ZJU’s “Heritage Ark” is setting sail on the journey of bringing cultural relics to life
At the 7th China International College Students’ “Internet+” Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition, a Buddha statue from the northern wall of the Guyang Cave in the Longmen Grottoes was “moved” to the exhibition site. A team named “Heritage Ark” from Zhejiang University replicated relics with 3D printing technology and brought them back to life. Since then, those precious Buddha statues perching in caves have been open to the general public.
Heritage Ark: Let the light of culture shine
As early as July 1997, Zhejiang University started to work in close partnership with Dunhuang Academy on a heritage digitalization project. Since then, this project has made remarkable progress thanks to a series of technological breakthroughs.
At the core of digital preservation are three steps: collecting data, establishing 3D models, and printing 3D models. By taking advantage of such digital technologies as 2D image stitching, 3D scanning and photogrammetry, the Heritage Ark team has developed a specific equipment and information processing system.
Preservation and transmission are two key words for the Heritage Ark team. Unlike the traditional concept of heritage conservation, the team has been committed to preserving the digital information of cultural relics rather than restoring them. This approach opens up more possibilities for disseminating cultural relics. “By reproducing life-size cultural relics, we can showcase them to the whole world and pass them down to future generations,” BAI Yuxuan, a member on the team, said proudly.
A diversified team: Ignite the light of innovation
“A diversified professional team is essential to a variety of presentation forms for cultural relics,” said LI Min, who is in charge of the project.
This kind of diversity is closely bound up with the cross-disciplinary platform Zhejiang University provides. Due to this platform, the College of Computer Science and Technology and the School of Art and Archaeology are organically combined. “Zhejiang University offers the strongest incentive in bringing together a group of like-minded and passionate people from different academic backgrounds,” said WAN Yining, another member on the team.
“Our team is remarkably inclusive and teeming with cross-disciplinary convergence. Here, we can thread liberal arts and science,” said BAI Yuxuan.
“Our team is still growing. We will recruit more talents from different majors in the future. I am looking forward to a fusion of more diversified mindsets, thereby igniting a new light of innovation for Heritage Ark,” said LI Min.
A bridge: Enhance cultural confidence
Cultural heritage is of immense value in preserving its historical information. Thanks to information preservation and high-fidelity replication, we are able to observe every subtle detail of cultural relics, appreciate the artistic beauty of Buddha statues, and feel the craftsmanship of ancient artisans.
If cultural relics were tucked away, their significance would become very limited. Hoping that these precious historical relics can come into the public’s view, the Heritage Ark team has erected a solid bridge between the relics and the public.
“We sometimes perceive cultural relics as highbrow. They are so rare and inaccessible that they appear to be serious and mysterious. Ordinary people may feel that they are not connected with relics, but as the embodiment of our ancestors’ wisdom, they are indeed intimately bound up with our life,” said LI Min. “Thanks to the state-of-the-art 3D printing technology, those who may not have any opportunity to visit Yugang or Dunhuang grottoes can even touch murals in a tangible way. These are what authentic accessions and immovable relics cannot bring to us.” said LI Min when talking about the practical significance of digitalizing cultural relics.
Besides, the Heritage Ark team has also turned replicas into teaching aids so that students could feel the charm of ancient wisdom and classical Chinese culture. Indisputably, this project is of supreme importance to future research into education and history.
“The project that we are working on now is probably the cornerstone of telling the whole story of Chinese heritage. We can procure massive valuable information from the history of the Chinese nation and enable cultural relics to come alive and go global. The elements of the Chinese culture may be integrated into the daily lives of people all over the world someday in the future,” said the team.
Photo credit: the “Heritage Ark” team