Ghosts in the form of gifts (2009)

Mixed media
Collection of Massey University Wellington

These objects are replicas of artifacts imagined as lost, hidden or misregistered during the Museum of New Zealand's tenure in the former Museum Building on Buckle St, now occupied by Massey University's College of Creative Arts. The objects have been created through a process of drawing, digital 3D rendering, and finally printing with an Open Source 3-dimensional printer – the RepRap.

The digital files for the artefacts are freely available for educational re-use under a Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license and can be downloaded below.

Some CAD files are also available in ArtOfIllusion (.aoi) format. Art of Illusion is a free, open source 3D modelling and rendering programme available from http://artofillusion.org

1. Sperm Whale Tooth

Tooth pendants are important cultural objects throughout the Pacific. Whale ivory and bone were taken from beached whales.*
Unknown maker/artist, date 1800.

• sperm-whale-tooth.stl [6MB]
• sperm-whale-tooth.aoi [1MB]

2. Bowl

Very early bowls have been found in China, Ancient Greece, Crete and in certain Native American cultures.*
Maker unknown, date circa 1900.

• bowl.stl [6MB]
• bowl.aoi [0.1MB]

3. Chinese Soup Spoon

Originally made from porcelain, this traditional form of spoon can now be found mass produced in plastic.
Maker unknown, date circa 1900.

• chinese-soup-spoon.stl [0.2MB]
• chinese-soup-spoon.aoi [1.1MB]

4. Adze

The adze is an axe-like tool that was created and used by many cultures around the world as the technology migrated with the movement of people groups.
Unknown carver, date circa 1500.

• adze.stl [0.5MB]
• adze.aoi [0.1MB]

5. Utah Teapot

The Utah Teapot is a standard reference object of the computer graphics community.*
Maker: Martin Newall, date 1975.

• utah-teapot.stl [16.7MB]
• utah-teapot-lid.stl [6.3MB]

6. Poi

Poi is a performance art employing ball (poi) suspended from a length of flexible material held in the hand and swung in circular patterns.
Unknown weaver, iwi (tribe) unknown, date circa 1800-1900.

• poi.stl [1.3MB]

7. Matau (fish hook)

The matau was an efficient design of fish hook, leading to it being reproduced in large numbers.
Maker unknown, date unknown.

• matau-fish-hook.stl [57MB]

8. Cicada

There are about 2,500 species of cicada around the world, and many remain unclassified. So far 42 species that are found nowhere else in the world have been recorded in New Zealand.*
Scientific name unknown, locality unknown.

• cicada.stl [13MB]

9. Giant Snail Shell

New Zealand's giant land snails are an ancient species, probably arriving at about the same time as the native frogs and tuatara. Once widespread, many species are now endangered or threatened.
Date collected: unknown, region: unknown.

• giant-snail-shell.stl [2.2MB]

10. Tapa Beater

The tapa beater is a tool that has been used by pacific cultures for centuries to make a traditional bark cloth, known as tapa. Tapa is primarily made in Tonga, Samoa and Fiji, but it has also been made in Java, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and Hawaii.
Maker unknown, circa 1800-1900.

• tapabeaterbits.zip [2.4MB]

* Some text courtesy of Wikipedia, December 2009 All text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike License.

All files, except for objects 5, 8 and 9: Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license Bronwyn Holloway-Smith (http://bronwyn.co.nz) and Vik Olliver

File for object 5: Martin Newall (1975)

Files for objects 8 and 9: Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license Bronwyn Holloway-Smith (http://bronwyn.co.nz) and Rhys Dippie