New Life for National Treasures Through Technology--At 80, New Frontiers for the National Palace Museum

"More than 2,800 years ago, Chinese civilization emerged on the banks of the Yellow River. Flaming crucibles poured forth molten lead, forming such vessels as the Maogong Cauldron, a nearly 35-kilogram vessel. On the belly of the cauldron were inscribed 497 characters in seal script, telling of an alliance between two kingdoms.... At the beginning of the new century, a Westerner seeking out the latest trends travels to the East, discovering this ancient script in the National Palace Museum. 'Wow! This is so cool!' he says. He goes to a tattoo parlor and has the characters tattooed on his back. This man found what he was looking for at the National Palace Museum."

On the screen, five creative commercials allow ancient artifacts to bring new messages to the present day.

National treasures in outer space

As incredible as it sounds, this is the kind of commercial that the museum has been airing for these ancient artifacts--a creative piece of 3D animation.

The National Palace Museum is heir to a succession of dynastic treasures, including Chinese landscape painting, calligraphic works, and countless artifacts. Other museums around the world are hard-pressed to match the splendor and mystery of these imperial collections. But because of the value of the collection and the past conservatism of the institution, the National Palace Museum has given off a forbidding air of unfath-omability. In recent years, through interaction with other museums and a trend toward user-friendliness, the 80-year-old museum has begun to exhibit a new spirit and willingness to embrace technology. In the process, the museum has become young again.

To attract a younger crowd, Deputy Director Lin Mun-lee, who once curated the Taipei Fine Arts Museum, recruited Wang Jun-jueh to create a one-minute short film even more provocative than the commercial described above. In the film, a Qing dynasty ivory sphere is transformed into stars and planets; the Western Zhou Maogong Cauldron into the electronic circuitry of a chip, its bronze inscriptions becoming planetary canyons traversed by spaceships; a boat carved out of a walnut shell is digitally fragmented and reconstituted, all scenes that would not be out of place in a Star Wars film.

The film has been featured on ATM machine screens everywhere, garnering rave reviews from the young people who have seen it.

The details of Song Hui Zong's calligraphy appear down to the last stroke on the touch-screen monitor. Visitors can even try their hand at punctuating the text of this classical work in an interactive game.

Movies at the Museum

Traversing history and entering into the present age, the museum has also transformed itself by joining the movie business, providing the venue for three recent films and even opening up its underground vaults (carved into the mountain behind the museum), to which access had been forbidden for 40 years--as a movie set. "This is a first for the National Palace Museum," says Museum Director Shih Shou-chien with a smile.

The film involving the museum's vaults, Cheng Wen-tang's The Passage, has not yet debuted but has already been nominated for awards at the Tokyo International Film Festival, the Asia-Pacific Film Festival, and Taipei's own Golden Horse Awards. Taking inspiration from Su Dongpo's work, the Hanshi Tie, the film describes how the work is lost in the midst of war and chaos, transported to Tokyo, and then makes its way to Taiwan. The grandson of a Japanese art restorationist learns of the lost work, becomes fascinated with it, and travels to Taiwan to try and fulfill his dream of locating it.

The museum's vaults, strictly restricted areas, appear on the silver screen for the first time in the film. Twenty years ago Sinorama ran an exclusive piece on the tunnels and, according to Shih, a German journalist had also once gained brief access prior to last year's showing of the "Treasures of the Sons of Heaven" exhibit in Germany. However, apart from those cases, the caves had never previously been opened to the media, and the public could not easily imagine what they might be like inside. When the movie opens in the end of September, the public will be able to follow the camera into those mysterious storehouses.

Another retrospective, a documentary filmed by Wang Shau-di, entitled Behind the Palace, Beyond the Horizon. The film documents the activities of three international artists who spent a month as visiting artists at the National Palace Museum, engaging in a creative process in dialogue with the artwork of the museum.

In the film, works of art appear bathed in early morning light. They are so striking in their appearance that they prompt the viewer to ask, "What do these artifacts in the display cases have to do with me? If they have something to do with me, then what?" This is the spirit of inquiry that Wang wanted to bring to the film.

In the movie, French ceramics artist Jean Girel, Dutch animation artist Gerrit van Dijk and Japanese clothing designer Ito Sachiko seek inspiration from the Museum. Girel brings his sketchbook as he views the forms of Song ceramics and the small animals adorning ancient vessels. Ito Sachiko views the elegant cases that contain the Buddhist Tripitika and heads to vintage clothing stores to look for material for new creations. Van Dijk roams the streets and alleys of the city, motorcycles whizzing by, and fuses those images into that of the National Palace Museum's image of the Book of Western Ascension.

