The digitisation effort has focused on a large collection of student art exercise works. Legendary ceramicist and Professor Kyllikki Salmenhaara began to grow a collection of student works in the 1960s and it now consists of some 6 000 objects. One thousand of these have already been digitised and more than 300 can be examined as three-dimensional archival objects.
This provides researchers and others who value the archive’s treasures a fresh dimension to scrutinise. Giving physical access to fragile ceramic pieces would be problematic, but photographs alone can’t always provide a full picture of the objects.
A side-benefit of the archive project is the creation of an efficient self-service process for digitising objects and making more use of the PhotoRobot. The device is now available for use by students and staff.
This article has been published in the Aalto University Magazine issue 30 (issuu.com), April 2022.
A significant proportion of the archive ceramic collection is available to explore digitally. The collections consist of the Kyllikki Salmenhaara archive, Airi Hortling archive and the collection of ceramics and glass art.
