“Hromadskyi Prostir”, 28.06.2024
Last week, at the invitation of our NGO, a well-known team of specialists with many years of experience in digitising museum and ethnographic collections visited Bohuslav. These are the participants of the ‘Open Chest’ Collection project: Oksana Afanasieva, Co-owner of the ethnographic collection, Liudmyla Klymuk, Head of the digitisation project, Oksana Mityukhina, Curator of the collection, and Oleh Mityukhin, Photographer and Technical Support Specialist.
This project was launched several years ago and was actually the first to systematically digitise ethnographic collections. Currently, it comprises more than 1800 pieces of traditional clothing, footwear, jewellery, and hats from all over Ukraine. Moreover, Liudmyla, Oleh, and Oksana were involved in numerous other digitisation projects, including the ‘Oriyana’ and the National Museum of History of Ukraine, which in recent years has presented over 500 exhibits on the Google Arts & Culture World Heritage Platform and over 5000 exhibits on the Museum-digital Ukraine platform.
In the first part of the session, they talked about how to prepare and take photos of vintage clothes, collect and organise data about them, research them and publish the results of digitisation; in the second part, they tried to do all this together in practice. The meeting was held in the format of a dialogue and began with a discussion of how important and relevant the work of preserving, researching and promoting our cultural heritage is during the war, how to make people fall in love with the beauty of Ukrainian costumes, how to teach them to distinguish authentic style from the stereotypical version of ‘red trousers’ stage costumes imposed by the Soviets, and how it all helps to get rid of the inferiority imposed for decades.
‘We started preserving and researching clothes when there was no understanding that authenticity should not be allowed to be worn because it deteriorates. At the time, we believed that this was the best way to make as many people as possible fall in love with Ukrainian clothes. In the projects “Vytoky” (‘Origins’) and “Spadok” (‘Heritage’) we showed the beauty of costumes from different regions at different ages. However, ‘Open Chest’ seeks to show not only the beauty of Ukrainian clothing but also to move away from inferiority. Now we need to give people a basic understanding of how Ukrainians used to dress: for this purpose, we are digitising the museum collection. People need to understand that the Ukrainian clothing tradition is restrained, ‘tucked in’. A complete costume is not only clothing but also a way of dressing: people used to dress in their own way, fasten a belt, tie a headscarf/shawl. It is an ‘ensemble’ system. We recreate clothes not only from vintage items but also from photographs and old paintings that allow us to find out how they were worn. By digitising clothes, we also bust myths about how people used to dress,’ says Liudmyla Klymuk.
She also shared some life hacks on how to prepare clothes for shooting: ‘You need to prepare the item: clean it, wash it, do a light restoration if necessary. It often happens that you spend four days preparing the item and dedicate one day only to taking pictures. If the condition of the item allows it, we wash it by hand. Unwashed items are stored worse than washed ones. We consult with restorers in this case. We take a few general photos of the item: in its pre-restoration state, when it is washed, and after restoration. If, for example, there is a lost fragment of fabric or embroidery, sometimes restorers take a different thread half a shade to show where the original is and where the restoration has been carried out. We always record the condition of the exhibit: if there is a stain that cannot be removed, we leave it as it is.
We use a vacuum cleaner to remove the dust. Put the item in the freezer at -18 degrees. Rust can be removed gently with oxalic or citric acid. We use an oxygen-based bleach, for example, Ukrainian ‘Parus’, as it does not damage the colour, but only removes grease. We dry the item by soaking it in a towel, without wringing it out. We do not dry in the sun but do it with appropriate moisture. We roll up shirts, do not hang them on hangers, because the fabric on the shoulders deforms. The best way to store the item is in a box made of micalent paper. You can’t store it in vacuum packaging. We fold the garment in rolls, but if it is a silk garment, we don’t fold it, because the fabric can break. You can’t wash these things, only clean them.’
During the practical part of the workshop, Oleh Mityukhin shared the nuances of working with photo equipment, lighting, angles for photoshooting, and told how best to set up a studio, how to process photos, and how to maintain a database of objects. Liudmyla Klymchuk commented on the process itself: ‘We take two types of photos: on a surface and on a dummy. By photographing it on a dummy, we can capture its shape in a photo. To prepare the dummy for this, we put on a petticoat and fill the sleeves with synthetic fibre. We use a wedge petticoat. Sometimes we take shoulder pads, which were popular in the late nineteenth century. We take pictures on a styrofoam dummy, and if necessary, we can cut or change the latter. When photographing clothes on a flat surface (on a table, or floor), we take photos both on the face and inside out: this will help us to recreate it. If the garment is large, we take pictures in parts and combine them into one image.’
Oksana Mityukhina spoke about the specifics of Google Arts & Culture and museum-digital.org, where they publish photos of collections and 3D models of objects along with their metadata (i.e. information attached to the photo) and shared contacts and practical tips for working with these resources.
We would like to remind you that the ‘Around Us. UA’ NGO intends to create an interactive map on its website, which will contain information about each settlement of the Bohuslav community and samples of ancient Ukrainian clothing found there. Currently, the digitisation of clothing from the collection of the Museum of the History of Bohuslav Region and that collected during the ethnographic expeditions is underway.
This publication was prepared with the support of the Partnership for a Strong Ukraine Foundation. The contents of this publication are the sole responsibility of the ‘Around Us. UA’ NGO and do not necessarily reflect the position of the Foundation and/or its financial partners.
Source: https://www.prostir.ua/?news=u-bohuslavi-vchylysya-otsyfrovuvaty-kulturnu-spadschynu
