Blue Pony Stuffie: Reflective Blog Assignment (Week 5)

I worked with Mya and Sylvie to create a 3D model using the photogrammetry app, Scaniverse. Our item was a navy stuffed animal horse with pale yellow details and Carleton emblems. The origins of this item are unknown. You can find the Omeka item here!

Modeling vs. Viewing

When modeling the stuffed animal, I got to consider perspectives and angles of the pony that I would not have considered if I had only seen it in an exhibit. For example, I did not know the pony had a pink mouth until I had to take a picture of it from an upward-facing angle, and I certainly would not have thought to look underneath the horse if I saw it in a museum.  I also could see the horse from a straight top view during the modeling process, which I would not have been able to do if I saw it in an exhibit at the same height (partially because I am a short person, but also because my phone is able to capture an image of the horse at a much higher angle). The modeling process made me more aware of certain details and see much more of the object.

Modeling and Curiosity

Additionally, the modeling process made me curious about the stuffed animal’s history. There seems to have been a lot of care/detail put into creating the stuffed animal, so I believe it could have been handmade, but because of its unknown origins, I asked myself other questions about the stuffed animal like: Was this stuffed animal made for a specific purpose? Was it a merch sample, or possibly a student passion project? Is this one of a kind, or was it mass produced? If I had only seen this object in a museum, I think I would have just walked past the horse and looked for an object with a history that left me more satisfied, but because I had to create a 3D model of the horse, I had to reckon with its unknown origins. I found that the modeling process was a more thought-provoking experience than if I had only interacted with the pony in a museum.