High-definition images and video explanations can also be viewed without dead ends, and will virtual museums replace offline exhibitions?

Mr. Qin, a citizen who originally planned to go to Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes during the May Day holiday, stayed at his home on Caobao Road for more than a month because of the epidemic, "Fortunately, the digitization of cultural resources is progressing rapidly, and many cultural relics can be found at home, and some resources and services are more thoughtful than on-site viewing." ”

In recent years, major museums at home and abroad have digitally transformed their collection resources and opened them to the public. With the help of digital technology, some cultural relics and artworks can even show details that are not easy to observe when exhibiting, such as the back, bottom and even the interior, and even cultural and creative products have moved from the original refrigerator stickers, water bottles or ice creams to the virtual digital collection NFT.

Will virtual museums, which seem to have many advantages, one day replace offline exhibitions?

Not to the museum can also enjoy a wealth of cultural resources

Affected by the epidemic, the Shanghai Museum has been temporarily closed since March 10. Just before the closure of the museum, one of the major exhibitions planned by the Shanghai Museum to welcome the 70th anniversary of the establishment of the museum this year, "Sheng Shi Fanghua - Shanghai Museum Donated Cultural Relics Exhibition", has just opened. However, on the website of the Shanghai Museum, visitors can still see many of the artifacts in the exhibition.

For example, the "Wang Wen Gong Anthology" of the Southern Song Dynasty on display this time can enlarge the page of the anthology through the computer screen to view the details in it. "There are many restrictions on the exhibition of paper cultural relics, the lights cannot be too bright, and the display angle is also limited." Mr. Qin said that through the Network, the details of the cultural relics are fully presented.

Even if you look at the physical object of "Wang WenGong's Collected Works" in the museum exhibition hall, it is difficult to be clearer than the online version (Source: Shanghai Museum website)

It's not just high-definition pictures. The Shanghai Museum also produced 100 episodes of guided videos for 100 of these artifacts. On the platform of "Learning to Strengthen the Country", click on the "Jingdezhen Kiln Colorful Cloud Dragon Pattern Jar", you can hear the Shanghai Museum docent Yuan Ziyi tell the process and characteristics of this cultural relic: "The basic tone is mainly red, yellow, blue, green and purple" "The pattern pattern is applied to the porcelain glaze, and then entered the furnace twice, and baked at medium and low temperatures". The pattern on the porcelain is also changing, "the rough and heroic dragon pattern image of the late Yuan and early Ming Dynasty gradually developed into a handsome and free style" "There are mainly forms such as playing with pearl dragons and tuanlong, and mostly cooperating with patterns such as auspicious clouds, jewels, and flowers."

Digitizing the cultural relics in the collection and displaying them publicly online, or reproducing permanent exhibitions and important exhibitions in vr reality, is gradually becoming the "standard" of major museums at home and abroad.

On the website of the Shanghai Museum, exhibitions that have previously attracted a large number of citizens to enjoy such exhibitions as "Rainbow of the Sea: Tang Zhaoti Temple Partition Painting Exhibition", "The Birth of Fine Arts: From the Sun King to Napoleon", and "Danqing Bao raft: Dong Qichang Calligraphy and Painting Art Exhibition" have been copied and preserved. In the VR exhibition hall of the Sanxingdui Museum, visitors can feel the mysterious feeling of facing the bronze sacred tree alone. On the website of the Dunhuang Research Institute, you can also turn the mouse to roam the murals in the cave in a panoramic manner. Mr. Yuan, who owns his own design studio on Jianguo West Road, is a regular visitor to the museum's website: "In addition to moving the mouse is not as smooth as walking on the feet, these online exhibition halls are completely copied of the offline exhibitions." ”

The online exhibition "angle" is more tricky

Although he was unable to go to Dunhuang, Mr. Qin continued to appreciate the many cultural relics of dunhuang Mogao Grottoes at home. "On-site visits are affected by many factors such as light, many details are actually invisible, and there are some places that cannot be visited for the protection of tourists." Mr. Qin admits that from the perspective of "viewing cultural relics", online resources are even better than the actual visiting experience, "such as cave murals, some tourists will bring telescopes to see; but on the website, these digital murals can be enlarged, even the folded lines of clothes on the gods can be seen clearly." ”

Online resources can zoom in to see the wrinkled lines of the characters' clothes in the Dunhuang murals (Source: Digital Dunhuang website)

It's not just the folds of clothes on the Dunhuang murals. In the digital cultural relics of hubei provincial museum, some cultural relics images have been made in 3D versions, and the angles of the cultural relics can be seen by turning the mouse: whether it is the sole of the foot of the wok ding with a caliber of 53.5 cm, or the inner wall of the long Yong bell with a height of 50.5 cm, these angles and details that are simply "impossible" to see in the physical exhibition are fully presented.

What makes many visitors more enjoyable is the professional tour of the researchers. Although the "East-West Convergence - Special Exhibition on Ceramics and Cultural Exchange between China and Europe" that opened last year has been closed, Chen Jie, the curator of the exhibition and deputy research librarian of the Ceramic Research Department of the Shanghai Museum, was invited online to talk about the curatorial ideas of "putting Chinese porcelain in the European environment". Shortly after the temporary closure of the Shanghai Museum, Yang Zhigang, director of the Shanghai Museum, also gave an online tour to the audience. During the epidemic in 2020, famous museums at home and abroad, including the Forbidden City, the Potala Palace, the British Museum, the Palace of Versailles and the Louvre, have launched "cloud guides", and experts have introduced many details that are easy to be ignored by visitors.

"The curator will guide you, how many museums can be normalized?" Mr. Qin admitted that although many of the museums he pays attention to have also launched many offline professional tours or research activities, the number of participants each time is limited to dozens of people, and the quota is basically "second kill". "But online tours solve one-to-many problems, and interactive questioning and other sessions are not technically a barrier."

Do we still need to enter the museum?

Since virtual museums have so many advantages, do we still need to walk into real museums? The reporter interviewed a number of cultural enthusiasts, and the answers were all in the affirmative.

"No matter how rich the resources on the computer and mobile phone, it cannot replace the shock of the physical object in front of you." Mr. Yuan admitted that the size of cultural relics and other factors directly affect the perception: "Even if the online data clearly indicates that the bronze sacred tree of Sanxingdui is 3.96 meters high, we can think of it as about higher than the ordinary residential floor, but there will never be thousands of thoughts when we see the real thing on the screen." ”

Ruins of Pompeii, Italy (Image: Xinhua News Agency)

"Postcards at many tourist attractions are actually better than on the ground, so why should we travel?" Visiting the museum is the same thing. Ms. Shi, who has worked in the tourism industry for 12 years, must visit local cultural institutions every time she travels, "These cultural relics are real witnesses of history, and in the face of them, they can evoke imaginations about history and the future, which is irreplaceable by online resources." Ms. Shi remembers her feelings of traveling in Italy, Greece, Cambodia and other places, "Cultural relics are put in museums for safekeeping, but the relics will be put on the relics." When the image of these cultural relics returns to the environment, it can reproduce the historical scene and give people an immersive feeling; gazing at the object in the museum will stimulate thinking about history. ”

Mr. Qin believes that online resources and offline visits are "complementary": "My experience is that the first visit is often very shocking, and I regret that there are so many details that I have not seen after returning. Now I can see a lot of details on the Internet, and I want to see the real thing again, and compare it with these online resources. He admitted that when the epidemic is over, he will still go to the museum to "punch in".