{"id":111831,"date":"2016-03-01T14:56:28","date_gmt":"2016-03-01T14:56:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/2016\/03\/01\/artists-covertly-scan-bust-of-nefertiti-and\/"},"modified":"2016-03-01T14:56:28","modified_gmt":"2016-03-01T14:56:28","slug":"artists-covertly-scan-bust-of-nefertiti-and","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/2016\/03\/01\/artists-covertly-scan-bust-of-nefertiti-and\/","title":{"rendered":"Artists Covertly Scan Bust of Nefertiti and Release the Data for Free Online"},"content":{"rendered":"

princessnijireiki<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

we-are-rogue<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

An Iraqi\/German pair of artists
\njust pulled off what might be one of the most digitally-enhanced art
\nheists in recent time. They covertly scanned the Nefertiti bust<\/a> (with an Xbox 360 Kinect sensor, no less)\u00a0and released the 3D printing plans online.\u00a0They did so as an act of defiance, as the bust was actually looted from an Egyptian site by German archaeologists.[x<\/a>]<\/i><\/p>\n

\"image\"<\/figure>\n

[article by Claire Voone<\/a> \/Hyperallergic<\/a>]<\/p>\n

Last October, two artists entered the Neues Museum in Berlin, where they
\n clandestinely scanned the bust of Queen Nefertiti, the state museum\u2019s
\nprized gem. Three months later, they released the collected 3D dataset
\nonline as a torrent, providing completely free access under public
\ndomain to the one object in the museum\u2019s collection off-limits to
\nphotographers.<\/b> Anyone may download<\/a>
\n and remix the information now; the artists themselves used it to create
\n a 3D-printed, one-to-one polymer resin model they claim is the most
\nprecise replica of the bust ever made, with just micrometer variations.
\nThat bust now resides permanently in the American University of Cairo as
\n a stand-in for the original, 3,300-year-old work that was removed from
\nits country of origin shortly after its discovery in 1912 by German
\narchaeologists in Amarna.<\/p>\n

\"image\"<\/figure>\n

Nora Al-Badri and Jan Nikolai Nelles with the 3D bust in Cairo<\/small><\/p>\n

The project, called \u201cThe Other Nefertiti<\/a>,\u201d is the work of German-Iraqi artist Nora Al-Badri<\/a> and German artist Jan Nikolai Nelles<\/a>,
\n who consider their actions an artistic intervention to make cultural
\nobjects publicly available to all.<\/b> For years, Germany and Egypt have
\nhotly disputed<\/a>
\n the rightful location of the stucco-coated, limestone Queen, with
\nEgyptian officials claiming that she left the country illegally and demanding<\/a>
\n the Neues Museum return her. With this controversy of ownership in
\nmind, Al-Badri and Nelles also want, more broadly, for museums to
\nreassess their collections with a critical eye and consider how they
\npresent the narratives of objects from other cultures they own as a
\nresult of colonial histories.<\/p>\n

The Neues Museum, which the artists believe knows about their project
\nbut has chosen not to respond, is particularly guarded towards
\naccessibility to data concerning its collections. According to the pair,
\n although the museum has scanned Nefertiti\u2019s bust, it will not make the
\ninformation public \u2014 a choice that increasingly seems backwards as more
\nand more museums around the world are encouraging the public to access
\ntheir collections, often through digitization projects. Notably, the
\nBritish Museum has hosted<\/a>
\n a \u201cscanathon\u201d where visitors scanned objects on display with their
\nsmartphones to crowdsource the creation of a digital archive \u2014 an event
\nthat contrasts starkly with Al-Badri and Nelles\u2019s covert deed.<\/p>\n

\"image\"<\/figure>\n

3D rendering of the bust of Nefertiti<\/small><\/p>\n

\u201cWe appeal to [the Neues Museum] and those in charge behind it to
\nrethink their attitude,\u201d<\/b> Al-Badri told Hyperallergic. \u201cIt is very simple
\n to achieve a great outreach by opening their archives to the public
\ndomain, where cultural heritage is really accessible for everybody and
\ncan\u2019t be possessed.\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n

