What are digital objects?
In Kulturpool you can find a variety of objects: from paintings, books, and garments to plants, statues, and monuments. These images, texts, audio files, video recordings and 3D models are representations of real objects that are exhibited or stored in museums, libraries, or archives. A digital image of a real object is referred to as a “digital object”.
What kinds of digital objects are there?
Digital objects are digital representations of physical objects or content. They are created by converting analogue information such as images, texts, audio files or video recordings into digital formats. There are different types of digitised material, including:
- Images: Digital 2D images of an object, such as paintings, postcards, or sculptures
- Text: Digitised versions of printed or handwritten texts, such as books, manuscripts, or documents
- Sound: Digitised recordings of audio content, such as songs or compositions, voice recordings or interviews
- Video: Digital objects of films, videos, or other visual content
- 3D: Digital representations of three-dimensional objects or environments created using 3D scanners or other specialised software
Digital representations as well as their corresponding descriptive information enable objects to be stored, archived, searched and processed online. This facilitates access to cultural heritage for everyone.
How do objects become digital objects?
Not every digital object is a photograph. Although many objects such as paintings, manuscripts, or tools are photographed, there are also other digitisation methods: 3D scanning, the scanning of books as well as the machine reading of texts. Sound and video recordings are also transferred from analogue media to digital formats. In addition to text and images, digital objects can also be 3D models and sound or video recordings.
Cultural heritage objects are digitised in different ways, depending on the type of object, the available resources and the desired outcomes. The most common methods of digitising cultural objects include:
- Scanning: A scanner is often used to create high-resolution digital images of flat objects, such as paintings, photographs, manuscripts, or documents.
- Photography: Photography is typically used, either with conventional cameras or special photography techniques, for flat and three-dimensional objects, such as sculptures, artefacts, or archaeological finds.
- 3D-scanners: A 3D scanner can be used to create a digital 3D model of three-dimensional objects.
- Audio recordings: Recording devices are used to digitise acoustic cultural heritage objects, such as pieces of music, spoken stories, or sound recordings. Existing analogue audio material is converted to a digital format to create a digital object.
- Videography: Videography is the ideal method for cultural content in motion, such as dance performances, TV interviews, or traditional crafts. As with audio recordings, there are also additional conversion methods that convert analogue material to a digital format.