Chronology

1992 Start of the Rodin Nude Photo Project. Inspired by the sculptures and drawings of Auguste Rodin, Hans de Roos creates a series of nude photo studies.

1996-1998 A series of these black and white photo studies are worked out as gum bichromate prints and exhibited in different institutes.
While searching for other exhibition venues, an extensive address file and contact network is created, comprising ca. 60 Museums in Europe and the USA: the beginning of the Rodin-Web.

Febr. 2001 Since the publication of the museum address list at www.rodin-web.de the Rodin-Web has expanded to become the largest online database on Rodin collections worldwide.

June 2001 First contact with Mr William Moore, Director of the MacLaren Art Center in Barrie, Toronto. Based on this discussion and further e-mail correspondence about Rodin foundry plasters, Hans de Roos produces an overview of the current debate on posthumous casting, used as an outline for the Toronto Rodin Symposium.

6 Nov. 2001 Rodin Symposium "What is the Original?" at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto. Hans de Roos represents the Rodin-Web as a speaker and is accompanied by his wife Borbála and their friends Alida Kreutzer and Moritz Gaupp: the nucleus of the Rodin-Web team. Still during our stay in Toronto, we discuss the possibility to create an empirical basis for the discussion on originality by means of 3D technique.

6-12 Dec. 2001 Preliminary outline for Rodin Virtual Sculpture Project sent out to MacLaren Art Center (Barrie, Can.), Cantor Foundation (Stanford, CAL.), Bayerisches Staats-ministerium für Wissenschaft, Kunst und Forschung, Neue Pinakothek and Glyptothek (Munich, Germany).

Nov. 2001 - Jan. 2002 During these months, we maintain an extensive e-mail correspondence with Dr David Schaff, Senior Curator of the Toronto exhibition, and other experts, on the issues of originality and the provenance of the Barrie Collection. Our findings are published under the title RODIN AT THE R.O.M. - WHAT IS THE ORIGINAL? Simultaneously, we collect data on the various versions of Rodin's monumental Thinker and publish the results at www.penseur.org, addressing the issue of unprecise and insufficient measurements.

Jan. 2002 We start designing test objects for 3D scanning. We create simulated Rodin sculptures from pappmache.

26 Jan. 2002 First meeting in Munich with Mr Piotr Michalowski, Curator of the National Museum in Poznan, to discuss our ideas and plan the scanning of the monumental Thinker plaster in Poland.
We also begin to establish contacts with other Museums in order to obtain permission for our visits.

11 Febr. 2002 Email request to all major 3D scanner producers to inform them about our project and check if they have appropriate equipment for our project goals.

26 Febr. 2002 Munich: Mr Marco Zajac and Ms Stefanie Adolf of Minolta 3D, Langenhagen, demonstrate the Minolta Vivid 900 System. We make test scans of several objects.

4 April 2002 Mr Paul Davison, UK, representative of 3D Digital Corp. demonstrates the 3DD Scanner Model 300 in Munich. We decide to purchase a Model 300, but after a series of further tests, we finally have to conclude that the scanning resolution and quality is not sufficient for our goals.

18 April 2002 Meeting with Mr Neumann at Konrad-Neumann GmbH in Guending/Munich to see a demonstration of the PhaseOne H20 and H5 digital scanbacks.

25 April 2002 Meeting with Mr Benjamin von Kreutzbruck and colleagues at Anagramm GmbH in Unterhaching near Munich to see a demonstration of the Salvadore Scanback and discuss the possibility of co-operation.

10 May 2002 Mr Benjamin von Kreutzbruck and colleagues at Anagramm GmbH in Unterhaching/Munich shows us the practice of the Salvadore Scanback.

16/17 May 2002 Trip to London to meet Mr Peter Petrov, owner of Basis Software, and Mr Mike Davis, AG Electro-Optics, for a demonstration of the Surphaser scanner. We discuss the test scans of our small plaster torso made in Moscow and scan further objects.

26/27 May 2002 Munich: meeting with Curator Mr Piotr Michalowski of the National Museum in Poznan, concerning the scanning of the Thinker plaster in Poland.

4 June 2002 Our project is accepted as member of the Special Interest User Group (SIUG) of the VIHAP 3D Platform, managed by the Max-Planck-Institute in Saarbruecken.

