Case Study: Digital Holography as a Creative Medium to Display and Reinterpret Museum Artifacts, Applied to Chinese Porcelain Masterpieces

Abstract

Synergies between art and science are explored in a specific context of using digital holograms to represent and contextualize certain great works of Chinese art: Yuan blue-and-white porcelain artifacts. The specific aim of the work was to explore digital holographic printing as an innovative technology to recover detailed comprehensive impressions of cultural relics and their surroundings and environment, as well as to represent historical culture. In addition, digital holographic printing was investigated as a medium for creative display of museum objects, especially those that are too delicate and valuable to be removed from existing cabinets, and to activate viewers’ perceptions and to expand their knowledge of archaeological, historical, artistic, and cultural artifacts, all apprehended in the contexts of both their original environment and that in which they were later discovered. A new methodology involving redefinition, recreation, reconstruction, and representation (the “4RE” method) is proposed and applied to achieve these objectives. A new artistic form “Holomontage” was developed as a modality for creative display of museum objects. The proposed technique was successfully applied to an art work portraying the archaeological excavation scene of the site where the largest quantity of Yuan blue-and-white porcelain has been found. The new display methodology “4RE” provides appropriate guidance on optimum usage of the power of holography. This can be argued to be a new creative art form in its own right, which is providing new perceptions for audiences.