Starting Friday, November 15, 2024, the National Museum of Abruzzo will be enriched with a new permanent inclusive itinerary in the East Bastion of the 16th-century Castle.
Two 3D tactile models, accessible to everyone and especially designed for the visually impaired, will provide visitors with access to the impressive fossil of the Mammoth that lived on the shores of a lake 1,300,000 years ago and was discovered in 1954 in a quarry near L’Aquila, in Scoppito.
This experience will allow visitors to explore the forms of the prehistoric animal with the resin reconstruction designed by the National Museum of Abruzzo and created in collaboration with the Academy of Fine Arts of L’Aquila by Simone Rasetti, professor of “Digital Modeling Techniques – 3D Computers,” and Marco Cortopassi, professor of “Technology and Materials Applied to Scenography.”
This will allow visitors to “enter” the mammoth’s skeletal and muscular system and learn about features not always visible from a distance: the left side of the skull will feel irregular due to the lack of a tusk, and two lower and two upper molars will be visible in the oral cavity, allowing researchers to estimate the animal’s age at death: 55 or more.
Numerous skin folds will be visible along the massive body, which are significantly wider in the belly area, corresponding to the joints with the legs, to facilitate elastic movement.
The first 3D tactile model was created at a 1:40 scale and shows the skull with its defenses; the second reproduces the hypothetical reconstruction of Mammuthus meridionalis at a 1:40 scale, based on the photogrammetric 3D model and the reconstruction of the living specimen created by the Department of Earth Sciences at Sapienza University of Rome.
This project marks another step in a project that MuNDA pursues with ongoing and tangible accessibility initiatives, already implemented in its temporary exhibitions, in the name of barrier-free inclusivity that overcomes forms of discrimination and exclusion.
The press conference was attended by Federica Zalabra, Director of MuNDA; Marco Brandizzi, Director of the Academy of Fine Arts; Silvano Manganaro, coordinator of the ABAQ School of Art Education and Communication; Simone Rasetti, professor at ABAQ; and Deborah Tramentozzi, a blind typhlologist and expert in accessibility and inclusion techniques for the blind and visually impaired, who also led the guided tour for the blind.
Technical data sheets for the two models
Design and prototyping of tactile models: National Museum of Abruzzo in collaboration with the Academy of Fine Arts of L’Aquila – Course in “Digital Modeling Techniques – 3D”, Instructor Simone Rasetti and – Course in “Technology and Materials Applied to Scenography”, Instructor Marco Cortopassi
Technique: LCD/UV technology
Materials: UV 3D printing resin
Skull with shield
Dimensions: length 71 cm × height 28 cm × width 31 cm
1:40 scale reproduction
Hypothesized reconstruction of the Mammuthus meridionalis
Dimensions: length 30 cm × height 20 cm × width 11.5 cm
1:40 scale reproduction
