C3M North Bund Art Museum breaks with traditional narratives and fosters national self-confidence by creating immersive interactive experiences

Wen | Lai Qiaofa

The gate of C3M North Bund Art Museum is like a "wormhole", and as soon as you step in, you travel through time and space and return to the Yuanmingyuan 300 years ago. Recently, China Enterprise News came to the C3M North Bund Art Museum on the 3rd floor of Raffles City North Bund, immersed in exquisite ancient treasures, and appreciated the profound and immortal style of Chinese civilization.

Cai Shiyin, director and curator of the C3M North Bund Art Museum, said that the exhibition broke the museum's inherent narrative method, using new media, physical landscaping, interactive projection and other technologies to set up a diversified interactive experience from the perspective of humanities, art and science and technology, so that the audience can get close to traditional Chinese art and culture and establish true national self-confidence.

Technology + Art Recreate the historical mirror image of the Yuanmingyuan

"Rebuilding the Yuanmingyuan" has always been a hot topic to explore the promotion of Chinese history and culture, but in Cai Shiyin's view, if it is only to rebuild the appearance of the Yuanmingyuan, and the lack of the treasures of the year is "actually of little significance". According to records, more than 2 million pieces of treasures in the Yuanmingyuan have been exported overseas, and the cultural relics of the Yuanmingyuan currently exhibited at the C3M North Bund Art Museum are national treasures that Cai Shiyin's father has collected for more than 50 years and lost from the Yuanmingyuan.

When planning the exhibition "Dream Back to yuanming", Cai Shiyin's team placed the treasures collected by his father in the museum, trying to restore the grand scenery of the Yuanmingyuan. "The Yuanmingyuan is a very important part of patriotic education, but the Yuanmingyuan was destroyed, and contemporary people can only understand the scene of the Yuanmingyuan's heyday through pictures and words." Cai Shiyin said, "Therefore, in the process of curating and designing, we hope to place these artistic masterpieces in the scene of the Yuanmingyuan of that year, so that the people can get close to the top culture and art of the Yuanmingyuan and experience the life of the emperor in the Yuanmingyuan at that time." This is also the original intention of the establishment of C3M North Bund Art Museum.

Prior to the establishment of C3M North Bund Art Museum, Cai Shiyin served as the Chief Technology Officer of GE Infrastructure Group Asia Pacific and the founder and CEO of the Dialogue in the Dark Experience Museum in Chinese mainland from 2006 to 2019; participated in or directly operated and managed hangzhou Dongbenlu Art Museum, Shanghai Yuchengtang Museum, Ningbo University Yuchengtang Art Museum and Ningbo University School of Ancient Ceramic Art. In the process, Cai Shiyin found that after hundreds of years of development, the museum's display methods have not kept pace with the Internet age, so she wants to make some changes to combine art and technology. "If modern museums are to attract more young people, they must engage in participatory and experiential innovation to immerse themselves." Cai Shiyin said affirmatively.

C3M North Bund Art Museum organically combines cultural relics and technology in a multimedia way through 3D + real-life technical means, which makes people "have an immersive feeling". "When you walk into our art museum, it's like traveling through a time tunnel and being in the Yuanmingyuan that has been reconstructed with technology." Cai Shiyin said. The museum also designs a large number of interactive games to stimulate the audience's interest in an immersive and interactive way, so that they can learn Chinese culture, history and art in the process of playing, so that children can have fun and education, and adults are also happy.

However, immersive museums have great challenges in curating exhibitions, and Cai Shiyin believes that immersion and security are the most prominent contradictions. "Immersion is to let the audience get close to historical relics, but this will bring difficulties to the security work", so Cai Shiyin had many discussions with the general designer of the exhibition, that is, the design team of the South Courtyard of the National Palace in Taipei, "Royal Craftsman", and finally achieved the best balance between immersion and security. In addition, there are risks in the process of cultural relics moving, and most of the cultural relics in the C3M North Bund Art Museum use 3D photography to display the full picture and details of the cultural relics at 360° on the screen.

Arts + Education Build cultural self-confidence in Chinese

"Inside the museum, we try to integrate cool technology into the artifacts that hide historical stories, so that everyone who comes here, adults or children, can get the best education." Cai Shiyin believes that education is the most important function and mission of the museum. In terms of public education, C3M North Bund Art Museum has designed parent-child courses such as half-day camps, single-day camps, summer camps and winter camps, and 60% of the figures in the museum are mostly parents and children, through aesthetics, etiquette, music and other courses, so that the next generation will be interested in traditional Chinese culture.

C3M North Bund Art Museum pays attention to art education behind it, and seems to be inextricably linked to the history of the development of art education in Shanghai, in 1912, Liu Haisu, Wu Shiguang, Zhang Yuguang, etc. founded China's first art college in "No. 8 Bungalow on Zhapuqiao Road" in Hongkou District, and the development experience of Shanghai Art College reflected the evolution of modern art education in China. Cai Shiyin said that Hongkou District has a deep historical background and cultural precipitation, C3M North Bund Art Museum as the country's first 3D + real scene, through the combination of art and technology immersive museum, located in the Historical and Cultural Strategic Significance of the Hongkou District North Bund, hoping to become the same as the North Bund, become a "Shanghai business card".

C3M North Bund Art Gallery

Cai Shiyin also hopes to let the Chinese people truly establish cultural self-confidence through the C3M North Bund Art Museum, she believes that cultural self-confidence is from the inside out, when modern young people appreciate the cultural and artistic achievements of their predecessors, they will naturally be in awe of traditional Chinese culture.

Cai Shiyin believes that it is very important to promote traditional Chinese culture to the whole country and even the world, and she often hears that the top national treasures have been lost overseas, and the best antiques in China are in the British Museum and the Metropolitan City in New York. But Cai Shiyin thought otherwise, in her impression, not only did the C3M North Bund Art Museum welcome many foreign guests, such as the Israeli ambassador to China, the consul general, etc.; other art museums that had previously been operated and managed also entered many international experts, such as the president of the Forbidden City in Beijing, the director of the South Courtyard of the National Palace in Taipei, and the director of the British Museum who was responsible for Chinese art. "After seeing our collection, they were very amazed and said that they had not seen such a Chinese collection in other museums around the world." Cai Shiyin said proudly.

Cai Shiyin believes that C3M North Bund Art Museum will truly become a window to show the world traditional Chinese culture and art like the North Bund, so that Chinese traditional culture and art can shine!