ARCHiVe

Project Tag: Digital Innovation

Medardo Rosso: Analysing Differences in Wax Castings

Renders from the 3D model of Bambino Ebreo © Factum Foundation
Renders from the 3D model of Bambino Ebreo © Factum Foundation
Analysis of the recordings of the different versions of Bambino Ebreo © Factum Foundation
The cast and the facsimile of Medardo Rosso’s La Portinaia © Oak Taylor-Smith Factum Foundation
Juan Carlos Arias working on the facsimile of the beeswax maquette © Oak Taylor-Smith Factum Foundation

2023 – Ongoing

ARCHiVe is collaborating with Dr Sharon Hecker on a project aimed at contributing to the conservation, study, and dissemination of the work of Medardo Rosso (1858-1928).

Reference

ÉQUIPE

  • Juan Carlos Andrés Arias | Factum Arte
  • Carlos Bayod Lucini | Factum Foundation
  • Carolina Gris | Factum Foundation
  • Imran Khan | Factum Foundation
  • Pedro Mirò | Factum Foundation
  • Marina Luchetti | Factum Foundation
  • Gabriel Scarpa | Factum Foundation
  • Oak Taylor Smith | Factum Foundation
  • Sharon Hecker | Art Historian and Curator

THE PROJECT

The project involves the application of non-contact digital technology to obtaining high-resolution 3D data of a series of bronzes and wax sculptures by Rosso.

One line of work has involved recording a selection of the busts, comprising both wax and bronze casts, from Rosso’s Bambino Ebreo series using close-range photogrammetry, and in specific cases, complementing it with structured-light scanning as an additional technique. Factum Foundation has recorded five Bambino Ebreo busts in different museums and private collections, around Venice and other locations in Italy.

Based on the captured information, 3D models have been prepared and made accessible as online viewers, enabling Dr Hecker and other experts to inspect the data from any computer or device. In addition to the items recorded by Factum Foundation, another 9 models previously recorded have been added to the viewing platform, making a total of 16 items. Thanks to the viewer, it is possible to compare side by side any pair of models (zooming in on specific details, rotating the viewpoint, etc.) facilitating a close inspection of the busts in an intuitive, easy way.

A second line of work has focused on La Portinaia, another relevant work by Rosso of which various versions exist. Factum Foundation has recorded the sculpture at Tortona’s Museo Il Divisionismo and Venice’s Museo Ca’ Pesaro.

By request of the Pinacoteca Il Divisionismo, Factum also produced two physical reproductions of the artwork: a white 3D print and a facsimile made in natural beeswax and plaster. The reproductions will remain in the museum’s collection to facilitate the conservation, study and dissemination of Rosso’s working process.

OBJECTIVES

Apart from creating an archive of highly detailed models of the shape, texture, and colour of the different artworks, the main goal is to establish an objective comparison (in terms of form, dimensions, etc.) among the existing versions of famous serial sculptures – such as Bambino Ebreo or La Portinaia. 

Technologies

Photogrammetry

Photogrammetry is a 3D recording technique that uses 2D images to create a digital 3D model of an object or surface. It involves taking hundreds of overlapping photographs and processing them using sp[...]
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Recent Lucida 3D Scanner projects

Detail of the 3D render of La Madonna dell'Umiltà by Sassetta, recorded with Lucida 3D Scanner at Palazzo Cini.
Detail of The Entry into Palestine of the Army of Vespasian, colour and 3D renders of the tapestry in the Cini collections.
Colour recording of a detail of the Ritratto di gentiluomo by Francesco Prata da Caravaggio at Palazzo Cini.
3D and colour recording applied to the same detail. The canvas has been recorded with Lucida 3D Scanner and Panoramic Composite Photography.

2022 – 2023

The subtle surface relief of paintings and other low-relief objects represents a growing area of interest in heritage preservation.

