Using 3D Reproductions of Archaeological Objects in Museum Education Context. A Learning Experience within an Etruscan Musical Collection

Abstract

Archaeological museum exhibitions are made up of collections that represent complex cultural systems. Consequently, museum education has the role of mediating these objects to different categories of users, clarifying the relationships between the collections and the cultural system they belong to. However, for some kinds of pieces, such as musical ones, this activity includes a ‘performative’ part, where the object is an instrument to perform an action. For centuries, museum studies have been split between the conservation of objects and the preservation of their performative capacities and, in the case of musical instruments, in order to use them in educational and research contexts (ICOM CIMCIM, 2019). The
use of reproductions, such as digital modeling, has been widely discussed, sometimes controversially; however, scientific studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of active teaching methodologies, such as Object-based Learning, in museum contexts for active users’ engagement (Duhs, 2019), promotion of soft skills (Poce et al., 2020), social inclusion, and well-being (Kador & Chatterjee, 2021). Starting from these assumptions, the paper describes the first results of a museum education pilot study carried out through the 3D-printed reproductions of ancient Etruscan musical instruments. The learning pathway, addressed to primary school pupils, is aimed at the integration and enhancement of 4C skills (Trilling & Fadel, 2009) in education from an inclusive perspective.