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Digital Surrogates Pipeline Project

What is the Digital Surrogates Pipeline Project? 

Museums provide collections access in many ways, including digital versions collection objects, known as “digital surrogates.” Many museum digitization projects, however, do not contribute substantially to educational and interpretive use. Often, projects are limited to just digitization and making files available online. The MSU Museum wants to encourage deeper collections use by connecting objects and object-focused resources, to enhance people’s experiences with museum objects. 

The digital surrogates “pipeline” is about creating resources that connect digitized collections and make them easier to use. Examples include learning guides, digital activities, and other materials that place digitized objects in conversation with each other.   

This project is funded in part by Bloomberg Philanthropies through the Digital Accelerator for Arts & Culture. 

Bloomberg Philanthropies Digital Accelerator logo
Founding Funder

What are project staff members doing? 

In our Digital Surrogates lab at the MSU Museum, staff members – including student employees – are: 

  • Working with photogrammetry, 3D scanning, Augmented Reality (AR), and Virtual Reality (VR) 
  • Experimenting with the best ways to digitize and connect objects through educational resources 
  • Developing the Museum’s capacity and resources for future technological and educational work 
  • Sharing their work with the MSU community and the general public 

You can watch project team members working in the lab on Floor 2 of the Museum (near the “Digital Double” exhibition). Feel free to stop by and ask questions! 

How can I access project resources? 

You can access project resources by visiting our collection page at SketchFab. If you have questions or want more information, please contact Carrie Wicker at through the Education Team contact form. 

MSU Museum employees smile as they work on digitizing a jaguar mask in the Bloomberg lab. Closest to the camera, Carrie Walker, with long brunette hair and wearing an MSU sweatshirt, points at a large computer screen on a rolling stand while smiling. On the screen, Photoshop is open to show a side profile of the jaguar mask which rests on the table by Carrie's hand. Next to her, a student worker with black hair in a ponytail wearing a black sweatshirt smiles. A similar picture is up on the laptop in front of her. Further down the row of tables, Curator Samantha Ellens, with short brunette hair and glasses, wearing a grey turtleneck sweater, smiles as she also works on a laptop. The scene around them is an office space with visible ducts and piping, white walls, and storage spaces.
An MSU student employee of the MSU Museum, her long black hair in a tidy braid over her left shoulder, works a camera in front of a white mini photobooth. Inside the photobooth rests a mask of a jaguar bearing its teeth. The mask is painted a vivid yellow with a pattern of dots and lines.
Three women work at the digitization lab. Closest to the camera, Curator Samantha Ellens, a woman with short straight brunette hair and tortoiseshell glasses, wearing a grey turtleneck sweater and a smartwatch, writes on a plain piece of paper with a yellow pencil. At her elbow sits a laptop, and further down the table, a young student employee with dark black hair works at another laptop. Barely seen around the laptop, Carrie Walker in an MSU sweater shirt turns to look over her shoulder, only the profile of her face and glasses visible.