Reference

ÉQUIPE

  • Carlos Bayod | Factum Foundation
  • Carolina Gris | Factum Foundation
  • Marina Luchetti | Factum Foundation

THE PROJECT

Recently, in the context of ARCHiVe activities the Lucida 3D scanner has been used to record the entire paintings collection of Palazzo Cini Gallery in Venice (49 paintings by Lorenzo Tiepolo, Botticelli, Ercole de’ Roberti, Dosso Dossi and others) and the following artworks: 

  • The large tapestry The Entry into Palestine of the Army of Vespasian from the Cini collection that was recorded in ARCHiVe (March 2022);
  • The Portrait of Andrea Doria by Tintoretto and the Portrait of Maria Rosa Spinola by Rubens, in a private collection in Genoa (October 2022);
  • The Portrait of Federico II, Ist Duke of Mantua by Titian at the Museo del Prado, and The Ecstasy of St Gregory the Great by Rubens at the Musée de Grenoble (March 24 – June 25, 2023); 
  • Rogier van der Weyden’s Beaune Altarpiece at the Hôtel-Dieu Museum (January 2023);
  • The St Peter Polyptych by Nicolò da Voltri at the Castello di Gabiano for a private collector (March 2023);
  • The Creation of Animals by Jacopo Tintoretto at the Gallerie dell’Accademia in Venice (March 2023).

The Lucida 3D Scanner is a close-range, non-contact laser recording system that captures high-resolution surface texture data for low-relief surfaces such as paintings or bas-reliefs. The scanner is a versatile system that produces high-resolution data with close correspondence to the original surface. It is also easy to operate, a factor that has encouraged to use it in training programmes for cultural heritage digitisation (see, for example, the 1st ARCHiVe workshop in 2023).

Lucida is the result of a collaboration between artist Manuel Franquelo and the team from Factum Foundation. The in-house development of the Lucida, which began in 2011, was a response to the growing needs of both Factum Arte and Factum Foundation for high-resolution surface data of paintings, as well as for ongoing recording and facsimile projects in the tombs of the Valley of the Kings, Luxor. Commercial 3D scanning technologies, which find dark colours and glossy surfaces problematic, were no longer a viable option to capture the quality needed for both facsimile production and research. 

High-resolution relief data is essential to facsimile production. When used in conjunction with colour data from panoramic photography, it allows us to ‘rematerialise’ an object as a replica of the original. Colour information ‘mapped’ very precisely onto 3D data can also be visualised in diverse ways – from projections to layered browsers. 

OBJECTIVES

Lucida data enables researchers to ‘remove’ the colour from the surface of an object in order to study, for instance, a painter’s brush strokes or the pounce marks on a cartoon that was once used to weave a tapestry. Changes to the surface of a painting, for example as a result of restoration processes, can also be monitored by comparing Lucida scans taken at different times.

Lucida 3D Scanner © Oak Taylor Smith for Factum Foundation
Marina Luchetti and Carolina Gris operating the Lucida 3D Scanner to record the 3D surface of the Rogier van der Weyden’s Beaune Altarpiece © Gabriel Scarpa for Factum Foundation

Since 2011, the Lucida has been used to record paintings and other objects at institutions such as the National Gallery (London), the Prado Museum (Madrid), the Louvre (Paris), the Victoria & Albert Museum (London), the Pinacoteca di Brera (Milan), Casa Pilatos (Seville), the National Gallery of Art (Washington), the Vatican Museum (Rome), the Mauritshuis (The Hague), and the Tretyakov Gallery (Moscow). Projects realised with the Lucida 3D Laser Scanner have been shown at Palazzo Te (Mantua), Fondazione Giorgio Cini (Venice), Strawberry Hill House (London), Waddesdon Manor, and the Antikenmuseum Basel, amongst many others. 

