Crash course in 3D modelling

Okay now if you know anything at all about this 3D modelling programme please don’t read any further because my working knowledge is so limited.

BARC have a number of online catalogues that allow you to examine their collection.  The Digitised Diseases is a website that allows you to closely examine a bone, rotating it and zooming in.

Here is an example to make your eyes' water of a dislocated shoulder.

http://www.digitiseddiseases.org/mrn.php?mrn=R1003

Click on the ‘view model’ and after it has loaded on a new screen (which might take a little while if you have an old computer or slow broadband) you can clearly see that the ball has come out of its socket.  Ouch.  The website allows you to rotate around the subject as well as zoom in.

Now this has been done by a detailed scan of the object; its done with lasers marking every millimetre or so of the surface.  You have to sweep the object many times to cover all the surface.  This data is processed into a series of dots that software then links into a mesh model; think serious dot to dot in three dimensions.  The image at the beginning of this post is an example of the ‘dot view’ of a skull that I have been looking at.

Here is a detail of the left eye socket from closer and a slightly different angle.  The dots are being lit from front and above.  The dark dots are either in 'shade' or seen from behind.

To be honest this next bit  is where I cant quite get my head around the enormity of what the software is doing.  The software then lays a photo of the original surface over the model to make the model ‘realistic’.  You can then rotate and zoom in on it.  Here is the ‘mesh view’ of the same eye socket.

The arcs are the vertical and horizontal axis.  This image was saved with the background set on default. And this is a close up of that view so you can clearly see the triangles making up the mesh.

Now one of the aspects I am interested in developing work in response to is the data behind the rotating model; the dots and the mesh.  I don’t know what I’ll do with it if anything.  I just think it’s a lovely example of technology helping us see and understand things.

getting your head around it

I spent a couple of days up in BARC getting a feel for what they do and what I might be interested in taking as starting points for my work.

A big thanks must go out to the staff especially Tom Sparrow and Andy Holland who tried to explain the black art of 3D modelling.  I think they would agree that they have probably failed.  I have been playing with one of the images at home in meshlab trying to get my head around how the program works but it is this image that has surprised me most.  It reminds me of one of those cut out and make your own models at home kit.  I just cant get my head around the technology behind this image.  All the tiny bits are the facets of the lumps and bumps at the back of the skull.

So whose skull is this?  It’s from the collection of the Royal College of Surgeons.  It’s a historical piece that was used a long time ago as a teaching aid. It’s the skull of a young man with Downs Syndrome.  I have very mixed feelings about it.  The number painted on it seems a little disrespectful but if it was a well-used sample that helped people learn and understand and if the writing on samples was an established protocol of the time to stop samples being mixed up then is it okay? I don’t know and it’s something to think about.

The error bred in the bone

Polygon model of skull from Digitising Diseases website. http://www.digitiseddiseases.org

Some of you may well know that I have been working on getting a project off the ground with the Biological Anthropological Research Centre (or BARC) at the University of Bradford.
Thanks to Arts Council England funding the project will finally begin next week with an extended visit to the Centre.

So how did it all happen…… At the opening of Cloth and Memory2 last summer I met Professor Keith Manchester  who was worried about my ECG in the piece.  In fact a number of people expressed concern at the ECG until it was explained to them that for most of the ECG on the piece my heart rate was at 181bpm and that’s why it wasn’t looking ‘normal’.  At the very beginning where my bpm was 60 you could see it was fine.

 

So Keith and I got talking and he suggested that I should visit the University and see the fascinating things they do.  8 months and a G4A award later the chance for me to make a body of work in response to what is going on in the Centre is now finally about to begin.

So what will I be looking at….?  To be honest I am not sure what the focus will be yet.  They have some amazing stuff in their collection or passing through their hands…everything from medieval leper bones to ancient and modern ivory and scrimshaw having its DNA analysed.  They have been very involved in the Digitised Diseases project that allows you to examine and rotate a whole range of archaeological bones indicating various diseases.
http://www.digitiseddiseases.org/alpha/

I intend to tell the story of this project through my blog so please keep reading!

Things we do in bed

My piece ’60 beats a minute’ will be part of the exhibition 'Things We Do in Bed'.  This was the first major piece in the echocardiology series about my heart and therefore, if you excuse the pun, will always have a special place in it.  In fact the whole 100m piece at Salts Mill wouldn’t have happened if it hadn’t been for this piece

The show has been curated by author and quilter Tracy Chevalier and will have 7 different rooms focusing on ‘Things we do in bed’.  She asked if she could show the piece in the room that will focus on ‘illness’.  Even though this is piece that is about my healthy heart (fingers crossed), I am happy for it to be shown in that context.  The images are the result after all, of a medical diagnostic test.

I hope you can get along to the show. 
It runs from 1 April – 31 October at Danson House, Bexleyheath, Kent DA6

http://www.bexleyheritagetrust.org.uk/dansonhouse/