Punk Artifacts

The recent opening of the new Punk Rock Museum provided an opportunity to apply emerging technologies to a unique cultural history preservation domain.

Objects that are generally only viewed in cases behind glass can be examined in a web browser or using AR up close from any angle.

Recent advances in accessible photogrammetry software and smartphone technology are beginning to enable extremely high quality 3D capture of an increasing range of physical objects. We applied such new software and hardware to create 3D models of diverse 3D artifacts at the newly opened museum. These objects ranged from intricate small jewelry, paper, and fur, to complex musical instruments and clothing.

The above guitar, hat mold, and other objects that we photographed at the Punk Rock Museum can be explored as 3D models and placed using AR at go.osu.edu/PRM.

In addition to digitizing objects to increase access, historic spaces can also be created from photographs. But when these spaces no longer exist, there may be gaps in available photography. Artificial intelligence software has recently begin new capabilities in this space for extending photos and filling in missing spaces. We’ve being exploring such capabilities using a local lost punk venue that existed for decades but was replaced in recent years with a retail big box store.

Reconstruction of Bernie’s bar was started based on a set of photos graciously provided by Matt Rea who captured the images during a show just before the venue closed.

In addition to mapping sections of his photo onto geometry, AI software is being used to extend beyond the edges of photos, remove people and objects, and to fill in missing gaps.

Finally, this project is providing an opportunity to begin collecting ephemeral narratives, memories, and reflections from individuals about these artifacts and spaces.

Collaborators and Key Personnel:

• Jeremy Patterson, Sr. Graphics Researcher (ACCAD)
• Matt Lewis, Assistant Professor (Design / ACCAD / TDAI core faculty)
• Thomas Davis, Associate Professor (English, Affiliated Faculty, Sustainability Institute)
• Mirkamil Mierkamili, Ph.D. Candidate (CSE)
• Vincent Fiorello, M.Ed., Co-Founder and Chief Marketing Officer (Punk Rock Museum)

Support for this project was provided in Spring 2003 by the College of The Arts and Science’s fund for: “Artificial Intelligence in the Arts, Humanities, and Engineering: Interdisciplinary Collaborations”