Technologies

Lucida 3D Scanner

The Lucida 3D Scanner is a non-contact laser recording system that captures high-resolution surface texture data for low-relief surfaces. It records 3D data in 48 cm x 48 cm ’tiles’ by projecting [...]
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Panoramic Composite Photography

Panoramic Composite Photography is a 2D non-contact method for capturing the color surface of objects such as works of art. A specialist version of the technique can capture accurate and high-resoluti[...]
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Discover related projects

1000 0
2023 – Ongoing

Digitisation of Palazzo Cini Gallery
999 1
2022

Large Scale Digitisation Recording the Cini Collection: Tapestries

D.A.I.R. Digital Artist In Residence

The Fondazione Giorgio Cini, within the framework of the ARCHiVe Centre, announces 2 residential scholarships for 1 month each covering the cost of accommodation, aimed at artists with proven experience, of any artistic language and expressive tool, of any age and nationality.

deadline

Application deadline is postponed until 15 July, 2024 (applications must be uploaded by 11:59 pm CET).

The 2 scholarships are addressed, within the multidisciplinary context of the Fondazione Giorgio Cini on the Island of San Giorgio Maggiore, to Italian and foreign artists interested in spending a period of 1 month at the ARCHiVe digitisation laboratory for a direct confrontation with the potential of new technologies for the digitisation of cultural heritage, with the tools of AI applied to digital humanities and mainly in the reuse of data already in the archives of Fondazione Giorgio Cini in a creative and design key. The aim of the project is to enable dialogue between artists and computer scientists, developers, and archivists, in general between art and science, to narrow disciplinary distances, to create contamination between languages and to produce new works starting from the reuse of the digital heritage of the Fondazione Giorgio Cini.

Candidates are not required to have digital skills but will be able to take advantage of the support of ARCHiVe staff.

The goal of the residency period is the writing of a project, not the execution of the work. The Fondazione Giorgio Cini will be able to support the production of the digital artwork by agreeing on its realization with the artist who will be eventually selected.

Discover ARCHiVe projects, and available technologies.
We use various frameworks and models for computer vision, including:
– Detectron2 for object detection;
– Segment Anything for image segmentation (MobileSAM);
– Vertex AI, from Google.

Access to the digital archives of the Fondazione Giorgio Cini.
Information about ARCHiVe Online Academy.

Candidates must propose a research project preferably dedicated to the use of data from completed or ongoing digitisation campaigns or focused on the themes addressed in the ARCHiVe Online Academy training programme.

The two scholarships dedicated to the D.A.I.R. Digital Artist in Residence project guarantee access to the digitisation laboratory and the possibility of using, in collaboration with the operators of the Fondazione Giorgio Cini, all the technological equipment and computer apparatus of the ARCHiVe Centre.

In addition, selected artists will have access to:

  • Libraries and Photographic Library of the Fondazione Giorgio Cini, specialised in art history, history of Venice, literature, music, dance, theatre, rare books, comparative civilisations, and spirituality. The libraries are equipped with Wi-Fi connection.
  • Cultural initiatives (seminars, conferences, concerts, exhibitions) organised by the Fondazione Giorgio Cini, which will give residents the opportunity to place their digital research in a broader cultural perspective.

The Residence, located in the park of the Island, can accommodate up to 90 scholars simultaneously in single and double accommodations. The Residence is equipped with reception services, surveillance, cleaning, and self-service laundry. To promote social life and the circulation of ideas, common spaces are open to all guests: living room, music room, fitness area, terrace.

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Recording Banksy’s Migrant Child and monitoring Venice Lagoon

Gabriel Scarpa recording the Migrant Child from a boat © Factum Foundation
A test of the facsimile © Factum Foundation

2019 – 2022

ARCHiVe decided to record The Migrant Child in high-resolution to demonstrate the urgent need to preserve and document cultural heritage before it is lost or damaged. 

Reference

équipe

  • Carlos Alonso | Factum Arte
  • Silvia Álvarez | Factum Arte
  • Nicolas Béliard | Factum Foundation
  • Florencio Martínez Tortosa | Factum Arte
  • Pedro Miró | Factum Foundation
  • Rafa Rachewsky | Factum Arte
  • Pedro Vicente Salafranca Hernández | Factum Arte
  • Gabriel Scarpa | Factum Foundation
  • Oak Taylor Smith | Factum Foundation

project

ARCHiVe is devoted to preserving Venice’s culture; its contemporary life as well as its historic past.