5 July 2002 Meeting with Mr Sigmund Scriba at DESCAM GmbH in Unterhaching/Munich for a demonstration of the ModelMaker XP sensor in combination with Faro Gold Arm and for the conditions of co-operation.

11 July 2002 Brunel University, London: with Prof. John Cosmas we discuss the features of various 3D scanning devices. Concerning their 3D MURALE project, scanning of archeological sites all over Europe with the ModelMaker system, we discuss the chances of a co-operation.

18 July 2002 North Dakota State University, Archaeology Technologies Laboratory: Exchanging experience in the use of various 3D scanning devices and software with Mr Aaron Bergstrom.

25 July 2002 Small plaster torso sent to Dr Carsten Reich at GOM GmbH, for test scans. The GOM scanning quality is flawless, but by then, other co-operations seems to be more convenient and affordable.

29 July 2002 Breuckmann GmbH, Meersburg: Presentation of our Rodin Virtual Sculpture Project to Dr Bernd Breuckmann and Mr Bernhard Tyborski. Test scans of various objects with highly satisfying results. Dr Breuckmann kindly offers to support our project with his equipment and expertise.

6 Aug. 2002 We visit Strasbourg to make preparatory photographs of the Thinker plaster in the Musée d'art moderne et contemporain.

20/21 Sept. 2002 Meeting and training at Breuckmann´s facilities in Meersburg. Preparation of our joint trip to Strasbourg.

23 Sept. 2002 Second visit to Strasbourg, together with Breuckman staff to make 3D scans and stereo photographs of the monumental Thinker plaster. We work with three different Breuckmann sensors, OptoCat and PolyWorks software.

11 Jan. 2003 Meeting in Munich with Mr Jacques de Caso, Professor Emeritus of Art History at the University of California at Berkeley, to discuss Rodin topics. Prof. de Caso strongly supports our idea to develop a more objective way of defining and measuring the spatial properties of sculpture.

7/8 Febr. 2003 Further meeting and training in Meersburg to get better acquainted with Optocat hardware and software. We learn how to operate the sensors and match single scan files ourselves. This time, we prepare our joint visit to the Sculpture Museum Heilbronn.

10 Febr. 2003 Visit to Heilbronn together with Dr Bernd Breuckmann to make 3D scans and stereo photographs of the medium Eve plaster (72 cm). We work with two OptoTop sensors (40 and 20 cm FOV) and create a nearly complete virtual model of the figure.

28 Febr. 2003 First work meeting with Dr Hans-Peter Duwe in Lindau to get acquainted with PolyWorks software of InnovMetric, Canada. Together, we work on the 3D data from Strasbourg and Heilbronn.

3/4 April 2003 Presentation of the Rodin Virtual Sculpture Project at the 3D Forum in Lindau.

28 April 2003 Third trip to Strasbourg. This time, we work with the ModelMaker XP 140 sensor and Faro Gold Arm to make further 3D scans of the Thinker. This time, we manage to create a complete model, including critical areas like the inside of the hands.

1 May 2003 Second work meeting with Dr Hans-Peter Duwe in Lindau to check the quality of the Thinker scans made in Strasbourg with the ModelMaker system.

29 Sept. - 1 Oct. 2003 Trip to Belfort, France to scan plaster sculptures Rodin donated to his friends Camille Lefevre: Mask of the Man with the Broken Nose, Caryatide, Minotaur, Polyphem. We work with Breuckmann Opto Top equipment with a 20 cm scanning window.

5 - 8 Oct. 2003 Trip to Basel to document Rodin´s Walking Man with the new Faro Platinum 10-foot arm and ModelMaker XP70 sensor. We need 24 working hours to produce a complete scan of this 214 cm high plaster.

1 - 5 Nov. 2003 Trip to Poznan, Poland to document an original Thinker plaster donated to the Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum in 1905. Again, we work with the new Faro Platinum 10-foot arm and ModelMaker XP70 sensor.

12 Dec. 2003 Workshop with Dr Duwe in Lindau to compare our Thinker scans made in Strasbourg with different kinds of scanners. With PolyWorks Inspector, we are able to calculate and visualise all results and document even smallest morphological differences.

18/19 March 2004 Participation at the 3D Forum in Lindau for an information exchange with producers and users of the 3D-scanning equipment.

3/4 April 2004 First visit to the Galeria Internazionale d`Arte Moderna in Venice to take first photos of the enlarged Thinker plaster acquired at the Biennale of 1907.