Technology



Chrysanthemums in a Green Vase

Factum Foundation’s team have been finding ways to bring all the evidence from different recording systems together in a way that makes it easy to analyse. The work started some years ago when we scanned a small panel believed by Bastiaan Blok, its owner, to be by Van Gogh. New recordings of the panel suggest there are genuine reasons for experts to investigate the claim. Although Factum Foundation is not involved in making attributions, we do provide the data to help others make informed decisions.

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Gough Map: How new technology uncovered secrets of rare Bodleian artefact

The Gough Map, thought to be Britain's oldest, has been revealed in unprecedented detail thanks to cutting-edge 3D technology more commonly used in computer games and CGI. The ARCHiOx Project in partnership with the Factum Foundation uses a prototype photographic system to examine some of Britain's oldest artefacts held at the Bodleian Library in Oxford, UK. The new scanning techniques not only give researchers new ways to study rare objects like the Gough Map, but new preservation tools for archivists to keep priceless artefacts safe for future generations.
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Recreating the Colossus of Constantine

Factum Foundation has been working with the Musei Capitolini and Fondazione Prada on the ambitious recreation of the 13m-tall Colossus of Constantine for the exhibition 'Recycling Beauty' (until February 27, 2023). The scale of the project involved almost all of Factum's various areas of expertise over the course of nearly ten months.

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The recreation of Giulio Romano’s designs as three-dimensional objects

Factum Foundation and Factum Arte worked with Fondazione Palazzo Te on recreating five designs by Giulio Romano as physical objects for the exhibition 'Giulio Romano. La forza delle cose'. Curated by Barbara Furlotti and Guido Rebecchini, the show focuses on the artist's talent and ingenuity in object design at the Gonzaga court. The intricate designs were rematerialised as elaborate 3D models by Irene Gaumé, Jordi Garcia and Manuel Franquelo at Factum Arte, before being 3D printed in sections and cast in a variety of materials depending on the size and complexity of the details. More info on the project

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In Ictu Oculi - In The Blink of an Eye: a walk through the exhibition with Adam Lowe and Charlotte Skene Catling

As part of the seminar series jointly organised by the Zurbarán Centre of Durham University and the ARTES Iberian and Latin American Visual Culture Group in association with the Embassy of Spain and the Instituto Cervantes, Adam Lowe and Charlotte Skene Catling offered a tour of ‘In the Blink of an Eye, Transience and Eternity in the Spanish Golden Age’. As part of the Auckland Project, Jonathan Ruffer commissioned Factum Foundation and Skene Catling de la Peña to rethink the concept and role of a museum for the top floor of the Spanish Gallery, in Bishop Auckland.

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Toledo Symposium - Cultural Heritage and Machine Learning: Its Impact on Information and Knowledge

Adam Lowe, founder of Factum Foundation was responsible for the closing session of an international symposium on the role of Machine Learning and AI in the recording and analysis of cultural heritage. This was intended as an introduction to the September conference on Cultural Heritage and conflict resolution. The conference was held at the University of Castilla La Mancha in Toledo on 18th and 19th June 2021. His panel consisted of both online and offline participants: Adrian Cussins, Brian Cantwell Smith and Ken Singer.

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Business Insider Today - Inside the Workshop Making World Class 'Fakes'

'Factum Arte in Madrid uses the latest 3D scanning and printing technology to create copies of some of the world's most famous masterpieces — saving them from the ravages of time and even helping to bring back missing works from the dead.'

Many thanks to Paul Rhys and Emilie Iob
Published in December 2020

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Factum: así es el taller en que se fabrican las piezas de las obras de arte contemporáneo

Based in Madrid, Factum Arte consists of a team of artists, technicians and conservators dedicated to digital mediation - both in the production of works for contemporary artists and in the production of facsimiles as part of a coherent approach to preservation and dissemination.
In this video by El País, Adam Lowe, director of Factum Arte and founder of Factum Foundation, explains the ways in which non-contact methodologies are having a growing impact on the world of conservation and are defining the role facsimiles play in in the protection of our cultural heritage.

