Search Results (349)

An ecological approach in the broadest sense arguably places art in a context that is unconstrained by disciplinary categories. It is focused on the form of art in context and on all the variables that account for its making and the contexts of its use at the time of its making. The argument of the paper is centred on a set of Yolŋu bark paintings exhibited in the Madayin exhibition that opened in the Hood Museum at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire in September 2022. In a period of 80 years Yolŋu art has moved from a moment of first contact to becoming a global contemporary phenomenon, while maintaining its cultural distinctiveness. Rather than using an ecological approach to examine Yolŋu culture, Yolŋu art as a mode of action exemplifies the ways in which the natural environment is integral to their sense of being in the world. Full article

Dissemination and conservation of cultural heritage have been challenged by continued accessibility in museums, where traditional information delivery systems are at times ineffective in terms if interaction with visitors. The current paper investigates RumiArt IA, a mobile application, to identify cultural objects in real-time, remaining fully in the scope of this line of research without relying on internet connectivity. The system, which is developed based on the Rumiñahui Museum and Cultural Center, Ecuador, uses transfer learning in the MobileNetV2 architecture with INT8 post-training quantization to identify 21 cultural artifacts spread across six thematic rooms. The experiment involved building a dataset of 36,000 images under diverse lighting conditions, viewing angles, and distances; furthermore, artificial transformations were explicitly crafted to simulate real museum conditions such as glass reflections and non-frontal capture angles. Quantization was used to reduce each model to 775 KB as compared with the 2.4 MB, with accuracy loss not reaching more than 0.5 percent (DKL < 0.05). Assessment of 9450 validation images yielded a general accuracy of 92.2%, with an inference time of 63 ms on current devices with a high throughput and 215 ms on mid-range hardware from 2020. Practical validation involving 50 visitors of the museum showed a success rate of 93.7%, with average user satisfaction at 8.5/10 and 87%, indicating they would recommend the application. An in-depth error study of the most difficult room (88.3% accuracy) indicated that 47% of the errors were due to the angles of the camera, which blocked out distinguishing features, and 22% were caused by display case reflections and the shadows of the visitors. These results indicate that end-to-end machine learning can provide consistent cultural heritage recognition in resource-constrained settings but its efficiency is susceptible to physical capture factors that cannot be resolved by data augmentation. Offline mode and low memory footprint (less than 90 MB when loaded on six models) of the system are especially relevant to application in situations where there is no guarantee of cloud connectivity. Full article

Chinese Haipai New Year paintings are an important part of the country’s intangible cultural heritage, and their digital preservation holds great significance. This paper proposes PSE-Net (Pyramid Scale Expansion Network), a deep learning-based segmentation method specifically designed to handle the complex textures and intricate compositions of these artworks. By constructing a dedicated large-scale dataset, we trained PSE-Net to achieve high-precision segmentation by incorporating attention mechanisms and multi-scale feature fusion to better capture detailed features. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method outperforms existing approaches (such as ResNet) in terms of segmentation performance, yielding superior results in edge preservation. This work establishes the first automated tool for the pixel-level analysis of Haipai New Year paintings, thereby facilitating museum digitization, art history research, and education. Furthermore, it offers new insights for the image processing and digital preservation of other traditional artworks. Full article

The present work aimed at resolving the mystery accompanying the famous Ko-Kutani Honzenji temple shallow bowl by investigating the main elements associated with the coating composition in the surface decoration. This unique vessel belongs to Honzenji temple, located in the Maeda Domain (today’s Ishikawa Prefecture) and is on display at the Ishikawa Prefecture Kutaniyaki Art Museum in Kaga. The Honzenji temple bowl bears a cryptic figure painted in red enamel on the underside and story has it that the Maeda Lord himself may have painted it in the mid-17th century, thus making the bowl a very relevant piece of the history of the Maeda clan, Ishikawa Prefecture (Maeda fiefdom in the Edo period), and Japanese porcelain as a whole. Yet the identification of the actual firing date of the bowl has proven a daunting task for curators worldwide. On the basis of the previously published studies on the world’s most extensive collection of Ko-Kutani Masterpieces belonging to the Ishikawa Prefectural Museum of Art, and shards excavated at Kaga kiln sites, including the celebrated Hakuji bowl (Ishikawa Archaeological Foundation), both conducted by Energy-Dispersive X-Ray Fluorescence spectroscopy (pED-XRF), and in consideration of the absolute prohibition to sample or even touch the Honzenji bowl, pED-XRF was once again selected as the most suitable technique for the analysis of all the enamels and glazing materials. Analytical evidence, for the first time ever, has proven crucial to resolving the issue by enabling the precise dating of the bowl and unveiling the true story behind its technical features and the cryptic underside decoration. Full article

