By Merle El-Khatib
12 Dec 2023
Update August 23, 2024:
Publication in connection to UBRA Conference
“Understanding the entire object”. Magnetic resonance techniques in cultural heritage research
https://doi.org/10.11588/propylaeumdok.00006384
During his introduction, Prof. Dr. Sebastian Vehlken told the story of how Prof. Dr. Klaus Eickel, Dr. Alexander Reis and he, all part of U Bremen Research Alliance (UBRA) member institutions, developed the idea for the event. Vehlken is head of the department of “Science-led digitization” at the German Maritime Museum which focuses on the questions of what insights are produced when museum exhibits are examined in their material depth using various imaging methods, and how changes in the state of cultural heritage objects can be effectively monitored. “The interdisciplinarity is exciting,the question which access offers e.g. modern physics to material investigations, how an interaction between digital media and restoration and conservation sciences can be achieved, and the new possibilities this opens up for exhibitions in museums,” said Vehlken enthusiastically.
“The interdisciplinarity is exciting, the question which access offers e.g. modern physics to material investigations, how an interaction between digital media and restoration and conservation sciences can be achieved, and the new possibilities this opens up for exhibitions in museums.”
Pia Götz, who is already conducting research with Reis and Vehlken in the Digital Materialities project funded by the Leibniz Association, was looking forward to the two days of professional exchange and was excited to see what new methods were to be discussed. Eickel emphasized that this conference would not have taken place without the UBRA funding of 10,000 euros and that the topic could not have been illuminated and discussed in this form. At such an early stage of research of new methods, which is primarily about finding ideas and exchanging ideas, there was hardly any other funding option available. The Vice President for Research, Transfer & education from the University of Applied Sciences Bremerhaven, Rabea Diekmann, was happy about the large number of participants and warmly welcomed them at the University of Applied Sciences Bremerhaven.
“Real interdisciplinary exchange takes place here.”
“Real interdisciplinary exchange takes place here,” emphasized Prof. Dr. Ruth Schilling, director of the German Maritime Museum, in her welcome speech. The idea of using a medical technique, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), to make objects from the past more tangible is convincing. It is of central importance for museums to take an initiative in conferences like these: Firstly, these events are able to create spaces for cross-disciplinary exchange and the transfer of resulting knowledge. Secondly, it is important as a museum to open up to digital projects. In times of fake news, research and science help to counter false information with evidence-based facts and provide detailed information on historical contexts. Museums in particular are very suitable places to pass on this knowledge to a broad audience, emphasized Schilling, adding that the third reason for the co-organization was that different methods need to be used. It would be interesting look at how research methods could be used in a complementary manner, for example also to improve the conservation of cultural assets and create preventative added value.
Professor Schilling thanked the U Bremen Research Alliance for the funding and added that the current conference was not the first event that took place within the scope of UBRA with the German Maritime Museum. The work within the research alliance creates the conditions for constructive exchange and the emergence of new research ideas. At the U Bremen Research Alliance Conference on “Media and the Sea”, which took place in 2019 at the Alfred Wegener Institute and the Übersee-Museum Bremen, experts from different disciplines discussed media practices, strategies and configurations that shape our relationship to and our understanding of the sea - both in terms of successful implementations and their possible failures.
As the “MRI for Cultural Heritage Objects” conference continued, Dr. Dieter Bischop from Bremen State Archeology presented the discovery of the cog in the Weser as part of his lecture “Wood Finds and Conservation in the State of Bremen”. He also showed wooden artifacts such as barrels from the 13th/14th century, provided insight into the handling of these valuable finds as well as into the different interests of those involved at the site including the challenges during the recovery.
After lunch, the participants moved from the University of Applied Sciences Bremerhaven to the Cog Hall of the German Maritime Museum. Here Dr. Amandine Colson from Denkmal 3D in Vechta presented the condition monitoring of archaeological wooden structures using the example of the cog and addressed numerous questions from the participants. Afterwards, Dr. Frederic Theis from the German Maritime Museum led through the special exhibition “SEH-STÜCKE – Maritime digitally discovered”. By digitizing the finds, it is possible to look inside them and, for example, discover the technology in an antique ship's clock. The exhibition is the result of a research project in which the objects were scanned with a 3D X-ray microscope at the MAPEX Center for Materials and Processes at the University of Bremen. The exhibition can be visited until April 30, 2024. Further information is available here.
“There are many objects that have potential to be digitized.”
“There are many objects that have the potential to be digitized,” summarizes Theis at the end of his tour. He hopes that this exhibition will be a success so that future exhibitions can be expanded by virtual collection objects as well. Further interesting specialist lectures followed in the afternoon and the following day (see program overview below). The focus was to assess the potential of MRI for examining wooden cultural assets and to test MRI for monitoring wood preservation. Lunches, the get-together at night and the round table at the end of the conference provided the opportunity for an intensive exchange on new investigation methods and ways of identifying biological materialities in cultural artifacts.