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New Perspectives on Raphael: an online panel by the Warburg Institute

On 19th November, Michelle O’Malley from the Warburg Institute talked with Ana Debenedetti and Adam Lowe about the recording of Raphael’s Cartoons at the V&A in August 2019. While the discussion focused on Raphael, it also looked more generally at the role of digital recording in light of the museum closures and the restrictions caused by COVID-19. High-resolution recording, display and rematerialisation technologies have serious implications for the study, display and dissemination of works of art - both online and offline access will be increasingly important in providing access to culture.

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The Materiality of the Aura: exhibition walk-through with Adam Lowe

The founder of Factum Foundation, guides you through 'The Materiality of the Aura. New Technologies for Preservation', at Palazzo Fava, Bologna until 10th January 2021. Facsimiles of sculptures, paintings and books, digital restorations and physical recreations, 3D renders, 3D models and a variety of objects are presented in the six rooms of the exhibition, focussing on: the surface of paintings, sculptures, cartography, video-mapping and projections, manuscripts and, finally, Factum Foundation's work in the Valley of the Kings. The city of Bologna, where the Foundation has been involved in projects since 2010, is also a unifying factor tying together many of the rooms.
© A film by Óscar Parasiego for Factum Foundation

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Il Polittico Griffoni rinasce a Bologna - exhibition walkthrough with Adam Lowe

Curated by Mauro Natale in collaboration with Cecilia Cavalca, the exhibition at Palazzo Fava focuses on the importance and meaning of the Polittico Griffoni by displaying, together with the individual panels coming from nine museums and collections across Europe and North America, a facsimile reuniting the Polittico made by Factum Factum Foundation in Factum Arte's workshop.

Adam Lowe, founder of Factum Foundation and director of Factum Arte, guides you through the exhibition, explaining Factum's role in the recording and reuniting the panels scattered among 9 museums and institutions all over the world.
© A film by Óscar Parasiego for Factum Foundation

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Recording 'An Old Woman Cooking Eggs' by Diego Velázquez

On the 4th and 5th February 2020, a team from Factum Foundation has carried out the high-resolution digitisation in 3D and colour of 'An Old Woman Cooking Eggs' at the National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh. In this video, Aidan Weston-Lewis, chief curator at National Galleries of Scotland, and Enrique Bocanegra, director of the Casa Natal de Velázquez, talk about the importance and relevance of this collaboration and the potential for digital technologies to recover Velázquez’s legacy, as part of a wider collaboration with CEEH (Centro de Estudios Europa Hispánica).
© A film by Óscar Parasiego for Factum Foundation

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Recording the Lamentation over the Dead Christ by Niccolò dell'Arca in Bologna

The sculptural group of the Compianto sul Cristo morto (Lamentation over the Dead Christ) by Niccolò dell’Arca is located in the main chapel of the Church of Santa Maria della Vita, Bologna. The fragility of the seven terracotta statues led Factum Foundation, in collaboration with Genus Bononiae, to record the group in December 2019, as part of the exhibition La Materialità dell’Aura at Palazzo Fava (part of La Riscoperta di un Capolavoro).
Digital recording will open up new possibilities for the study and display of the sculptures – certainly within the virtual sphere, but perhaps even in the physical space of the sanctuary.

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© Óscar Parasiego and Otto Lowe for Factum Foundation

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Rematerialising the tomb of Raphael

Factum Arte created the starting point of the exhibition Raffaello (1520 - 1483) at the Scuderie del Quirinale, in Rome: a rematerialisation of the painter's tomb. from the Pantheon, with its 19th-century additions removed. Almost all of Factum's departments were involved in this project, with engineers, architects, sculptors, artists, welders and digital experts working side by side on the various elements making up the tomb. Careful planning and teamwork were the keys that allowed Factum to achieve this ambitious result. Watch the whole behind-the-scenes in this video.
© Óscar Parasiego for Factum Foundation

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