The Animation Collaboration with the Drexel Collection (or ACDC) program provides students with the opportunity to work with Drexel's Founding Collection's artifacts as references and inspiration for classwork, personal projects, and professional projects. Many courses within Drexel's Digital Media field focus on teaching students 3D modelling and scanning as these are highly sought-after skills within the industry.

Created by Douglas Ngo (B.S. in Game Design and Production), ACDC has been designed to naturally integrate with current curriculum. This can look like extra credit on a final project for using an artifact from the Collection as reference. Not only does the Collection's myriad of artifacts provide students with exciting as well as historical subjects for said courses but also gives faculty more variety in grading material and a way to challenge more ambitious students. Furthermore, students will have their 3D objects displayed on the Drexel Collection's website, making for a professional portfolio piece. This also benefits the Collection by exposing students and faculty to the Collection as a resource and expanding the Collection's database with student's interactive, immersive 3D objects for faculty, patrons, students, and Alumni to view online.

Students pick three artifacts that they are interested in using for their 3D object and the Collection assigns them one of their three. Then students work with the Collection to schedule visits to view the artifact, supervised by a member of the Collection. Afterwards, the Collection communicates with the students and teacher to ensure the student is on track to complete the 3D object coinciding with their class’s final exam. Once complete, the 3D object is uploaded to the Collection’s website. For faculty, they advertise the program to their students as well as decide if their complete 3D object is up to standard or if the student needs more time to work on their project. If interested contact ducol@drexel.edu.

Note: These renderings require the use of cursor navigation. For those who cannot or do not want to utilize their cursor, you may experience the model by viewing the videos, linked below each rendering.

To view the renderings, press play, then click and drag your cursor.

Marble Torso

This marble sculpture is in the shape of a torso, possibly that of Apollo or Adonis after Praxiteles. There are scrapes in the chest/front of the torso, a chip in the proper of the left shoulder, a larger chip on the back, where the figure’s sash is, with chips on the backside. The wooden base features chipping and wear in the wood surface where the legs connect to the base and there are small chips in the wooden base finish on the front and front left top corner of the base. You can view the video here.

Redware Effigy Vessel

This handmade redware effigy vessel is in the shape of an owl. It has a gourd shaped body with a bulbous head and body joined by a slightly narrower neck. There are two small triangular ears at the top, two semi-circular wings at the midpoint of the body and two cylindrical legs with four-clawed feet supporting it. The face has slightly raised circular eyes and a small hooked beak. The interior of the vessel is unglazed as well as the bottoms of the feet. The entire exterior of the owl is covered in white paint with a slight grayish tinge. The upper part of the body, from the tops of the wings up, is decorated with closely spaced black dots. Around the rim is a solid black line. The eyes are red with black pupils and black outlines. The beack is black. There are areas of black or dark gray discoloration throughout. The inscription "old/ 586" is handwritten in black ink and pencil on the underside. You can view the video here.

Seal Sculpture

A soapstone sculpture of a seal created by Silassie Tukai, 1988 in Canada. The piece is a gift to the Drexel Founding Collection by Jonathan S. Corle in 2019. You can view the video here.

Chimu-style jug

This small earthenware jug is in the Chimu style, made in the Moche Valley, South America. It was donated to the Founding Collection in 1894 by James A. MacAlister. It is amphora-like with a broad shoulder and tapered body. The neck is raised with a slightly flared and thick rim. There are two c-shape handles attached to opposite sides of the rim. The underside is flat and unglazed. The jug is unglazed but decorated with stamped or incised decoration and paint. Around the midpoint of the body is a wide stamped border with a decor of masonry at Mitla in spirals and meander patterns, between double borders. The upper edge of the shoulder has two faded painted panels with black edges containing red stars or crosses with black outlines. There is a faded red band at the base of the neck and shoulders and red stripes next to the handles. There are very faded black painted details on the interior edge of the rim. The exterior of the rim is decorated with a faded black geometric pattern. You can view the video here.

Roman pitcher

This bronze jug dates from c. 300BCE – 100BCE and was purchased by the Founding Collection in 1897. The jug has an elongated, bulbous body with a circular rim and a high applied loop handle with spear-like lower terminus. The bottom of the handle has separated from the jug. The vessel has corroded to a green crusty patina with blue and brown patches. You can view the video here.

Kuba Vessel

This wide, round wooden vessel with an opening at top and handle on side is from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sankuru River region. It was a gift of Joseph J. Rishel and Anne d’Harnoncourt in 2022. The vessel has decorative incisions all throughout the outer surface, including the bottom. Only the visible, outer side of the handle has decorative patterns. The incisions consist of lines, zigzags, and lattices that are positioned within larger triangles. You can view the video here.

Teapot

This teapot is made from unglazed reddish-brown clay, molded in a rectangular form. Attached to one short side is a squared, angled spout and attached to the opposite short side is a squared rectangular handle. There are seven holes between the spout and body. The lid of the teapot is flat with a tall flange and a short rectangular handle in the center and a single steam hole. The lid rests on a small ledge within the rim of the teapot. The footrim is incised.

The exterior of the teapot is decorated on one long side with incised floral decoration consisting of two groups of flowers connected by a curving branch enclosing a column of Chinese characters all filled with black. The opposite side is decorated with three columns of incised Chinese characters in cursive script calligraphy style that are filled with black. Two of the columns consisting of larger characters are a pair of couplet or two successive lines of verse forming a unit, which is commonly seen at the entrance of a traditional tea house, meaning that the tea steeped using mountain spring is very aromatic, like the dew on flowers. The interior of the teapot is lined with white porcelain. You can view the video here.