Buffalo Bill Center of the West has contracted with IDIA Lab to create an augmented reality (AR) diorama of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show. Guests to the museum will be able to view the physical white model. While IDIA Lab’s previous Buffalo Bill project focused on his Muncie show, this iteration explores the Ambrose Park show in Brooklyn, NY.
Adam Kobitz
“Constructing the physical portion of the Buffalo Bill diorama through 3D printing and laser cutting processes presented us with several challenges, the first of which was recreating our existing models within CAD software (Autodesk Fusion 360) to ensure that they were designed with these techniques in mind. This modelling process is quite different from those employed on the AR side of the piece, and entails ensuring that the sizes, thicknesses, etc. of each element correlates with the parameters of our machines. Additionally, given the overall scale of the final product, many elements throughout the diorama had to be broken down into smaller components and reassembled by hand. After the models had been 3D printed or laser cut, each of the elements needed to be assembled with adhesives, their seams hidden with a filler substance, filed and sanded, and painted to achieve the final aesthetic.”
Trevor Danehy
“I identified several 19th century photos of William Cody, Iron Tail, and Nate Salsbury with in a timeframe of a few years. Using these photos I constructed a digital 3D model of them within programs like Zbrush and Maya. I also did extensive research of the 1884 Buffalo Bill Wild West show in Ambrose Park, Brooklyn- a long forgotten location that has been all but wiped from history. There are very few details of Ambrose Park aside from a few photographs from the late nineteenth century. The location was demolished in the early 20th century and the Brooklyn Navy Terminal was paved over it. I was able to confirm structures and locations of the Wild West show by cross referencing photographs that overlap the same locations. An interesting note is that we have an electrical layout map of the show in Ambrose park. When comparing photographs to the electrical map, while it does confirm the exact locations of electrical poles throughout the campus, the positions of major tents have changed, possibly due to weather or other circumstance. Many informative photographs came from Robert Bracklow, a professional photographer that was heavily active in the New York area at the time. Many other photographers can be seen in the Wild West show, but his archive survived over more than a century. It was his photographs that helped establish the location of the tents belonging to William Cody, Annie Oakley, and even John Burke’s cabin. They also helped piece together what parts of the exterior grandstand might have looked like.”
