{"id":704,"date":"2021-11-08T14:33:00","date_gmt":"2021-11-08T19:33:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.citadel.edu\/magazine-2021\/?p=704"},"modified":"2024-08-12T14:33:16","modified_gmt":"2024-08-12T18:33:16","slug":"a-monumental-adventure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.citadel.edu\/magazine-2021\/2021\/11\/a-monumental-adventure\/","title":{"rendered":"A Monumental Adventure"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Bastin Hall houses cutting-edge technology that links\nthe present with the lessons learned from the past. Here, Capt. James Bezjian,\nPh.D., assistant professor of strategy and entrepreneurship in the Tommy and\nVictoria Baker School of Business, continues the legacy of the Monuments, Fine\nArts, and Archives program. A division of the U.S. Army tasked with finding and\nrecovering art and other priceless artifacts confiscated by the Nazis during\nWorld War II, the program was responsible for the recovery of cultural\nartifacts worth billions of dollars. In 2014, the Monuments program captured\nthe attention of the public with the release of the film Monuments Men<\/em>,\nstarring George Clooney, Matt Damon and Bill Murray, which tells the story of\nhow cultural treasures were protected and rescued by Allied forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This past summer, Bezjian completed Army Monuments\nOfficer Training through the Smithsonian Cultural Rescue Initiative and the\nU.S. Army Civil Affairs and Psychological Operations Command (Airborne). Almost\n80 years after the founding of the program and the deployment of the original\nMonuments Men, Bezjian echoes his predecessors\u2019 core beliefs: \u201cIf we want to\nbecome better versions of ourselves as humans, the only way to do that is to\nlearn from the mistakes of the past. And we can\u2019t do that without preserving\nthe history of humanity. Doing that means making a concerted effort, not just\nto preserve icons but to preserve stories that people pass down from generation\nto generation and preserve the history of groups and tribes and individuals who\nhave grown up in various regions with different ethnic and socioeconomic\nbackgrounds.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Preservation, Bezjian believes, is key to ensuring that\nhistory is not misremembered.  \u201cUntil all\nthat stuff is documented, recorded and preserved,\u201d he said, \u201cit stands to be\nlost or twisted or changed or manipulated. Preserving culture prevents us from\nmaking the mistakes of the past, and it also prevents people from twisting a\nnarrative.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In February 2020, Bezjian and a couple of cadets\ntraveled to the U.S. Army Airborne & Special Operations Museum in\nFayetteville, North Carolina. They used 3D technology to create digital\nreplicas of war artifacts, including an Army-issued M1 steel helmet worn by\nWalker Hancock, an original member of the Monuments Men. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bezjian\u2019s next mission, sponsored by an $8,500\ncontribution from the Richard Lewis Foundation, is to rescue art not from the\nhazards of war but from the decay of time, specifically to preserve the Madonna\nof La Gleize in Belgium. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bezjian\u2019s carry-on, an Artec Leo 3D scanner, too\nprecious to check, is already packed in its protective case, awaiting the\ninternational flight. Bezjian will scan the Madonna at its home church in\nBelgium and bring the scans back to The Citadel, where he will print the\nsculpture twice in polylactic acid plastic using a 3D printer. The printer\nitself was created and donated by Benjamin Scott, \u201921, and Ethan Warner, \u201920,\nwho submitted it as their entry in the 2020 Baker Business Bowl, the school\u2019s\nentrepreneurial business plan competition, and subsequently launched Evolve 3D,\na company that manufactures 3D printers and develops 3D printing technology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the two replicas will then catch a flight to\nBelgium, where it will be housed with the original. The other replica will\ntrace Bezjian\u2019s earlier journey to the Airborne & Special Operations\nMuseum, where it will be featured in an upcoming exhibit. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Capt. James Bezjian, Ph.D., uses 3D printing to preserve history. Copies of Pietro Rossi\u2019s Veiled Lady in Bastin Hall include the finest details of the original sculpture. Credit: Cameron Pollack \/ The Citadel<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe goal behind any kind of cultural heritage\npreservation is to capture not necessarily the icon, but the meaning that the\nicon has for our community,\u201d said Bezjian. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Citadel\u2019s 3D printers work layer by layer, and\nsince the Madonna replicas will be reproduced to scale, they might have to be\nprinted in segments due to the sculpture\u2019s height. The segments could then be\nmelted or glued together. The depth of each layer and the number of layers\nneeded will not be known until Bezjian\u2019s team begins fabrication using Artec\nsoftware. At that point, he will also choose a brand of polylactic acid plastic\nmade from renewable resources and decide whether to use an infill for added\nstructural support. In any case, he does not expect the replication process\nitself to cost more than a few hundred dollars. After the fabrication is\ncompleted, an artisan will color and texturize the replicas’ surfaces to match\nthe original sculpture. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As an example of the printing process\u2019s precision,\nBezjian keeps on his desk a miniaturized version of the Veiled Lady by Pietro\nRossi, which is housed at the Gibbes Museum of Art in downtown Charleston. The\nlines on this 3D-printed plastic replica softly and delicately drape across the\nbust\u2019s face the same way the rock-hard marble does on the original, forecasting\nthe success of the forthcoming to-scale replicas of the Madonna.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The scanning and printing process captures minute\ndetails, revealing not only the artist\u2019s technique but also the sculpture\u2019s\nhistory, and will allow Bezjian to create a precise replica of the Madonna,\nincluding any damage incurred during World War II, when it was stolen by the\nNazis. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou want to create a 100% pure replica from the time\nthat it was scanned. So the goal is essentially to take a snapshot of what that\nsculpture looked like at that date and time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just as we are to remember and learn from our\nsuccesses, we should remember and learn from our scars. The lessons from\nartwork like the Madonna of La Gleize will be preserved and shared as a result\nof this project and others to come.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bastin Hall houses cutting-edge technology that links the present with the lessons learned from the past. Here, Capt. James Bezjian, Ph.D., assistant professor of strategy and entrepreneurship in the Tommy and Victoria Baker School of Business, continues the legacy of the Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives program. A division of the U.S. Army tasked with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":694,"featured_media":622,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-704","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academics","category-pillars"],"yoast_head":"\nA Monumental Adventure - The Citadel Magazine 2021<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.citadel.edu\/magazine-2021\/2021\/11\/a-monumental-adventure\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Monumental Adventure\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Bastin Hall houses cutting-edge technology that links the present with the lessons learned from the past. Here, Capt. James Bezjian, Ph.D., assistant professor of strategy and entrepreneurship in the Tommy and Victoria Baker School of Business, continues the legacy of the Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives program. 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