Lightly touching with a fan the butterfly in the painting of a child at play causes explanatory text to appear on the screen. By means of technology, viewers can enter even more deeply into the enchanting world of this ancient painting.

Uniting technology and culture

Digital technology has served as an important bridge for the museum as it moves into the present.

In 2001, the National Palace Museum began digitally archiving its artifacts as part of the National Digital Archives project, considered a Herculean work of information engineering. Realizing the dearth of worthwhile content on the Web, the National Science Council wanted to transform China's rich cultural legacy into digital form, thus making it possible to share that legacy in an unrestricted way with people everywhere.

In the past, the museum's collection of over 650,000 artifacts had been rotated at a rate of 3,000 objects on display each year. Since the museum opened in 1965, however, over 80% of the museum's holdings have yet to see the light of day. The most popular pieces include bronzes, jades, ceramics, and curios, comprising roughly 60,000 pieces; only about 4,000 have been displayed. Ancient paintings are especially sensitive to repeated handling and dust, and can only be displayed on a limited basis. The most valuable of these have been divided into three groups of 20 works each, and rotated through every three years. The rotation occurs every October, so if one missed a showing of the Northern Song artist Fan Kuan's Travelers Among Mountains and Streams, one would have to wait another three years just to view this magnificent rendering of lofty mountain peaks, while jostling amongst the throngs.

The National Palace Museum exists for its artworks. To protect these works, viewers are asked to stand behind protective barriers, or view them through glass, at a distance. In many cases, it is difficult to scrutinize and explore a particular piece, even if one has one's nose pressed to the glass.

Take, for example, the case of the tiny boat carved out of an olive kernel, which features floral-patterned windows that open and shut and extremely lifelike occupants. Even the game board on the vessel has been realistically carved, and on its base is inscribed Su Dongpo's renowned Red Cliff Rhapsody. It is difficult, however, to have a good look at this piece through the glass of the display case.

Digital technology is able to almost magically overcome such barriers and allow spectators to draw near to the art. The museum has taken the first step towards digitizing its archives by engaging in the process of minutely photographing each of its holding from all angles.

Photographing these unique treasures involves five different stages. Since the works cannot leave their storage facilities, a separate application form must be filled out in order to photograph each work. Workers wearing surgical masks and gloves place each piece in special carts that dampen vibration, carefully moving them to the photo studio set up within the storage facility. During the photo sessions, the ultraviolet portion of the lighting spectrum is strictly controlled. As the pieces are rotated 360 degrees no one, not even the photographer, is allowed to touch the object, save for museum staffers immediately connected with each particular piece. When the 10x12 negative is obtained, high-resolution scanning begins, the image is then entered according to the International Color Consortium profile format, ensuring color consistency. Finally, anti-forgery measures are taken and explanatory narratives written up on each object.

Through digital archiving, the museum is able to obtain imperishable images that can be reproduced conveniently and without loss in quality, achieving the ultimate aims of art preservation.

More importantly, all sorts of creative applications can subsequently be made from these digital images.

"What a shame it would be if we only used old ideas for these new technologies!" says James Lin, director of the Information Management Center at the museum. Once digitization has been completed, the images may be enlarged, have their colors adjusted, have special effects added to make them appear as oil paintings, or be presented with music to create multimedia displays. The digital files can be used on Web pages, VCDs or DVDs, and find uses as exhibition guides and as educational and research aids. Apart from the work of digitization, the Museum has also engaged in subsequent endeavors such as the creation of a digital museum and other projects in digital learning and related products.

On the screen, five creative commercials allow ancient artifacts to bring new messages to the present day.

Roaming candlelight

The digital museum uses the digitized images to create thematic areas. The dozen or so digital galleries created thus far include "Enamels from the Ming and Ch'ing Dynasties," "Famous Album Leaves of the Song Dynasty," "The Beauty of Chun Ware," and "Tibeto-Chinese Buddhist Scripture Illustrations."

When one clicks on the virtual gallery entitled "Treasure Painting and Calligraphy," 70 paintings, calligraphic works, and other artifacts are thematically introduced and analyzed in progressive fashion. One of the works examined is Roaming in the Evening by Candlelight, by Song painter Ma Yuan. The painting renders an evening scene from over a thousand years ago, the bright moon shining on Song terraces and pavilions. In the garden, a scholar takes a walk by candlelight in an image that has been acclaimed as one of the best visual representations of the life of Song literati.

