wkingsl – Intro to Digital Humanities and Social Sciences (SP25)

Observation, background, context: Here you might talk about what drew your attention to this topic, what struck you as interesting about it, and/or any important context for the topic.
I have recent visited the Saint louis science center, for the first time since i was young. The building and displays hadn’t changed too much, it was a very nostalgic trip all together. One thing in particular caught my eye though, Across the skybridge over the highway with the radar guns. (Fun fact, my father Bill Kingsley made the circuit boards for those radar guns, the ones they still use! Over 30 years ago when he worked at the science center.) Across that bridge, there are about 6 or 8 display cases, showing off various collections of different antiques. Random stuff like jade idols, jewelry, rock collections, all sorts of stuff. When I was there looking at those collections of interesting artifacts, I saw the placard which said these were only some of the collections the science center has in its possession.
Problem: What problem or question arises from your observation?

My question is, if the Science center has more interesting collections in storage, why do they only display some of them? Why dont they digitize these collections so they can be viewed even if the center does not have the display room?
Frame: How are you approaching that problem? What’s your point of view?

I would like to write a sort of call to action to prompt the Science Center to digitize their collections, so they can be viewed and enjoyed rather than just stored away somewhere.
Example sources: Provide citations for one primary source (something that is direct evidence for the question you’re asking) and one secondary source (something that uses direct evidence to make an argument) that relate to your research question.

Primary source: You searched for collections – Saint Louis Science Center
The Science center’s current digitization efforts, show casing only some of their collections. I believe this shows they have the ability to digitize their collections.

Secondary source: Historical Preservation using an Artec Spider 3D Scanner – Central Scanning -Explaining how 3d scanning is used in archeology. I believe this same technology can be adapted and used to 3d image the collections so they can be viewed in great detail online.
Proposed technology: What tool or method do you intend to use in your project?

The tool would be 3d scanning technology, there are various different programs which can take a serious of images and stich them together into 1 3d model.

Author: wkingsl

Voyant lab

Problem statement