The 3D Digital Scholarly Edition of the Dragon Rider is part of a digital collection of toys that we created for the course Creating Digital Collections in the master Media Studies: Digital Cultures. Our digital collection was themed around different kinds of toys, ranging from UNO to Baby Yoda to Barbie. Therefore, the collection is named Toys with Voice. We did not only create our own 3D model but also researched the background and implications these toys have. The overarching goal was to create a virtual experience that would be just as satisfying as a visit to a museum. The annotations and articles engage the viewers by allowing them to interact with the model. As the viewer cannot touch the object or perceive it in real life, the annotations allow them to delve further into details. Additionally, the tours guide the audience through the narrative and stories behind the object. Lastly, we created an audio guide to familiarise the viewer with the topic not only on a visual level.
The articles also open the discussion for discourses that are interlinked. In the case of our Dragon Rider, we were able to discuss and bring awareness to a range of topics such as orientalism, gender roles, and mythology. We could voice the positive and negative aspects toys are teaching kids and adults. Further, we were able to address how the marketing of toys is changing. The contextualisation and mediation of the object produce a responsibility that we carry towards the object and audience.
To visualise this project, we were allowed to use resources that were offered by PURE3D, which is funded by the Dutch government.