After scrutinizing the artist's brushwork, color composition, and the profound feelings conveyed through the work, one can click on an option to see the famous painting in three dimensions. When one does so, a building compound from the Song period appears. And one can click on the scholar's studio to take a look inside. Through such means, one can truly take this "evening trip by candlelight," returning to the Song dynasty and reliving the life of a literati.

The museum's e-Learning Program allows everyone to work towards becoming an art expert. Over the last two years, the museum has spent NT$7 million creating a Chinese- and English-language course on bronze vessels, a course that provides an overview of the vessels, examines their styles and patterns, secrets behind their inscriptions, and the evolution of seal scripts, then moves on to discuss how the bronzes were cast, how they are preserved, and current directions in scholarly research. Anyone can take this course and it even keeps a running score and offers post-class evaluations of student performance. Indeed, it's not difficult after all to become an expert on bronze vessels!

On the screen, five creative commercials allow ancient artifacts to bring new messages to the present day.

Fan and butterfly

Thanks to digital archiving and technology, formerly cold and impersonal artifacts can now be experienced dynamically and interactively. For example, the museum has put on a display at the National Center for Traditional Arts in Ilan entitled "Imperial Gardens of the Song Dynasty." There, a three-foot-wide screen displays in succession a literati painting by Emperor Huizong, Su Hanchen's Children at Play on a Winter Day, and a renowned Song painting depicting a cat gazing at peonies. If the viewer flutters a fan at the screen, a butterfly in the painting dances along with the motion. This digital education project is made possible by Acer's e-Enabling Data Center, and will tour throughout Taiwan.

"In the past, we described how paintings were able to evoke certain feelings, described the way that a butterfly seemed to be dancing, or the way that streaming water flowed," says Lin. "We might say that digital technology has truly brought this painted butterfly to life!"

On the screen, five creative commercials allow ancient artifacts to bring new messages to the present day.

The ivory sphere's 19th layer

One of the most challenging and progressive projects that the museum's digitization project has encountered has been the development of its 3D Virtual Reality System. This project has brought together the information management resources from such institutions as the Academia Sinica's Institution of Information Science, the Industrial Technology Research Institute's (ITRI) Opto-electronics and Systems Laboratories, and National Taiwan University's Graduate School of Computer Science and Information Engineering. The 3D Virtual Reality System will allow the public to explore dimensions of art that even emperors of old were not privy to.

At the exhibit entitled "Astonishing Heaven?" visitors from all over gathered around a 19-layered ivory sphere, bending and contorting as they attempted to gaze into its depths. They could only sigh at the unfathomable craftsmanship of the work, whose every intricate layer is able to move independently of the others.

In the past, one would be unable to explore its innermost layer, even if one held the sphere in one's hand. However, with the 3D virtual imaging system, viewers can follow a tiny camera into the sphere, seeing it as if they themselves had been shrunken down and entered into it. With the system, viewers can explore the sphere's interior, or discover the brilliance of the 3,000-year-old Maogong Cauldron, or enter into the walnut shell boat, clearly viewing traces of its creator's hand.

While virtual reality systems employ computer-generated images based on 3D modeling, Hong Yi-ping, who heads the Academia Sinica's Institute of Information Science, felt that such images looked toy-like and inauthentic. He proposed to the museum a better solution based on photo-realistic images. Instead of using computer-generated images, the museum would use hundreds of photographic images of each work to achieve its goal.

The first of the two-stage process of entering an artwork into the virtual reality system involves identifying a central point in the actual exhibition area. With that point fixed, the object is rotated around at ten-degree intervals and photographed. Next, the object's surroundings are photographed, which may require 360 to 720 images. Then the pair of three-dimensional images that has been created is combined.

"It's not difficult to render either the artifact or its surroundings," says Hong. "What is difficult, however, is fusing the two images to achieve a unified spatial geometry and lighting. We are real pioneers in this work."

In most cases, virtual images are rendered from actual objects by aiming numerous points of light at the object, producing the virtual image based on the coordinates of the points of light along the three dimensional axes. The challenge that these works of ancient masters brought to these modern-day technicians, however, was how to work with objects that could not be touched, such as the intricate ivory sphere. Bold solutions were required.

