Puppet Collections and Virtual Reality Technologies – An Interdisciplinary Project Between Theater and Conservation Studies

ABSTRACT

Within two working campaigns in 2019/2020 and 2021 students of the Cologne Institute for Conservation Sciences TH Köln (CICS) and the Theatre Studies Ruhr-University Bochum formed interdisciplinary tandems at the Deutsches Forum für Figurentheater und Puppenspielkunst e.V. with the intention to develop a conservation strategy for puppetry, including storage management, indexing, and exhibiting in virtual reality. In collaboration with a representative of a company developping virtual museums and a research assistant looking at strategies for digital museums seminar attendees developed concepts for the cultural distribution and presentation of the puppets using digital technologies. The students were given space to experiment with the creation of 3D scans, virtual 360° tours and augmented reality (AR). For both students and teachers, this problem-based learning led to a knowledge transfer from lecturers to students from conservation to theatre studies. Two Youtube clips were produced and put online to visualize good handling practice.

ZUSAMMENFASSUNG

In zwei Arbeitskampagnen in den Jahren 2019/2020 und 2021 bildeten Studierende des “Cologne Institute for Conservation Sciences” TH Köln (CICS) und der “Theaterwissenschaft Ruhr-Universität Bochum” interdisziplinäre Tandems im “Deutschen Forum für Figurentheater und Puppenspielkunst e.V.” mit dem Ziel, eine Konservierungsstrategie für die Puppenspielsammlung zu entwickeln, die von der Aufbewahrung über die Erschließung bis zur Ausstellung in der virtuellen Realität reicht. In Zusammenarbeit mit einem Vertreter einer Firma, die virtuelle Museen entwickelt, und einer wissenschaftlichen Mitarbeiterin, die sich mit Strategien für digitale Museen befasst, entwickelten die SeminarteilnehmerInnen Konzepte für die kulturelle Verbreitung und Präsentationen der Puppenspielfiguren mit Hilfe digitaler Technologien. Die Studierenden konnten mit der Erstellung von 3D-Scans, virtuellen 360°-Rundgängen und Augmented Reality (AR) experimentieren. Sowohl für die Studierenden als auch für die Lehrer führte dieses problem-basierte Lernen zu einem Wissenstransfer von den Dozierenden zu den Studierenden. Es wurden zwei Youtube-Clips produziert und online gestellt, um gute Handhabungspraktiken zu visualisieren.

KEYWORDS:

• Puppets
• digital technologies
• 3D-scans
• augmented reality (AR)
• problem-based-learning

SCHLÜSSELWÖRTER:

• Puppenspielfiguren
• digitale Technologien
• 3D Scans
• Augmented Reality
• Problem-basiertes Lernen

Acknowledgements

The authors also thank the Deutsches Forum für Figurentheater und Puppenspielkunst e.V. in Bochum for having access to the collection and being able to use the puppet collection as a case study. We are also grateful for the support from Prof. Dr. Nicole Reifarth on behalf of textiles and their identification.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The Technical University of Applied Sciences supported this research project with a Transferfonds called ‘Spannungsfeld Originalerhalt und museum4punkt0’, funding for the summer term 2021.

Notes on contributors

Andrea Pataki-Hundt

Andrea Pataki-Hundt has been a professor at the Cologne Institute of Conservation Sciences at the TH Köln, University of Applied Sciences since 2017, in charge of the book and paper conservation programme. From 1998 to 2017 she was a research assistant at the State Academy of Art & Design Stuttgart, where she obtained her diploma (1997) and her PhD (2005). From 2007 to 2009 she conducted a two-year postdoctoral research programme funded by the Landesstiftung Baden- Württemberg. In spring 2008, she was invited as a museum guest scholar at the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles. Her research covers pigment consolidation, adhesives, leather and parchment conservation and developing didactic teaching formats.

Mareike Gaubitz

Mareike Gaubitz has been the head of the Research and Documentation Centre of the Deutsches Forum für Figurentheater und Puppenspielkunst e.V. since 2018. Here, she oversees research projects, a library and a puppet collection and curated the virtual reality Museum ‘Puppets 4.0 – Museum without Walls’ which opened in 2020. Since 2018 she has worked as an independent lecturer at the Institute for Theatre Studies, Ruhr-University Bochum, among others. As a member of the ‘Union Internationale de la Marionnette’, the worldwide puppetry organization, she is active in different commissions. Her research focusses on the history, theory, aesthetics and interdisciplinary intersections of puppetry arts and material performances.

Bettina Gärtner

Bettina Gärtner is an academic assistant for art didactics and educational sciences at the State Academy of Fine Arts Stuttgart. She is working on the research projects ‘MakEd_digital’, ‘digital.macht.schule’ and ‘KOALA’ in the context of the ‘Professional School of Education’ PSE for the development of concepts for didactic work in real, mobile and virtual maker spaces. Through her long-term work as a high school teacher of Art and German, she has special knowledge of education and familiarization with new fields of application of digital media and their implementability for pedagogical scenarios.

Alexander Philippi

Alexander Philippi studied Sprache und Kommunikation at the Universität Siegen from 2009 to 2014. In the following three years, he finished his master’s degree in Szenografie und Kommunikation at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Dortmund. Within his master’s thesis, he looked at the topic of Museum 4.0. Since 2017 he has been self-employed for 3D digitization of artefacts and scenography for digital spaces, such as VR and AR. In 2019 he was awarded first place in the start-up competition Senkrechtstarter/Bochum. In 2020, he started his own business digifactura and has since worked with many cultural institutions and museums.