In a gesture of clear defiance to institutional order, Al-Badri and Nelles leaked<\/a>
\n the information at Europe\u2019s largest hacker conference, the annual Chaos
\n Communication Congress.<\/b> Within 24 hours, at least 1,000 people had
\nalready downloaded the torrent from the original seed, and many of them
\nbecame seeders as well. Since then, the pair has also received requests
\nfrom Egyptian universities asking to use the information for academic
\npurposes and even businesses wondering if they may use it to create
\nsouvenirs. Nefertiti\u2019s bust is one of the most copied works from Ancient
\n Egypt \u2014 aside from those with illicit intents, others have used photogrammetry<\/a>
\n to reconstruct it \u2014 and its allure and high-profile presence make it a
\nparticularly charged work to engage with in discussions of ownership and
\n institutional representations of artifacts.<\/p>\n

\"image\"<\/figure>\n
\"image\"<\/figure>\n

\u201cThe head of Nefertiti represents all
\n the other millions of stolen and looted artifacts all over the world
\ncurrently happening, for example, in Syria, Iraq, and in Egypt,\u201d
\nAl-Badri said. \u201cArchaeological artifacts as a cultural memory originate
\nfor the most part from the Global South; however, a vast number of
\nimportant objects can be found in Western museums and private
\ncollections. We should face the fact that the colonial structures
\ncontinue to exist today and still produce their inherent symbolic
\nstruggles.<\/b>\u201d<\/p>\n

Al-Badri and Nelles take issue, for instance, with the Neues Museum\u2019s
\n method of displaying the bust, which apparently does not provide
\nviewers with any context of how it arrived at the museum \u2014 thus
\ntransforming it and creating a new history tantamount to fiction, they
\nbelieve. Over the years, the bust has become a symbol of German identity<\/a>,
\n a status cemented by the fact that the museum is state-run, and many
\nEgyptians have long condemned this shaping of identity with an object
\nfrom their cultural heritage.<\/p>\n

<\/figure>\n

The heist: museumshack<\/a> from jnn<\/a> on Vimeo<\/a><\/small><\/p>\n

Ultimately, the artists hope their actions will place pressure on not
\n only the Neues Museum but on all museums to repatriate objects to the
\ncommunities and nations from which they came.<\/b><\/p>\n

Rather than viewing such
\nan idea as radical, they see it as pragmatic, as a logical update to
\ncultural institutions in the digital era: especially given the
\ntechnological possibilities of today, the pair believes museums who
\nrepatriate artifacts could then show copies or digital representatives
\nof them. Many people have already created<\/a> their<\/a> own<\/a> Nefertitis from
\n the released data; the 3D statue in the American University in Cairo
\nstands as such an example of Al-Badri and Nelles\u2019s ideals for the future
\n of museums, in addition to being one immediate solution that may arise
\nfrom individual action.<\/p>\n

\u201cLuckily there are ways where we
\ndon\u2019t even need any topdown effort from institutions or museums,\u201d
\nAl-Badri said, \u201cbut where the people can reclaim the museums as their
\npublic space through alternative virtual realities, fiction, or
\ncaptivating the objects like we did.\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n

\"image\"<\/figure>\n

3D-printed bust of Nefertiti<\/small><\/p>\n

[source: Hyperallergic<\/a>, emphasis mine]<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I am IN LOVE with EVERY SINGLE THING ABOUT THIS !!!!<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

princessnijireiki: we-are-rogue: An Iraqi\/German pair of artists just pulled off what might be one of the most digitally-enhanced art heists in recent time. They covertly scanned the Nefertiti bust (with an Xbox 360 Kinect sensor, no less)\u00a0and released the 3D printing plans online.\u00a0They did so as an act of defiance, as the bust was actually … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Artists Covertly Scan Bust of Nefertiti and Release the Data for Free Online”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[1574,109,74,2855,4],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111831"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111831"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111831\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}