although we sense some interest in scanning more of their holdings.
But what if they broadened this approach, beyond institutional lending? What if you were able to purchase and/or print such 3D models at home? We think this is is like have a kind of “distributed gift shop”, where people could reproduce those works that most please them in their own home. Obviously some attention needs to be spent on the intellectual property aspects of this idea, but we think simply stamping the reproductions with watermarks, dumbing down the resolution somewhat and pricing them reasonably could be effective.
Maybe someday you’ll be able to print your own museum!
Via CNET
As you said in the story regarding this, most things 3D printing at present are more about the possibility of the technology rather than the current feat. I'd assume there's still cheaper ways to replicate statues right now. Marketing this would have to be a 3D printed spin on an exhibition itself if they were to do it any time soon. Much like the appeal of a wax museum I guess.
As you said in the story regarding this, most things 3D printing at present are more about the possibility of the technology rather than the current feat. I'd assume there's still cheaper ways to replicate statues right now. Marketing this would have to be a 3D printed spin on an exhibition itself if they were to do it any time soon. Much like the appeal of a wax museum I guess.
Visiting a museum is obviously best for a variety of reasons, but in the frequent case where you cannot due to geogrqphy, printing the museum would be the next best thing.
Also, we did cover King Tutankhamun right here.
Visiting a museum is obviously best for a variety of reasons, but in the frequent case where you cannot due to geogrqphy, printing the museum would be the next best thing.
Also, we did cover King Tutankhamun right here.
I like the idea of being able to make replicas for historic items, but isn't a lot of appeal in a museum going to see the actual artifact? Plus the fact that we've had ways to build model replicas with other production methods for years, the only real novelty of this is the production method in itself.
Did you see the 3D printed replica of King Tutankhamun's corpse that was made last year? http://fyeah3dprinting.tumblr.com/post/18193732327/3d-printed-king-tut
I like the idea of being able to make replicas for historic items, but isn't a lot of appeal in a museum going to see the actual artifact? Plus the fact that we've had ways to build model replicas with other production methods for years, the only real novelty of this is the production method in itself.
Did you see the 3D printed replica of King Tutankhamun's corpse that was made last year? http://fyeah3dprinting.tumblr.com/post/18193732327/3d-printed-king-tut