The ETH Zurich's Prints and Drawings Department has digitised over 50,000 works of art, which are now freely accessible. Linda Schädler, head of the graphics collection, explains in an ETH why she also wants to capture the other 110,000 images.
In response to the question of whether the museum is not doing away with itself with digitisation, Linda Schädler says that the digitisation of the works is a wonderful addition to the exhibition, but certainly not a replacement. With them, the carrier of the artwork is almost always paper, which means the works are sensitive. Thanks to digitisation, these works of art are visible even when they are not on display. This protects them. At the same time, visitors can be made aware of the great treasures in the collections.
Augmented reality provides a wealth of background information
Digitisation brings further advantages. As a museum, they are in an unusual situation, says Schädler, because they are part of a technical university. With the Game Technology Center (GTC), for example, an augmented reality app was created that provides visitors to exhibitions with countless background information on the individual works and at the same time presents current ETH research. In order to be able to use these new forms of art education, a digital copy is absolutely necessary.
Digitisation supports research
One of the reasons why the ETH Library attaches so much importance to digitisation is that it makes important sources accessible to all researchers around the globe. A researcher from Salamanca only found out through this online catalogue which works by an artist she was researching were available in Zurich. And of course, images online also have very practical advantages: you can zoom in on a work and perhaps see a detail better.
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