The buches for the Parranda Marinera de Buches

In 2024, artist and cultural manager David Machado Gutiérrez and the Parranda Marinera de Buches, a cultural association based in Arrecife (Lanzarote, Canary Islands), approached Factum Foundation to help preserve an ancestral, vernacular tradition now at serious risk of disappearing: the buches.

The first Parranda Marinera de Buches using the facsimile buches © Amanda M. Izquierdo (@mandyleft)

At the heart of Carnival celebrations in Lanzarote, the buches are inflated shark stomachs used by the maúros, masked figures representing Mauritanian farmers historically settled in the island’s interior. During Carnival, the performers take to the streets, playfully striking passersby with the buches, accompanied by music and dance in a vibrant display, merging local identity and cultural heritage.

Since the 2019 ban on shark fishing in the Canary Islands – a crucial step in protecting marine ecosystems – the materials needed to make buches have become unavailable. Today, only 12 original buches remain, putting this centuries-old tradition in jeopardy. The buches are central to the performance – without them, the ‘pasacalles’ cannot take place, and a living traditional ritual risks vanishing.

After a high-resolution recording of the shape and sound of six remaining buches, Factum Foundation produced 35 fully functional facsimiles, ensuring that the tradition can continue without compromising environmental protections. This approach offers a way to reconcile heritage preservation with ecological responsibility, showing how craftsmanship, science, and technology can sustain living traditions in a changing world.

Digitally preserving shape and sound

Otto Lowe and Nathaniel Mann travelled to Lanzarote in July 2025 to digitally recorded the six remaining buches in high resolution, capturing both surface detail and acoustic character.

Otto Lowe and Nathaniel Mann during their visit to record the original buches in July 2025 © Factum Foundation

Otto Lowe digitally recorded six historical buches using advanced photogrammetry techniques, capturing them in high resolution. The resulting 3D models have been made publicly accessible through Sketchfab, allowing researchers, craftspeople, and cultural institutions worldwide to study the geometry and construction of these instruments.

Test renders from one of the 3D models of a buche, with colour (left) and without (right) © Factum Foundation

Buches for the Parranda Marinera de Buches

As the buches are not merely objects, but living instruments with intricate acoustic properties and cultural meanings, the team conducted systematic sound recordings. Working in collaboration with Ivanhoe’s studio El Recibidor, the team recorded individual buches at different inflation states, capturing variations in timbre and dynamics. They also documented traditional rhythmic patterns on the batea, the percussion instrument essential to the buches’ musical context. All recordings were made to professional standards, in order to preserve both sonic and cultural dimensions of the tradition whilst generating technical reference material for future synthetic reproduction.

The team also conducted in-depth interviews with active members of the Parranda, focusing on fabrication processes, maintenance techniques, material treatment, and interpretive variations. Spatial audio capture using Ambisonic A-format technology documented both individual performance and collective orchestral contexts, ensuring that future research or creative applications could understand these instruments within their cultural and sonic environment.

On 16 July 2025, Sol Costales Doulton and Otto Lowe delivered a conference at Arrecife’s Casa de la Cultura alongside David Machado, exploring how advanced digital preservation technologies can serve intangible cultural heritage. The session detailed the project’s methodology and showcased international case studies, generating media coverage across regional television and local outlets. This public engagement aimed to raise awareness of the Parranda’s efforts to sustain this vernacular tradition and demonstrate the potential of contemporary technology in heritage conservation.

Rematerialisation

Once the surface geometry, acoustic properties, and cultural context had been thoroughly documented, the team advanced to prototyping and technical testing—the critical phase of creating fully functional facsimiles.

Working with Irene Gaume, Factum’s 3D Sculptor, the team refined the digital models to address functional considerations. Some original buches showed signs of deterioration or non-ideal inflation states due to their historical status. Through careful digital retouching and modelling, the geometry was adjusted to meet both functional and acoustic criteria.

The manufacturing process employed stereolithography (SLA) to print negative moulds from the refined digital models. Using these moulds, the team developed new buches through a precise multi-step process:

Mould preparation: Application of wax and polyvinyl alcohol as a release agent
First casting: A polyurethane elastomer with natural pigment base layer
Reinforcement: A second layer reinforced with 30-gram fibreglass cloth
Sealing: Closing the mould and pouring elastomer to seal the joint
Finishing: Surface refinement, application of plastic primer, and natural pigment patination using water-based polyurethane solutions
Closure: Natural cork stoppers for the buchés’ opening

This rematerialisation approach ensures that the new buches will possess not only the accurate external form of the originals but also their functional and acoustic properties.

Making the moulds © Oak Taylor-Smith | Factum Foundation

Painting the resin inside the moulds © Oak Taylor-Smith | Factum Foundation

A facsimile buche before painting © Oak Taylor-Smith | Factum Foundation

Painting the facsimile buches © Oak Taylor-Smith | Factum Foundation

Facsimile buches inside Factum’s workshop © Oak Taylor-Smith | Factum Foundation

Facsimile buches inside Factum’s workshop © Oak Taylor-Smith | Factum Foundation

In February 2026, the facsimile buches were used for the first time in the Parranda Marinera, demonstrating how craftsmanship, science, and technology can sustain living traditions in a changing world. More fundamentally, this project affirms that cultural continuity and environmental protection need not be in conflict—that preservation can take new forms whilst honouring ancestral practices.

This project, carried out in collaboration with the Parranda Marinera de Buches, is funded and supported by the Arts, Cultural and Tourism Centres of Cabildo de Lanzarote (EPEL-CACT) and SPEL–Turismo Lanzarote, with essential technical collaboration from Ivanhoe’s recording studio. All project materials—raw and processed 3D data, high-resolution sound recordings, ethnographic interviews, and technical documentation—were delivered to the Parranda Marinera on archival-grade storage media, establishing a permanent digital and material record of this living heritage.