This spring, the Digital Medieval Studies Institute, a full day of programming on digital scholarly methods for medievalists and pre-modernists, was hosted by Harvard and BC’s McMullen Museum. Several of the workshops were hosted on BC’s campus, including the session on photogrammetry led by Antonio LoPiano. This session took place within the Ricci Institute for Chinese-Western Cultural History and afforded participating faculty and researchers the opportunity to learn how to scan several artifacts from the institute’s collection as part of the hands-on workshop.

Antonio’s workshop specifically covered the use of photogrammetric scanning, a powerful and flexible technology for capturing, digitizing, and visualizing 3D artifacts using nothing but a standard DSLR camera and a computer. The resulting models feature high-resolution, photorealistic textures that make them particularly useful in virtual exhibits or repositories for scholarly research on material that is otherwise difficult to access. Due to its highly portable nature and the quality of its results, this technique is invaluable for anyone interested in museum curation or cultural preservation.

Participants in the workshop first captured hundreds of images of several artifacts at the Ricci Institute. The first of these was a Chinese bronze ritual vessel from the early first millennium BC, featuring zoomorphic details such as dragons and engraved characters, brought out by visualizations only possible in a virtual rendering. The second artifact was a terracotta mask of a warrior from Jomon-period Japan (1000–400 BC). The fragility of the mask makes it difficult to handle, display, or transport. However, its newly created virtual version can easily be shared across continents and rotated to be observed from any conceivable angle. The final item was a 16th-century Sino-Portuguese treasure box, with delicate mother-of-pearl and gold leaf inlays influenced by design motifs from both cultures. This unique piece’s interior is lined with ray skin.

Once the participants had captured the images of these artifacts, they processed them in the Agisoft Metashape software to align the images, generate a mesh, and texture the final model. These models were then uploaded to the Sketchfab repository for incorporation into the Ricci Institute’s virtual exhibits and distribution to a broad online audience. By the end of the workshop, participants had gained the unique opportunity to learn the complete scanning pipeline—capturing, processing, and uploading—while working with real-world examples, each of which presented its own complications.