Since these national treasures could not be removed from the museum, the staff of ITRI's Opto-electronics and Systems Laboratories transported laser scanners and other highly advanced (and enormously expensive) technology into the museum. Such instruments were able to scan the 19 layers of the ivory sphere. When a "crack" appeared in the virtual image, staff would have to search through all of the photos to find the most fitting image to patch it up. "It took us three days," Lin says with a smile, "just to scan that ivory sphere!"

Through the computer-generated images, viewers can rotate and manipulate the sphere by means of handheld controls, viewing and appreciating it from every angle.

On the screen, five creative commercials allow ancient artifacts to bring new messages to the present day.

Moved by art

"We hope that on your next visit to the National Palace Museum you can discover a work that really touches your soul. That is the most valuable artwork of all." As these words appear on the screen, one begins to realize why this particular video piece is entitled Behind the Palace, Beyond the Horizon. Indeed, in recent years the museum has been striving to open up doors that have long been locked, breathing new life into the artifacts by placing them in dialogue with modern folk.

One might, then, find oneself standing transfixed before the Hanshi Tie soaring with the calligraphy of Su Dongpo. One might sing the praises of ancient bronze vessels while sitting in front of the computer. One might find oneself battling opponents in an online game that required familiarity with playing cards depicting the Museum's artworks....

In all these ways, the National Palace Museum is striving to serve as an enchanted gateway for inhabitants of the modern world to step into the world of ancient masterpieces.

On the screen, five creative commercials allow ancient artifacts to bring new messages to the present day.

Quick Facts: National Palace Museum

On the screen, five creative commercials allow ancient artifacts to bring new messages to the present day.

History: In 1924, Pu Yi, the last emperor of the Qing Dynasty, was expelled from the Forbidden City. The committee supervising the removal of the royal family entered the palace and took inventory of it cultural artifacts. On October 10, the National Palace Museum was formally established.

Crowds admiring the emerald-colored jade in the form of a Napa cabbage or the stone in the form of a piece of meat no doubt wish that they could pass through the display glass and draw nearer to these fascinating curios.

The Move: In 1931, following the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on September 18, the museum's collection was moved southwards to Nanjing in five batches totaling 13,491 crates. Following the Marco Polo Bridge Incident marking the beginning of the Sino-Japanese war, the collection was once more moved, this time westwards to Guizhou, Sichuan, and other locales. With the Nationalist government's retreat to Taiwan in 1949, over 3,000 crates of the museum's finest works were brought over, completing a journey of over 10,000 kilometers.

On the screen, five creative commercials allow ancient artifacts to bring new messages to the present day.

National Palace Museum in Taipei: When the National Palace Museum's treasures were first brought to Taiwan, they were housed in Wufeng in Taichung. In 1965, the collection was moved to its present location in Waishuanghsi in Shihlin, Taipei.

On the screen, five creative commercials allow ancient artifacts to bring new messages to the present day.

The Collection: The National Palace Museum's collection draws largely from the Qing imperial collection, containing Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynastic holdings as well as works donated and acquired since the Museum's establishment in Taiwan. The 654,979 pieces in the collection range from the Neolithic to the latter Qing periods, including over 60,000 vessels, over 7,000 paintings and calligraphic works, over 570,000 texts, and over 10,000 assorted other works. (compiled by Tsai Wen-ting)

National Palace Museum web site: http//www.npm. gov.tw/

On the screen, five creative commercials allow ancient artifacts to bring new messages to the present day.

On the screen, five creative commercials allow ancient artifacts to bring new messages to the present day.

With every deeply felt connection made and every flash of inspiration evoked in the minds of its many visitors, the National Palace Museum proves itself to be a place where ancient artifacts come alive.

On the screen, five creative commercials allow ancient artifacts to bring new messages to the present day.

On the screen, five creative commercials allow ancient artifacts to bring new messages to the present day.

On the screen, five creative commercials allow ancient artifacts to bring new messages to the present day.

On the screen, five creative commercials allow ancient artifacts to bring new messages to the present day.

The newly renovated National Palace Museum will welcome visitors next year as an even more inviting, dynamic and interactive exhibition space.

On the screen, five creative commercials allow ancient artifacts to bring new messages to the present day.

On the screen, five creative commercials allow ancient artifacts to bring new messages to the present day.

On the screen, five creative commercials allow ancient artifacts to bring new messages to the present day.

On the screen, five creative commercials allow ancient artifacts to bring new messages to the present day.