Cover news reporter Zeng Jie
In 1992, the famous American science fiction master Neil Stephenson first described the "metacosm" in his novel "Avalanche". After 29 years, the "metacosm" is on fire. In recent days, in her online and offline learning and exchanges, Hu Na has felt that practitioners in the cultural and creative industries and the art field will invariably talk about the "meta-universe". Therefore, the associate professor of the Department of International Cultural Exchange of the China Academy of Performing Arts and the director of the Industrial Development Department of the Chinese Cultural and Creative Industries Research Association chatted with the students in the classroom about the possibilities of the future of opera and intangible cultural heritage in the "meta-universe".
Hu Na, Associate Professor of China Academy of Performing Arts
In Hu Na's view, the biggest innovation of the "meta-universe" is not only the research and development and application of technology, nor is it a change in the "traditional new formats" such as online texts and online games, but also brings more possibilities for traditional industries such as opera and intangible cultural heritage in production, dissemination, marketing, consumption scenarios and value realization. Originally, the cultural production and consumption field, which is highly dependent on people and relying on on-site space, if it catches the fast track of science and technology, it will change people's original understanding of the relationship between things and themselves.
Build a virtual-to-reality portal
When you open a mobile game, walk into an antique theater building, and want to listen to "Peony Pavilion" or "Liang Zhu", you have to pay hundreds of extra copper coins, or buy a group ticket. Even with the ticket sales model in the game, the theater is still crowded, and most players are even squeezed to stand and listen to the play. The popular opera scenes in the game deeply inspired Hu Na, who is engaged in opera research.
This is the fusion of virtual reality technology and opera. Previously, when it came to virtual reality and digitalization, everyone first focused on products. However, due to the impact of the epidemic, everyone's use of virtual technology and digital economy has not stopped at products, but has experienced a process of change and development from product production, dissemination, to management and operation thinking to the emergence of the current "meta-universe". We began to think about the direction of the integration of science and technology and culture from the perspective of the relationship between people and the world, and the impact of this technology on contemporary society and the world.
Hu Na believes that from the perspective of the cultural industry, the most important contribution of the metaverse compared with the previous virtual world and cyberspace is to build a channel connecting the real world and the virtual world, so that the physical world and the digital world can interact. "Although the metaverse may be supported by technology, for the cultural industry, its greatest value is not only to solve technical problems, but to change people's cognition of the relationship between things and me through technology research and development and application."
Digital Mei Lanfang started the scene
Digital transformation has become a social trend
In fact, in Hu Na's impression, the digital economy is no longer a new topic. In the world, every country has put the digital economy on the strategic agenda. As early as 2016, the State Council issued the "13th Five-Year Plan for the Development of National Strategic Emerging Industries", which proposed that the digital creative industry should become one of the five new pillar industries with an output value of 10 trillion yuan to be cultivated, and promote the development of the digital creative industry at the national level.
"The epidemic has accelerated people's demand for the use of technology, everyone has a deeper understanding of the combination of technology and culture, and digital transformation has become a common trend in society." Hu Na said that the United Nations announced that 2021 will be set up as the "International Year of Creative Economy for Sustainable Development" to reflect the profound impact of technology represented by the Internet since the new crown epidemic on human life.
In fact, taking the performance industry as an example, the combination of technology and technology has gone through many stages, from sound and optoelectronics on the early stage, to the change of mobile Internet for communication and marketing methods, to cloud performances, to the promotion and implementation of cultural big data projects, and now, many theaters and troupes are promoting some digital transformation projects.
If the "metaverse" does not have the digitization and digitization of basic content, it is impossible to truly present a healthy, rich and complete ecology. In Hu Na's view, in a sense, the metaverse is a field of large collections, linking the virtual with reality. If you put online movies, online games, and online texts into the metaverse, it may be easy, and its biggest innovation should be the change of traditional cultural formats.
Thinking on the integration of culture and technology
According to Hu Na, there are 348 local drama genres of opera, in addition to shadow puppets and puppets, oral transmission is the main way of inheritance, most of which do not have their own artistic archives. How does this kind of cultural and artistic industry, which completely relies on people to develop and spread, move into the "meta-universe"? First of all, it is necessary to digitize, digitize and materialize these opera resources, which is the underlying logic, and then enter the virtual world to project between reality and virtual on the basis of preservation and combing. In this context, the relationship between technology and culture, the projection and mutual mapping of reality and virtuality, is the direction of people's thinking on the "metaverse".
During the interview, Hu Na introduced a project called "Digital Mei Lanfang" to reporters. The project gave Peking Opera master Mei Lanfang the image of a digital person, a virtual character who restored Mei Lanfang's form, voice and even facial expressions, which can be seen as an attempt for opera to enter the "meta-universe".
It is understood that the launching ceremony of the "Digital Mei Lanfang" Master Reproduction Project was recently held in the Mei Lanfang Grand Theater, and guests from the scientific and technological circles and literary and art circles witnessed the stunning appearance of the first "high-precision Peking Opera Digital Person" in China, and Mr. Mei Lanfang's "twin digital person" reappeared in a realistic form. Mr. Mei Lanfang, a 26-year-old, appeared on the big screen: "It has been more than 60 years since my last appearance, I did not expect us to meet again, thanks to the progress of science and technology, I look forward to our future meetings will have more forms." ”
In addition, the copyright protection of intangible cultural heritage has a long history, one of the basic technologies of the metacosm is the blockchain, and this technology is of great benefit to the confirmation and protection of intangible cultural heritage copyright, and the digital ecology represented by NFT art has begun to dock with intangible cultural heritage, which will affect the production, dissemination and consumption of intangible cultural heritage in many ways. For example, in the future, when intangible cultural heritage enters the metaverse, the way the audience intervenes in intangible cultural heritage will change. The consumption scene of traditional intangible cultural heritage is to let the inheritors engage in performances or handicraft productions in front of the audience, and the audience is passive. However, in the metaverse, the audience can freely and deeply participate in the creation and production of intangible cultural heritage content, and make a work of their own intangible cultural heritage, and his emotions and experiences of intangible cultural heritage will undergo earth-shaking changes.
"This superposition based on virtual and reality will have a strong impact on the traditional cultural industry." Hu Na said that in addition to providing technical support, the "meta-universe" also has important social attributes that reflect each other between reality and virtuality, and the consumption form of intangible cultural heritage or opera in the future is expected to achieve new breakthroughs in the "meta-universe". The consumption of opera often attaches great importance to presence, and simple performances on the cloud often cannot achieve this presence, and the emergence of the "metacosm" provides such a possibility. The integration of culture and science and technology is the process of human beings constantly understanding themselves, and it is impossible to predict when the "meta-universe" will really arrive, or where it will go, but as a practitioner of the cultural industry, I hope that everyone will face new concepts with an open and innovative mindset, consolidate the foundation, base on the value attributes of cultural ontology, and truly explore and promote the development and transformation of our industry." In the era of integrated development of culture and science and technology, the creative transformation and innovative development of traditional culture are truly realized. The "metacosm" is a challenge and an opportunity for the cultural industry. ”
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