During the 2019 Venice Biennale, the pink flare of Banksy’s The Migrant Child first appeared just above the waterline on a palace facing the Canal of Dorsoduro in Venice. In the same year, amid flooding and rumours that the mural was scheduled for removal, ARCHiVe decided to record The Migrant Child in high-resolution to demonstrate the urgent need to preserve and document cultural heritage before it is lost or damaged. 

From 2022 this year the Factum team finalized the processing of the data and rematerialised the painting and a section of the wall around it.

The high-resolution photogrammetry was recorded by Gabriel Scarpa, operating from a distance in a boat in the canal, which was a significant challenge. However, the results have encouraged a study into the condition of the wall and will enable a detailed condition monitoring of the work. The work to monitor the condition of the impact of the water on the fabric of the city is a core part of ARCHiVe’s mission. The Divirod sensors, installed on the island, are monitoring the level of the water, the wind direction, the wave frequency and the wave intensity 24/7 using ambient signals from passing satellites.

viewer

Technologies

Photogrammetry

Photogrammetry is a 3D recording technique that uses 2D images to create a digital 3D model of an object or surface. It involves taking hundreds of overlapping photographs and processing them using sp[...]
Show more

Discover related projects

1000 0
2020 – Ongoing

Digitisation of the Island of San Giorgio Maggiore
999 1
2021 – ongoing

Water tide monitoring
998 2
2023 – Ongoing

Digitisation of Palazzo Cini Gallery
997 3
2022

Large Scale Digitisation Recording the Cini Collection: Tapestries

Replica Project: building ARCHiVe

Replica table © Noemi La Pera
Replica flashes © Francesca Occhi
Replica aluminium structure © Francesca Occhi
ARCHiVe team using Replica © Joan Porcel

2015 – 2018

This project gave rise to ARCHiVe, marking the first collaborative effort among the three partner organizations (Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Factum Foundation, and EPFL DHLAB). It tested the synergy of these entities for the first time, setting an ambitious goal achievable only through the collective effort of all involved. 

Reference

The Project

The Fondazione Giorgio Cini preserves an extremely rich iconographic photo library, encompassing local and international art history, architecture, urbanism, and culture. It comprises approximately 730,000 photographic positives stored in the photo libraries of the Institute of Art History. 

The Replica project addresses two crucial issues: 

  • How to rapidly digitise this vast number of documents while preserving the original heritage and ensuring optimal technological accuracy. 
  • How to make the resulting database quickly searchable without the necessity of relying solely on textual search methods. 

To meet the first of these needs, Factum has specifically designed a circular scanner (Replica 360 recto/verso) for digitising the Historic Photo Library in the most efficient way possible. Additionally, Factum has equipped Replica with software that allows for the storage of data and metadata (such as the file and its archival position, ID number, and other essential details) during the digitisation process. In this manner, Fondazione Giorgio Cini has initiated the creation of an extensive database of images and information. This substantial volume of data is being stored and analysed by the Digital Humanities Lab at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne. 

 In order to develop a geometrically-based search engine for this database, DHLAB team conducted their research focusing on recognising patterns of similarities in the pictures of the Historic Photo Library. DHLAB incorporated one of the most advanced technologies in artificial intelligence, known as ‘deep learning,’ into the process. By leveraging a vast network of artificial neurons, a capability only recently achievable in image processing, various forms of visual entities can be simultaneously analysed in a unified approach. 

In the realm of machine learning experimentation, DHLAB also devised an automatic segmentation process that separates text and images, subsequently annotating them. 

In fact, the Historic Photo Library comprises thousands of photographic positives dating from the beginning of the 20th century until the 90s, affixed to cardboards, with each displaying additional information such as the subject, location, date, and the artist of the depicted artwork. 

objectives

The aim of the project is the digitisation and enhancement of Fondazione Giorgio Cini Photo Libraries through innovative mass recording and analysis techniques.

The overarching objective is to enable the online availability of exceptionally large archives. The enhanced computational capacity, tailored to handle specific data, facilitates user searches at various, increasingly refined levels.

