Figure 1: At the New Arc de Triomphe in La Defense, Paris, France, tourists visit the virtual immersive exhibition “Eternal Notre Dame” with the help of virtual reality equipment.Photo by reporter Liu Lingling
Figure ②: On December 5, 2021, in the hall of the Ayala Museum in Manila, the capital of the Philippines, a digital touch gallery consisting of 8 stretchable screens attracts people to stop and watch.
Video China
Figure ③: On June 28, 2021, an immersive digital art experience hall in Dubai, United Arab Emirates held the “Love Van Gogh” digital art exhibition.Video China
Reporter Liu Lingling
Cultural relics carry the history of human civilization, and their protection and utilization are widely valued by countries around the world. With the help of advanced scientific and technological means, the digital protection of cultural relics can endow the cultural relics with permanent information files, form a database for creative use, and allow people to obtain a rich cultural experience without leaving home.
France–
let art flow
The Palace of Versailles, located in the southwestern suburbs of Paris, France, is known as one of the top five palaces in the world. Entering the Palace of Versailles, visitors can download a mobile phone software that includes 11 languages, update their location in real time, and visit this large “French-style” garden through pictures and video explanations. Through virtual reality technology, visitors can observe the interior structure, artwork, furniture, etc. of the room from different angles. In this virtual space, visitors can view and move these furniture and artworks at will, and even participate in a virtual dress ball organized by Louis XV in the Hall of Mirrors. This immersive tour allows visitors to not only travel across the boundaries of time and space to gain a new experience, but also gain a wealth of knowledge and inspiration.
“This is a new perception of the Palace of Versailles, which is very attractive to young audiences. With the help of digital technology, people can see the collections that are inconvenient to display directly, and they can also see the details of the cultural relics.” The digital development department of the Palace of Versailles Paul Scheiner, the person in charge, said that the Palace of Versailles attaches great importance to digital construction. Now there are 22,000 collections that can be browsed online, and the digital library of cultural relics is gradually expanding.
Like the Palace of Versailles, in recent years, French ancient buildings, museums and other cultural venues have increasingly used digital technologies such as three-dimensional panoramic views and virtual reality. Restoration, conservation and utilization of cultural relics in collections bring more convenience and possibilities.
At the Louvre, digital technology is also fully utilized in the construction of information within the museum. With the help of information technology and computer technology, the Louvre has collected high-definition images of a large number of collections in the museum, realizing the comprehensive storage and management of cultural relics information in the museum. This digital library of collections includes nearly 500,000 collections and will be fully opened to the public in 2021, allowing people to view the precious cultural relics of the Louvre without leaving their homes.
Under the new crown pneumonia epidemic, relevant French cultural institutions have further strengthened their digital projects and enriched their digital resource pools. For example, the Cernucci Asian Art Museum in Paris, France, uses digital multimedia technology to set up multiple touch screens in the museum to present the details of the exhibits through three-dimensional images. The French “Echo” article commented that today’s continuous improvement of digital technology has not only brought new art forms, but also achieved stronger protection of cultural relics. Digitizing historical documents and works of art not only insures them against time and disaster, but also makes art and culture more accessible, allowing art to flow and nourish more people.
As a country with numerous historical monuments, France is also increasingly using digital technology in the restoration and conservation of monuments. According to the French Ministry of Culture, as of 2020, there are 45,684 monuments in France. One of them is the Château de Chinon in the Indre-Loire department of France. In 2010, the castle started the restoration of the city wall, and the local government provided special funds for digital protection for this purpose. After obtaining data through three-dimensional laser scanning, close-range photogrammetry and other technologies, the working team used computer software to simulate the appearance of the city wall in different eras, which provided a reference for the restoration of the city wall and historical research.
“Digital technology plays an important role in the restoration and reconstruction of cultural relics and monuments,” said Livio de Luca, architect of the French National Centre for Scientific Research. The French National Centre for Scientific Research, where Luca works, has partnered with the French Ministry of Culture to form a Notre Dame digital restoration team that includes more than 100 researchers. Their work includes collecting, collating and studying all data related to Notre Dame’s architecture and creating a digital ecosystem. The system combines relevant text, images, videos and even 3D models to dissect every component of the building’s frame and roof. In addition, the system can monitor a certain location of the building, take photos and form 3D graphics to guide restoration.
It is worth noting that due to the great difference between the digital protection model of cultural relics and the traditional French museum development model, the digital development of French cultural institutions still has great potential. “Relevant departments need to increase capital investment and train more digital technology professionals, and cultural institutions in different countries also need to further strengthen international cooperation and experience exchange.” Luca pointed out.
