Photographing musical instruments with their large variety of materials, shapes, sizes and surfaces is a big challenge, especially if the target is the digitization of an entire collection within a reasonable timeframe. For inter-institutional research purposes, it is of utmost importance to make images from different collections comparable, which is no small task at all since, unlike paintings or sculpture, they have a multitude of possible positions and angles of view. One of the major outcomes of the EU-funded project Musical Instrument Museums Online (MIMO), which started in 2009, was the collaborative creation of a digitization standard for musical instruments. The workshop shows how this standard was created, which role it plays in a photographer’s daily working life, how to devise workflows for a large number of difficult objects and some showcases of lighting and photographing objects.

1. Serial digitisation of musical instruments
and the MIMO digitisation standard
2+3D Photography – Practice and Prophecies – 2017
Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum 12 May 2017
Staeske Rebers, Rijksmuseum; Frank P. Bär, Germanisches Nationalmuseum

2. GERMANISCHES NATIONALMUSEUM
€3,197,870
eContentplus
What is MIMO?
09/01/2009 – 08/31/2011

3. GERMANISCHES NATIONALMUSEUM

4. GERMANISCHES NATIONALMUSEUM
www.mimo-international.com

5. GERMANISCHES NATIONALMUSEUM
Results by May 2016
56,396 instrument records with at least one image
63,287 instrument records in total
87,000+ images
2,200+ audio files
480+ video files
MIMO Vocabulary
Web Management Tool
Updated Hornbostel-
Sachs Classification
Content in Europeana
MIMO Technical
Platform – MIMO-DB
MIMO Digitisation Standard Virtual Exhibition

6. GERMANISCHES NATIONALMUSEUM 6
MIMO website: www.mimo-international.com
• 9 languages
• 28 museums
• 3 controlled vocabularies

7. GERMANISCHES NATIONALMUSEUM
The MIMO digitisation standard
• Based on existing standards
• Collaborative work by the MIMO consortium
• Part of MIMO toolkit: Download and use it

8. GERMANISCHES NATIONALMUSEUM
Mandatory and recommended views

9. GERMANISCHES NATIONALMUSEUM
Nuts and bolts

10. GERMANISCHES NATIONALMUSEUM
Saving costs – a showcase
Photographer’s average cost in Nuremberg area in 2009:
800.- € incl. VAT for 1 day (8 hours) = 100.- € / hour

11. GERMANISCHES NATIONALMUSEUM
Saving costs – a showcase

12. GERMANISCHES NATIONALMUSEUM

13. GERMANISCHES NATIONALMUSEUM

14. GERMANISCHES NATIONALMUSEUM

15. GERMANISCHES NATIONALMUSEUM
Saving costs – a showcase
Photographing 101 instruments in 2,5 days
Average prices per photo:
400.- €
400.- € / 1 instr.
24,50.- €
1200.- € / 49 instr.
20.- €
2000.- € / 101 instr.

16. GERMANISCHES NATIONALMUSEUM

17. GERMANISCHES NATIONALMUSEUM

18. GERMANISCHES NATIONALMUSEUM
Photographing pianos …
18

19. GERMANISCHES NATIONALMUSEUM

20. GERMANISCHES NATIONALMUSEUM

21. GERMANISCHES NATIONALMUSEUM

22. GERMANISCHES NATIONALMUSEUM
Serial digitisation – small woodwinds
standing upright on table, semi-glossy surface, rendering of volume
22

23. GERMANISCHES NATIONALMUSEUM
Serial digitisation – small woodwinds
standing upright on table, semi-glossy surface, rendering of volume
23

24. GERMANISCHES NATIONALMUSEUM
Serial digitisation – small woodwinds
standing upright on table, semi-glossy surface, rendering of volume
24

25. GERMANISCHES NATIONALMUSEUM
Serial digitisation – small woodwinds
standing upright on table, semi-glossy surface, rendering of volume
25

26. GERMANISCHES NATIONALMUSEUM
Serial digitisation – large woodwinds
standing upright on floor, suspension, semi-glossy surface, rendering of volume
26

27. GERMANISCHES NATIONALMUSEUM
Serial digitisation – large woodwinds
standing upright on floor, suspension, semi-glossy surface, rendering of volume
27

28. GERMANISCHES NATIONALMUSEUM
Serial digitisation – large woodwinds
standing upright on floor, suspension, semi-glossy surface, rendering of volume
28

29. GERMANISCHES NATIONALMUSEUM
Serial digitisation – large woodwinds
standing upright on floor, suspension, semi-glossy surface, rendering of volume
29

30. GERMANISCHES NATIONALMUSEUM
Serial digitisation – large winds
standing upright on floor, suspension, (semi-glossy surface), rendering of volume
30

31. Thank you!
photos: Günther Kühnel, Frank P. Bär