Methodologies

1. PRELIMINARY PHASE

The Fondazione Cini conducted a comprehensive check and reordering of the documents stored in the photo libraries. The team subsequently created inventories and tools for metadata collection (thanks to an XML file system associated with the documents), and ID numbers were applied to the back of the positives or their supports.

2. DEVELOPMENT OF THE RECORDING SYSTEM

The team at Factum developed the Scanner Replica 360 Recto/Verso, a unique recording system specifically designed for this project. The prototype of the system was conceived and constructed in Madrid, encompassing both hardware and software components, before being transported to and installed in Venice.

3. RECORDING PHASE

Fondazione Giorgio Cini formulated a dedicated digitisation workflow for the mass recording and storage project.

Within two years from the project’s initiation, the Cini team successfully accomplished the digital acquisition of the Historic Photo Library (671,564 images), the Bruno Alfieri Photo Library (2,073 images), and the Bernard Berenson Photo Library (30,275 images).

4. POST-PROCESSING AND DATA ANALYSIS

EPFL’s research led to the post-processing of the documents, which encompassed segmentation (utilising dhSegment, a segmentation library for complex documents developed at the DHLAB) and the storage of information present on each piece. Simultaneously, the team developed a geometrically based search engine for the established database.

Results

The aim of Fondazione Giorgio Cini is to proceed with the project by digitising the additional photo libraries stored in the Biblioteca Manica Lunga and to make this heritage accessible online.

Technologies

Replica

The Replica 360 Recto/Verso is a cutting edge recording system designed and realised by Factum Foundation. Its first prototype was conceived for Fondazione Cini back in 2015 for the Replica Project wh[...]
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Heritage Lab Italgas

Historical images from the photo archives © Italgas
Historical images from the photo archives © Italgas
Historical images from the photo archives © Italgas
Historical images from the photo archives © Italgas
Historical images from the photo archives © Italgas

Heritage Lab is the Italgas museum-laboratory born to digitize the company’s historical heritage and make the most of the narrative potential of its officially recognised archive through continuous exchanges with local, national and international partners, and as part of the vast European Time Machine consortium network.

Reference

the project

The Italgas Historical Archive is an ever-growing patrimony, the study of which makes it possible to reconstruct not only the history of the Company and the people who worked there, but above all the links with the main events of the country and with the world of energy, the role Italgas played in the process of industrialization of Italy, urban development and public services. ARCHiVe carried out the project pre-study and drafting, in synergy with other project partners.

Today, Italgas Historical Archive consists of an original nucleus of more than 1,000 linear meters of documents, 6,000 volumes, pamphlets and magazines, 35,000 prints, photographs and posters, 350 vintage equipment and instruments declared of considerable historical interest by the Italian State and subject to notification and conservation restraint.

The Heritage Lab © Italgas
The Heritage Lab © Italgas
The Heritage Lab © Italgas
The Heritage Lab © Italgas
The Heritage Lab © Italgas
The Heritage Lab © Italgas

Education

Collaboration between ARCHiVe and Heritage Lab also takes place in the field of training for operators, involved in the photographic acquisition and description of archives.
Recently, cataloguing and enhancement processes have also begun for the Italgas library, that represents the result of acquisitions and donations over the years.

Finally, in the last year, two training and information events were held within AOA (ARCHiVe Online Academy), with the aim of conveying, to a public not exclusively specialised, the results achieved with a view to a general valorisation of business archives.

The Mask of Time

2021 – 2022

Artificial Intelligence, 3D creation and modelling, sound design and fashion, interwoven with the Fondazione Giorgio Cini heritage of collections and archives have given rise to a highly original work of art: The Mask of Time. This audiovisual work by Mattia Casalegno and Martux_m raises awareness of the need to enhance the Teatro Verde.

Video still from The Mask of Time
Video still from The Mask of Time
Video still from The Mask of Time
Video still from The Mask of Time
Video still from The Mask of Time
Video still from The Mask of Time
Video still from The Mask of Time

èquipe

the project

Commissioned by Vittorio Cini and inaugurated in 1954, the open-air amphitheatre designed by architect Luigi Vietti (1903-1998) has often been an important cultural venue in Venice and has hosted excellent productions of the performing arts. In 2021 the theatre was the subject of a major restoration project that, thanks to a partnership with Cartier,  brought its architecture back to life and made the most of all the qualities of the building materials, the surrounding greenery, the fascinating spaces and the stunning landscape views.

