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Exhibition review: Dennis Hopper – The lost album

The exhibition in the Martin-Gropius-Bau Berlin shows a collection of over four hundred vintage photographs taken by Dennis Hopper, the famous artist, director and actor. The photos were taken in the sixties and show the spirit of that era, portraying many iconic persons like Andy Warhol, Paul Newman and Martin Luther King.

The rather small exhibition displayed all photographs behind flat glass cabinets on the wall. The originals were of excellent quality and comfortably visible throughout the exhibition. The motifs were most compelling and show the sixties through the eyes of the famous actor. After the death of Dennis Hopper, the forgotten photographs were rediscovered in five boxes. Hopper selected them himself before his death for his first big exhibition.

I enjoyed the exhibition very much and was positively surprised by the wonderful pictures, because I was not aware that Dennis Hopper was a photographer. What I liked the most were the motifs of the “hippie movement” (to which Hopper counted himself) as well as the series of bikers, which reminded of the film “Easy Rider”. The photographs offer a unique insight into that time. Even though there were about 400 photographs on display, the exhibition was quite small and I would have wished for two or three more rooms.

Nevertheless, I would definitely recommend this exhibition, it is worth having a look!

Image: © Sebastian Hageneuer

Virtual tour through the Pergamon Museum

Today a friend of mine led me to a new feature of GoogleMaps. If you feel like taking a walk through the halls of the Pergamon Museum in Berlin, you can explore the museum at Google Maps! Enjoy an undisturbed visit and take as much time as you want to take a look at the Ishtar Gate or the grave of Assurnasirpal. There are other museums to explore too, so give it a try, also: thanks to Stephan!
http://goo.gl/maps/lDbOK

New project finished: Animation of the construction of the Stone-Cone Building (Steinstiftgebäude) in Uruk

We just finished a new animation project! The five-minute film shows the detailed construction of the Stone-Cone Building in Uruk beginning with digging the ditch for the foundation and ending with the finished building enclosed by surrounding walls. At the moment we only show some stills of the film, but you can read all about it in the project-description on our website.

This infographic shows the total amount and type of building material that was used in the construction of the “Stone-Cone Building”.

We created this infographic in order to show the amount of building material used in the construction of the building. The dimensions are remarkable. Just imagine the expenditure of human labour…

Technical illustration showing the interior organisation of the building and its assumed installations.

Section showing the interior organisation of the building and its assumed installation.

Parts of the enclosure wall were also decorated with mosaic cones.

The enclosure wall was also decorated with mosaic cones. These were green and black clay cones, while the building itself was decorated with stone cones.

New project finished: Restitution of the “White Temple” and the Anu Ziggurat in Uruk

Today we finished the work on the restitution and visualisation of the “White Temple” (Building B) and the Anu Ziggurat in Uruk, a very famous sacred complex dating to the Late Uruk Period. The project is part of the ongoing Uruk Visualisation-Project that we are working on for the German Archaeological Institute in Berlin. The results turned out very nice: We created two possibilities of reconstruction for the “White Temple”. The final images show comprehensive exterior views of the temple on top of the ziggurat, several sections through the building and some very nice interior views that tentatively reveal the lighting conditions inside the temple.

Sorry for not posting any pictures here, but that will have to wait until the publication is out. Some images will probably be on display, however, in the upcoming Uruk exhibition in the Pergamon Museum in April 2013. We will keep you updated on that.

Mari Visualisation Project: The Fortifications

Today we finished the first part of the Mari Visualisation Project: the restitution and visualisation of the fortifications. It was a great pleasure for us to work with the Mari excavation team of the Sorbonne Paris and a very fruitful cooperation.

Infographic showing two of the different building phases of the fortification wall in Mari (here phases Ville III and Ville II récent).

Reconstruction of the domestic residence in Sector N3. For the restitution of this building, the functionality of its rooms and its internal organisation were taken into account, as well as considerations on its lighting-conditions and the general requirements for the mud brick architecture.

Detail of the South Residence showing the mud plastering, wooden roof beams and doors.

Reconstruction of the domestic residence in Sector N3.
You can read more about this project on our project-site.

Tell Fecheriye Exhibition

Today we set up the exhibition “Auf archäologischer Spurensuche in Syrien – Ausgrabungen in Tell Fecheriye”. It was a lot of work, but the result turned out fine. We even had our first visitors…

The exhibition’s title display.

Work in progress..

A life-sized accessible model of an excavation trench was set up within the exhibition for visitors to explore.

We created this life-sized accessible model of an excavation trench for visitors to explore.

This little girl instantly got comfortable inside the double-jar burial.. 🙂
Read more about this project here.
(Photographs: © Sandra Grabowski & Sebastian Hageneuer)

News from Herat

I wrote about the production of three dioramas for the National Museum in Herat here. Today we received news from Herat and some pictures of the installation and grand opening of the museum. See how the local museum staff in Afghanistan is installing our dioramas! Great 🙂
I hope I can post some more pictures of the finished installation soon.

(Photographs: © Ute Franke)

Children’s illustration pt. 3

It is done! I am finished with the colouring of the children’s illustration. In the exhibition, there will be short accompanying descriptions that go with each number.

The numbers explain the different members and inventory of the excavation:
1: The director of excavation, 2: The photographer, 3: The topographer, 4: The cook, 5: The field director, 6: The local worker, 7: The gear, 8: The tools, 9: The anthropologist, 10: The field archaeologist, 11: The pottery-specialist, 12: The illustrator, 13: The philologist, 14: The IT-specialist, 15: The surveyor.

Children’s Illustration pt. 2

Today I added these cheerful excavators to my illustration. They demonstrate the different styles of wearing a kefiye (headscarf).

Once I was happy with the composition of the image, I started the ink-work and added detail to each character. The illustration looks like this now and is ready for colouring.

Children’s illustration pt. 1

At the moment, I am working on an illustration for kids. It will be part of the upcomig exhibition “Auf archäologischer Spurensuche in Syrien. Ausgrabungen in Tell Fecheriye” that we are setting up for the Department of Near Eastern Archaeology of the Freie Universität Berlin. We decided to compose the illustration in the style of “Where is Waldo”, so that the kids will be occupied for a while – and their parents free to enjoy the rest of the exhibition. 🙂
Today I finished the pencil drawing …

The composition of the image is almost finished. Datails are only indicated at this state of the work. I am not quite satisfied with the lower part of the drawing yet and will be rearranging and adding some characters.

Three Dioramas for the National Museum in Herat

I have been working on the design and production preparation of three dioramas for the National Museum in Herat, Afghanistan. Today, I went to the model maker‘s place to have a look at the finished models. They turned out great! This is the first time that some of our 3D-models got converted to real life models. 🙂

Great! I can actually touch the figures that I built in the computer only a few weeks ago. 🙂

The dioramas are constructed in a modular fashion in order for them to be easily packed and transported to Herat, where they will be reassembled by the museum staff.

View of the third diorama and construction details. Scholars study with their master in the court of a mosque in Kashgar. Size: 65 x 45 x 50 cm.

This is what the models looked like in the computer. I built them exactly to scale and gave the data to the model maker. In the Herat museum each diorama will be placed within a separate display case.
To read more about this project, visit our project-site!
(Photographs: © Sandra Grabowski)

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