By this time scientists and researchers haven’t been able to restore the costumes depicted in Russian splint pictures dating from the XVII – XIX centuries by traditional methods of reconstruction. Russian splints, as a special type of graphic folk art, are an important part of the cultural heritage, but unfortunately, the costumes depicted on them have been lost over time, and the images contain little information about their design, materials and manufacturing technologies.
The problem was solved by scientists of the Department of Design and Technology of Sewing products of the Saint-Petersburg State University of Industrial Technologies and Design (Ƶ). As part of the research group, Alexey Moskvin and Maria Moskvina have developed a new method for designing theatrical costumes, which allows reconstructing and preserving important historical artifacts for future generations in a virtual space. The new method is based on digitalization, that is, the introduction of computer technologies in the process of designing and manufacturing products. The result of the work was the project “Living splint”, which included 12 reconstructions of the characters depicted in Russian splint pictures of the XVII-XIX centuries “Dwarfs”, “Farnos and Pigasya”, “Paramoshka played cards with Savoska”, “The Story of Melinta”, “Windy Thoughts”, “Eralash”, “The Thief came to the yard” and “Raek”.
The project “Living Splint” was supported by the Vladimir Potanin Charitable Foundation and successfully introduced into scientific circulation. Digital reconstructions and material costumes were shown at historical exhibitions, even in the format of theatrical performances: the exhibition of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation “Historical Reconstruction. Industrial fashion design. Digital technologies in fashion”, an exhibition on the digitalization of historical costumes of the Ivanovo Museum of Local History and others.
Maria Moskvina, Associate Professor of the Department of Design and Technology of sewing products of Ƶ, one of the authors of the development: “Computer reconstructions have a number of advantages over original exhibits and material replicas: they can be exhibited in several places at the same time, sent thousands of kilometers in seconds, are not subject to aging. Such virtual objects enrich the expositions of museums and the historical and cultural heritage in general.”
Alexey Moskvin, one of its authors, associate professor of the Department of Design and Technology of sewing products of Ƶ, told about the importance of the development: “In the existing practice of making theatrical costumes, mock-ups and numerous fittings are used, this greatly simplifies and stylizes the products, it turns out a “reconstruction of five steps”: the costume looks like a prototype from some distance, but if you get closer than five steps, differences become noticeable. We managed to qualitatively modernize the process of designing theatrical costumes with the help of computer technologies, despite the fact that we were limited in information about prototypes, to perform high-precision computer reconstructions of costumes from Russian splint pictures and introduce them into scientific and cultural circulation.”
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In total, 12 costumes were reconstructed, consisting of 67 products and accessories depicted in Russian splint pictures. The reconstructions were carried out by scientists of the Saint-Petersburg State University of Industrial Technologies and Design in cooperation with specialists of the Ivanovo State Polytechnic University, the Université de Haute Alsace (France), with the information support of the Ivanovo State Museum of Local History named after D. G. Burylin.