To enhance this beautiful theatre and relaunch its leading creative role, Fondazione Giorgio Cini invited Mattia Casalegno, one of Italy’s most successful digital artists based in New York, to create a work that would showcase the beauty of the theatre starting from the photogrammetric acquisition carried out with drones by Factum Foundation, an institutional partner of ARCHiVe. Curatorship is by Ennio Bianco.

In The Mask of Time, the architecture and history of the Teatro Verde have been brought back to life in a world inhabited by hyper-realistic avatars, made through the creative use of pioneering 3D animation and text processing software, combined with sound designed by Maurizio Martuscello aka Martux_m. The avatars will become actors performing the theatre’s great historical productions. Photorealistic digital human beings are immersed in real sets as well as dreamlike environments in a post-human sci-fi world, somewhere between fiction and representation, in which Nature and Art breathe and flourish. The narrative unfolds through intense imagery in four acts on the subject of the Teatro Verde: History, Performances, Present and Future. It thus explores themes such as teatri di verzura (garden theatres), the golden age of the amphitheatre, and its dialogue with Nature, both dominated and dominating and now a creative force cooperating in the theatre’s new lease of life.

© Fondazione Giorgio Cini
© Fondazione Giorgio Cini
© Fondazione Giorgio Cini
© Fondazione Giorgio Cini
© Massimo Pistore for Fondazione Giorgio Cini

objectives

Mattia Casalegno’s work starts from the idea of theatre as a place of fiction and representation. Situated at the intersection between Nature and Culture, it explores the relationships and tensions that unite the natural environment, the human world, and technologies.

The project starts from the notion that people interact with the world through multiple sensory streams: we see objects, hear sounds, read words, feel textures, taste flavours, combine information, and form associations between the senses. Similarly, real-world data is made up of various signals occurring simultaneously, such as video frames and audio tracks, web images, captions, and voice tracks. Casalegno adopts this common logic in the creation of the multimodal work The Mask of Time.

In The Mask of Time, thanks to a combination of in-depth archival research on material held by the Fondazione Giorgio Cini’s Institute of Theatre and Opera and the innovative application of Artificial Intelligence with the visual power of new kinds of software, the architecture and the history of the Teatro Verde have been brought back to life in a world inhabited by hyper-realistic avatars. Fundamental is also the creative use of pioneering 3D animation and text processing software, combined with sound designed by Martux_m and the costume designs of the 3D garments by Amin Farah. All of these competencies are perfectly blended into a single artistic meta-language.

documents + technologies

1.

The Institute of Theatre and Opera provided over 10000 images of stage designs and performances held at the Teatro Verde, including photos of costumes from the plays on the Greek myth of Pasiphaë and the Minotaur to the Goldonian Commedia dell’Arte.

2.

Factum Foundation provided a complete survey of the Teatro Verde by making expert use of drones for the photogrammetry as part of the 3D digitisation project of the Island of San Giorgio.

3.

Mattia Casalegno was thus able to move some high-definition realistic human-digital actors within the space of the virtual Teatro Verde, created using the Unreal Engine MetaHuman Creator and the Reallusion Character Creator.

4.

MetaHuman Creator is a software enabling the designer to create photorealistic digital human beings. The character is refined by sculpting tools and control guides to achieve infinite variations in facial and body features.

5.

Character Creator 3 allows the designer to easily create and customise realistic subjects for use in the Unreal Engine and Unity platforms, combining 3D character generation, animation, rendering and interactive design in a single system. It thus allows 3D scanning technology, produced by Scanlab Photogrammetry and adopted from Hollywood game productions, to be applied to a stationary person to create a fully clothed speaking character moving freely in space.

6.

