Paper short abstract:

To bring the latest technological innovations in the service of knowledge and conservation works, the Musée du Quai Branly has a new 3D visualization platform.

Paper long abstract:

To bring the latest technological innovations in the service of knowledge and conservation works, the Musée du Quai Branly has a new 3D visualization platform. This simple, easy-to-use viewer provides, accurate and powerful 2D/3D examinations of data acquire by CT scans.

This new technology was acquired primarily with the objective of better understanding of the works and spoke to a scientific audience. But it also has some interest in museography and mediation and then address a wider audience.

One tension in Museum Studies is between preservation of artifacts and research, which may require intrusive methods. With this platform, artifacts can be scanned and investigated without altering the original material and detailed information about internal structure can be gathered, analyzed, and shared quickly.

We can then autonomously operate data generated by CT scans.

The platform give us the opportunity to study the hitherto unsuspected collections of heritage:

- In the field of conservation: digital archiving with ability to view and analyze remote parts.

- In the field of museum: presentation of collections using revolutionary 3D imaging technologies.

- In the field of restoration: accurate knowledge of the volume (interior and exterior) of a scanned piece to better understand and anticipate its restoration.

- Reconciliation of skills: curators, conservators, anthropologists but also radiologists, anatomists and pathologists will be able to work with a common tool without recourse to the original piece.

- Provision of objects in digital form.