Anatomical Heart Model

thingiverse

This is a 3D scan of a papier-mache model of a dissected heart, illustrating its anatomical structure. The model, now in the collection of the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences, was made by the Shimadzu Corporation, which was founded in Japan in 1875 to produce educational models and apparatus. Students of anatomy and physiology, including those training to be doctors or nurses, need to understand the structure of body parts, how they work, and how they relate to other parts. Examining cadavers is useful for this purpose, and anatomy museums preserve real body parts for study, but inanimate models are more convenient. The earliest anatomical models were made from wax, but they were too fragile to handle. Papier mache, first used for this purpose by medical student Louis Auzoux in France, proved to be more durable and suitable for mass production. Find out more on our website. Background This was one of ten Museum objects scanned in 3D for Hack the Collection, a public program in the 2014 Sydney Design Festival, which matched ten contemporary Sydney designers with ten objects from the Museum’s collection. Designers spent two intensive days in the Festival FabLab, creatively manipulating the 3D object files to design their own hacked interpretations in full view of an excited public. At the conclusion of the weekend, the designers’ remixed objects were 3D printed on MakerBots and displayed alongside their original counterpart. We see our collection as raw assets for inspiration. We encourage you to download and remix our collection as you take it in new directions. We'd love to hear about the new forms and uses you find for our objects – drop us a line to show us your work!