These digital human actors, or hyper-real avatars, can thus move or be fixed in digital tableaux vivants within a virtual theatrical spatiality, made possible by Unity Technologies Unity software.

future developments

In the future it will be possible to draw on all the materials used for this video, for example, to recreate paths inside the Teatro Verde enabling audiences to converse with characters generated in augmented reality, or to offer an interactive virtual tour experience of the Teatro Verde in a metaverse.

Documents

Curatorial statement by Ennio Bianco (ITA)

Water tide monitoring

One of the location where Divirod Sensors are installed © Francesca Occhi for Fondazione Giorgio Cini
One of the Divirod Sensors installed on the San Giorgio Maggiore Island © Francesca Occhi for Fondazione Giorgio Cini
Monitoring the tides with Divirod from Fondazione Giorgio Cini

2021 – ongoing

In the context of the monitoring of San Giorgio Island and its nearby waters, considering how relevant water and tides are for this environment, ARCHiVe started to collaborate with Divirod installing the first DiviSense.

Reference

équipe

  • Massimo Altieri | Fondazione Giorgio Cini
  • Nicolas Béliard | Factum Foundation
  • Adam Lowe | Factum Foundation
  • Javier Marti | Divirod Inc.

the project

Following a radio programme on the ARCHiVe project, discussing the digitisation of the Island of San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice (The World, September 2020), Factum Foundation was contacted by Divirod, a tech start-up from Boulder, Colorado, dedicated to water infrastructures and water analytics.

Divirod has developed a passive radar sensor that uses satellites and locally recorded data to generate accurate hydrological models. The software transforms harmonic resonances into dynamic representations of tide, wave activity and wind speed to predict erosion and flooding.

In the context of documenting and monitoring San Giorgio Island and its adjacent waters, ARCHiVe initiated a collaboration with Divirod and installed the first Divirod sensor (DiviSense) to monitor water levels and natural changes on and around the island.

The advanced sensor installed in Venice detects the unique signature of satellite signals bouncing off the water of the Lagoon. This provides a local, accurate and dynamic image of the relationship between a fixed point on the land and the water. The data is uploaded to the cloud in real-time, where machine learning software developed by Divirod compiles and processes it. The accurate hydrological models generated from the harmonic recordings are used to create constantly updating representations of the tide, wave activity and wind speed, to predict erosion and flooding and the data could be accessible in real-time on desktop and mobile devices.

As more sensors are installed, the greater our understanding of the relationship between the land and the water: a slow-moving but still dynamic body, versus a very dynamic fluid that is animated by many forces, from gravity and wind to speedboats. Therefore, a second sensor was installed in February 2022 on the north-eastern point of the island.

Dockyard of San Giorgio Maggiore Island © Francesca Occhi for Fondazione Giorgio Cini

Methodology

DiviSense is a radar sensor that, through GPS technology, collects data in order to create accurate hydrological models. The sensor takes advantage of the hundreds of satellites that are already up in the sky. Each satellite emits a signal that bounces on Earth and resonates differently from surface to surface, including water. Divirod uses a machine learning algorithm to decode this signal in order to obtain precise information about the percentage of water found by the signal. In this way the radars on San Giorgio Island are creating a model of tides and water movements around the Fondazione, forecasting live data accessible from desktop and mobile.

objectives

The aim is to further investigate the interplay between land and water, so characteristic of the cultural heritage of Venice.

Discover related projects

1000 0
2020 – Ongoing

Digitisation of the Island of San Giorgio Maggiore
999 1
2022

Recording Banksy’s Migrant Child and monitoring Venice Lagoon

Large Scale Digitisation Recording the Cini Collection: Tapestries

Detail of the Lucida 3D Scanner recording © Oscar Parasiego for Factum Foundation
Detail of the tapestry © Oscar Parasiego for Factum Foundation
The ARCHiVe team unrolling the tapestry © Oscar Parasiego for Factum Foundation
The Lucida 3D Scanner recording the surface of the tapestry © Oscar Parasiego for Factum Foundation
The Lucida 3D Scanner recording the surface of the tapestry © Oscar Parasiego for Factum Foundation
Detail of the Lucida 3D Scanner custom software creating a shaded render of the 3D data © Oscar Parasiego for Factum Foundation
Detail of the tapestry © Oscar Parasiego for Factum Foundation

2022

ARCHiVe has successfully concluded the first high-resolution digital recording of a significant tapestry from the Fondazione Giorgio Cini collection: The Entry into Palestine of the Army of Vespasian.