Italy–
Museums speed up digitization
Reporter Xie Yahong
The Brera Art Gallery in Milan, Italy, has a long-standing reputation and houses works by many famous artists from the Renaissance to contemporary times. Now, interested members of the public can browse the museum’s collection of artworks online, and subscribers can also watch more detailed introductions to the collection, as well as related lectures, documentaries, and more. Italian cultural institutions are accelerating their digitization process, which is a microcosm of this.
Italy is rich in cultural heritage, with more than 4,000 cultural institutions such as museums and ancient buildings. In order to expand the influence of cultural institutions and enhance the visitor experience, most museums in Italy have launched digital services. Even before the outbreak of the new crown pneumonia epidemic, more than 80% of Italian museums and other institutions have put some exhibits on the Internet.
The pandemic has had a severe impact on Italian cultural institutions, with museums across the country closed for months. To this end, the Italian Ministry of Culture has launched the “Never Stop Culture” network project, which covers the online resources of many Italian museums and is welcomed by Italian and global art lovers. Alyssa Ponasini, an Italian digital cultural communication expert, believes that due to the epidemic, many museums have accelerated their digital construction and are actively looking for online alternatives.
The epidemic has caused a sharp drop in the income of Italian cultural institutions. In 2020, the average ticketing income of each institution fell by 56%. Under pressure, more than 20% of the museums tried to open the browsing payment model, and launched online teaching activities at the same time. Research by Politecnico di Milano, Italy, shows that 62% of users are satisfied with paid content. To attract art lovers to visit, 83% of museums now have dedicated social media accounts.
James Bradburn, director of the Brera Art Museum, said that compared with real-life visits, in a virtual environment, viewers can discover details of works that are difficult to see on-site at the museum. He believes that online viewing of exhibitions has shortened the distance between people and art, and art is no longer a mere exhibition, but easier to enter people’s daily cultural life.
In order to understand the audience’s visiting preferences, the Bologna Museum Association of Italy has also installed cameras and other equipment in its museums. They will count the time spent by the crowd and the observation distance when visitors appreciate the art works, and calculate the most popular art works in the form of big data, so as to provide a reference for the management personnel to arrange exhibitions and arrange lighting, so that visitors can get better Exhibition experience.
Egypt–
Facilitating the inheritance of cultural heritage
Reporter Huang Peizhao
On the riverside avenue on the east bank of the Nile River in Cairo, the capital of Egypt, stands a simple and heavy building with a slight vicissitudes of life – the Egyptian National Library and Archives.
The National Library and Archives of Egypt dates back to about 1870, when it was established to collect manuscripts and printed books scattered in schools, archives and libraries of various government departments for the protection of Arab language books, manuscripts, especially rare books, important documents and related archives.
“The National Library and Archives of Egypt is a condensed Egyptian history, a place where the essence of Egyptian national culture gathers, and the spiritual sustenance and cultural heritage of all Egyptian people, so it is very precious. However, these paper books, especially The ancient books with a long history are not easy to preserve for a long time, and some pages have turned yellow or even brittle.” Ahmed, a senior researcher at the National Library and Archives of Egypt, told reporters that the museum’s collection includes some papyrus and papyrus unearthed in various parts of Egypt. Parchment works, some dating back to the 7th century AD or even earlier, involved various aspects of life at that time, such as marriage, exchange of contracts, distribution of inheritance, etc., and were a treasure trove of information about the social and cultural life of ancient Egypt.
“In order to preserve and pass on these cultural heritages forever, we have put a lot of effort into digital construction. The first phase of digital construction has been completed, and further upgrades and optimizations are now underway,” Ahmed said. .
According to reports, more than 10 years ago, Egypt began to digitize the collections of the Egyptian National Library and Archives in a planned and targeted manner. According to Egypt’s “Al-Pyramid” report, in 2010, Egypt built a national digital archive, including about 90 million document archives and more than 30 million entries.
Badran, an archaeologist at Cairo University in Egypt, said that for Egypt, the digitization of cultural heritage is very necessary. First, because the Egyptian cultural heritage is vast, and second, the heritage itself is very old. The establishment of digital archives of cultural relics is not only easy to retrieve, easy to manage, but also easy to use. It can reduce the damage to the cultural relic itself and achieve better protection. These factors have all contributed to the accelerated development of the digitization of Egyptian cultural heritage. At the same time, the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities has decided to systematically digitally manage cultural relics across the country.
“As an ancient civilization, Egypt is rich in historical and cultural relics. The digital construction of these resources can not only support the building of Egyptian cultural protection and inheritance, but also expand Egypt’s international cultural influence, which will help promote Egyptian tourism. business development and attract more tourists to visit Egypt,” Badran said.
The digitization of Egyptian cultural heritage also faces bottlenecks such as insufficient funds. Egypt hopes to strengthen international cooperation in this field and add wings to the protection of cultural relics by introducing advanced digital technology.
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责编：张佳兴 ]