Welcome to the first of our Monthly 3D models!
The Learning Media team will be posting once a month to increase awareness of the resources that currently exist in UNE’s 3D repository Pedestal3D. We are also hoping to spark a fire of inspiration around the University around what we can do with 3D models and push further into innovative object-based learning.
If you have an object you use in your teaching and learning and would like to talk about what options are available to make them a virtual object – come and have a chat with the Learning Media team (learningmedia@une.edu.au).
The model
This model is a simulacra of a simulacra, a model made of a cast made of the original. Apart from being fun to say, it draws some interesting questions – how far away from the original can we go before we begin to lose meaning? In this case, I would argue we haven’t strayed too far.
The subject matter is a Skull of Homo Floresiensis (“The Hobbit” or “Flo”). Found in Liang Bua Cave, Flores, Indonesia and dated to aprx 100,000-50,000 BP.
The full size resin cast, was originally made in 2006. The cast made allowed this specimen to be inspected without any risk of damage, and as an extension the 3D model now improves this accessibility even further!
As a result of a cast filling any hairline cracks, wholes & recesses, this was an easy model to scan. A sister species of Homo Habilis, Flo would have had access to tools and lived a similar lifestyle to our ancestors, though at a smaller height. Homo Floresiensis exhibited signs of ‘insular dwarfism’ reducing in size in reaction to smaller resource yields in their environments. Whilst smaller in stature, modern theories don’t believe there was a substantial reduction in brain activity within the prefrontal cortex (Falk, D.; et al. (8 April 2005). “The Brain of LB1, Homo floresiensis“ (PDF). Science. 308 (5719): 242–5. Bibcode:2005Sci…308..242F. doi:10.1126/science.1109727. PMID 15749690. S2CID 43166136)
The skull was used as a basis to help create the diorama that can be found on the ground floor of Dixon library and seen digitally at https://une.pedestal3d.com/r/s6P0Op3yS3
A tricky one to capture as it was behind glass, this diorama gives a good example of the size of the species in situ.
Looking for more information? Within the link there is an interesting write-up by Dr. Bronwyn Hopwood, Curator UNEMA, 2022.