Reference

Current équipe

  • Luca Massimo Barbero | Fondazione Giorgio Cini
  • Carlos Bayod Lucini | Factum Foundation
  • Costanza Blaskovic | Factum Foundation
  • Teresa Casado | Factum Foundation
  • Chiara Casarin | Fondazione Giorgio Cini
  • Osama Dawod | Factum Foundation
  • Carolina Gris | Factum Foundation
  • Eduardo Lopez | Factum Foundation
  • Ilenia Maschietto | Fondazione Giorgio Cini

the project

Dated between 1470 and 1480, this Franco-Flemish tapestry, crafted from cartoons by the Master of Coëtivy, stands as one of the earliest and most pivotal pieces in the entire collection. It is part of a series depicting the destruction of Jerusalem.

Recently recognized as the right half of another textile work housed in the collection of the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Lyon, the tapestry’s recording, preservation, and restoration have become top priorities for the Fondazione Giorgio Cini. The digital documentation of the tapestry’s surface marks a crucial stride in comprehending its material structure. ARCHiVe undertook a comprehensive documentation process, capturing the tapestry’s shape, texture, and color through a blend of 3D and 2D non-contact scanning technology.

objectives

The project’s objective is to facilitate the preservation, study, and dissemination of the collection’s tapestries through the utilization of digital technologies.

Developments

1. PRELIMINARY PHASE

Following a preliminary assessment and careful selection of the tapestries based on their preservation status, the chosen piece has been relocated to ARCHiVe in anticipation of the recording process. A training session was conducted for the team to adeptly handle the manipulation and unrolling of the tapestry. The tapestry was strategically positioned in a horizontal orientation on the floor, placed atop a protective cloth.

The scanner structure was then configured horizontally, facing downward to capture the surface of the tapestry consistently from a fixed distance of approximately 10 cm. This scanning apparatus was securely mounted on a bridge-like structure spanning about 4 m.

2. recording

The Factum Foundation team conducted a high-resolution 3D and colour recording of the tapestry using advanced non-contact digital technology, specifically tailored for the preservation of art and heritage. Lucida is designed to digitise the surface of low-relief objects with high precision. Composite photography produces a single colour image through the integration of multiple photographs in high resolution. The combination of these individual photographs ensures accuracy up to an average error of less than 1 pixel. It’s noteworthy that the colour recording took place separately from the 3D scanning, encompassing both the front and back of the tapestry. The camera was securely affixed to the bridge-like frame at a distance of approximately 50-70 cm. 

3. image processing

The final phase involves image processing and the development of a visualisation browser to explore the tapestry (both its color and texture) at a high resolution.

The digital acquisition of the object is crucial for accurately documenting its current state of preservation, monitoring changes over time and assessing possible restoration processes. But it is also fundamental for art historical research, as browser-based visualisation allows analysis in a completely new and enhanced way compared to the past.

Results

The recording of the tapestries constitutes a component of ARCHiVe’s initiative to digitise the entire island of San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice. This comprehensive effort spans from the architectural level to the precise sub-millimetre scanning of particular artworks and documents within the Fondazione Giorgio Cini collections.

The result is available for online viewing through a multi-layered browser developed by Factum.

viewer

Technologies

Lucida 3D Scanner

The Lucida 3D Scanner is a non-contact laser recording system that captures high-resolution surface texture data for low-relief surfaces. It records 3D data in 48 cm x 48 cm ’tiles’ by projecting [...]
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Panoramic Composite Photography

Panoramic Composite Photography is a 2D non-contact method for capturing the color surface of objects such as works of art. A specialist version of the technique can capture accurate and high-resoluti[...]
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2023 – Ongoing

Digitisation of Palazzo Cini Gallery