Data, computation and user interfaces in the Boxwood Project

In 2011, conservator Lisa Ellis and curator Sasha Suda of the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO), started a small-scale research project focused on the manufacturing secrets of a group of sixteenth century, northern European miniature boxwood carvings. The venture slowly grew with the addition of specialists from other museums and scientists in research institutions as well as experts in computational imaging, database conception and construction, and a senior digital artist, designer, and technologist. It was only with the combined skillset and knowledge of this interdisciplinary ensemble that the virtuosic construction of these objects was uncovered. There were two concurrent and foundational phases of digital data gathering and production in the project. The first centred on micro-CT scanning to investigate the structure of these diminutive artworks, a venture carried out initially by the AGO and at Western University, London, Canada. Simultaneously, an ambitious, AGO-driven but privately funded, high resolution digital photography campaign set out to capture each known example of miniature Gothic boxwood objects in the world. These were used to populate a publicly accessible database. The following describes the development of the Boxwood Project (2011–2016) in detail and reveals how the community of interdisciplinary researchers was built. The co-operative spirit of the boxwood community outlived the exhibition project and the abundance of data amassed has continued to bear fruit.