Research Profiles
Western Solomon Islands War Canoe at the British Museum
under the framework of the Pacific
Alternatives: Cultural Heritage and Political Innovation in Oceania
Project partners:
UCL - E-Curator
Project: Graeme Were (UCL Anthropology), Mona Hess
(UCL Museums and Collections), Prof Stuart Robson (UCL Civil, Environmental
and Geomatic Engineering), Francesca Simon Millar (PhD candidate, UCL
Anthropology)
Bergen Pacific Studies Group: Prof Edvard Hviding, Arne
Cato Berg, Rolf Erik Scott (Department of Social Anthropology, University
of Bergen, Norway [funding by the Research Council of Norway]);
British Museum: Lissant Bolton (Section Head Oceanic
Collections), Ben Burt (Department of Africa, Oceania and the Americas)
The project:
3D digital documentation of a highly significant cultural heritage
object from the Melanesian Southwest Pacific, held in the ethnographic
collections of the British Museum. The object, which dates from about
1910, is a ca. 12 m long large plank-built war canoe from the island of
Vella Lavella in New Georgia, Solomon Islands. 3D laser scanning is paired
with anthropological research, which aims to deliver a holistic virtual
reconstruction, multimedia interactive delivery, and possibly a 3D printed
colour replica of a detail of the boat for the digital repatriation to
the source community.
Publication:
Hess M., Robson S., Were G.,Simon Millar F., Hviding E., Berg C. A.: Niabara
- the Western Solomon Islands War Canoe at the British Museum. 3D documentation,
virtual reconstruction and digital repatriation. Proceedings of the
15th International Conference on Virtual Systems and Multimedia VSMM 2009.
"Vision or Reality? Computer Technology and Science in Art, Cultural Heritage,
Entertainment and Education", Vienna, Austria, September 9-12, 2009
British
Museum database