3D Digital Technologies for Studying Historical Musical Instruments

This essay describes the authors experience engaging with digital technologies as a subject specialist who focuses on the history and design of musical instruments. While digital technologies (like 3D scanning and printing) offer exciting research opportunities, they should be tools for, not the focus of, research. Collaboration between subject specialists and technology experts is crucial. This essay reflects on how recent studies of musical instruments have used various technologies and includes new case studies from the authors own work. It is intended to be a resource for subject specialists in the Humanities wanting to engage with 3D digital technologies.