Traditional Chinese paper cutting represents an important intangible cultural heritage. Can artificial intelligence (AI) reactivate the heritage in a new style? The aim of this study was to use AI to reactivate temple arts and paintings by converting them into the style of traditional Chinese paper cuttings. Thirty sets of old images taken 18 years ago and 10 images of ancient paintings from the National Palace Museum were restyled in Nano Banana (Pro)^®. Related design elements included integrated isolated parts, visual depth, details, and solid and void alternation. Three-dimensional stone and wood sculptures were reconstructed using Rodin^® or Meshy^® and converted into AR models in Sketchfab^®. From the generated 2D images and their 3D representations, a reactivated style of Chinese paper cutting was developed that can be interacted with in the AR smartphone platform or RP in the physical world. Approximately 370 images were regenerated, and 167 versions of models were reconstructed. AI should be considered part of culture. Rethinking traditional folk art highlights demand for the cross-reference and cross-reactivation of heterogeneous art forms. This AI model interprets novel 3D structural and visual details and creates a unique 2D and 3D identity for each subject. Full article

The main objective of the present study is to reveal the palette of pigments and the other specific constituent materials as well as the techniques used by the Roman artists to create the mural paintings discovered in the ancient city of Tomis, the modern-day Constanţa, Romania’s largest seaport and a major tourist hub on the Black Sea. This paper is an archeometric study based on the physical, chemical and biological analyses of the archeological Roman mural painting fragments from the ancient city of Tomis dating from the 5th to 6th century A.D. and to our knowledge is among the very few research studies carried out so far on the ancient Roman wall painting discovered in Romania. The methods of scientific investigation employed directly on the archeological fragments, on samples taken from the fragments and on the cross-sections prepared from the samples were: optical microscopy (OM), digital microscopy, X-ray fluorescence spectrometry (XRF) and attenuated total reflectance Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR). Examination and analysis of the archeological mural fragments revealed that the painted fragments consist of ground support and successive layers of color displaying specific characteristics of the artistic technique, such as imitation of marble cladding or meticulous smoothing of the surface to achieve a glossy and compact finish. It was also found that fragments exhibit subtle variations in different colors, identified in general terms, showing seven color tones: cinnabar red, red-violet, red ochre, yellow ochre, white, gray-blue, gray-black and black. The physical–chemical and biological analyses carried out provide the diagnosis and theoretical basis for choosing an appropriate conservation methodology and the correct restoration treatment of the discovered mural painting, with a view to its museum display through exhibition and virtual reconstruction and scientific use by the setting up of a useful database for researchers or specialists in museums on Roman archeology and art. Full article

The integration of virtual museums into education has emerged as an innovative approach embraced by both teachers and learners, reflecting the broader impact of virtual reality (VR) applications in education. This study puts forward a pedagogical framework for utilizing virtual museums in teaching art history and investigating their impact on the art history curriculum. In this context, two free online museums are used as teaching materials, representing 3D interactive learning environments that enable immersive exploration of cultural heritage. Grounded in the Theory of Technology-Mediated Learning, this research adopts a hybrid methodological approach to track the art history courses of 75 Chinese undergraduates through experiments, questionnaires, and structured interviews over a four-week period. The findings demonstrate that virtual museum-integrated instruction significantly enhances learning effectiveness over sustained use, actively promotes learner engagement, and fosters greater autonomy. Importantly, learners prioritize educational value and authenticity in virtual museum features, while also expressing a strong preference for technologically mature platforms. This research contributes to understanding the impact of VR on digital transformation in the educational sector by providing a validated instructional model that integrates virtual museums into art history curricula, offering educators a replicable framework for implementation. Future studies should investigate the relationship between emotional engagement and academic performance within virtual museums to further refine both pedagogical strategies and educational virtual reality design. Full article

The use of extended reality technologies in cultural heritage contexts raises questions about their effectiveness in enhancing emotional, cognitive, and experiential engagement with artworks, particularly when direct access to original pieces is limited. The aim of this study was to compare emotional, cognitive, and physiological responses elicited by different modes of art presentation and to evaluate their effectiveness relative to direct, in-person museum viewing as a benchmark condition. The study examined visitors’ responses to Caravaggio’s Adoration of the Shepherds through three digital presentation modalities: Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), and life-sized screen projection (LSP). Seventy-one voluntary participants completed affective assessments (PANAS, SAM), physiological recordings (heart rate, electrodermal activity, oxygen saturation), and artwork evaluations of creativity, pleasantness, technique, and curiosity. Results indicated significant effects of presentation modality: VR tended to elicit the strongest engagement-related responses, including higher positive affect, greater physiological activation, and more favorable ratings of pleasantness and curiosity, whereas AR and LSP showed more variable patterns. Physiological indicators confirmed increased arousal during VR exposure, supporting its potential to evoke more intense affective involvement. These findings suggest that immersive technologies may complement direct museum encounters by fostering curiosity, emotional engagement, and visitor-centered exploration, thereby enriching cultural heritage experiences and informal learning opportunities. Specifically, significant effects of presentation modality were observed for positive affect (F(2,140) = 6.23, p < 0.01), happiness (F(2,140) = 6.78, p = 0.003), skin conductance (F(2,140) = 7.15, p = 0.002), heart rate (F(2,140) = 4.32, p = 0.017), pleasantness (F(2,140) = 9.64, p < 0.001), and curiosity (F(2,140) = 5.21, p = 0.008), with VR generally yielding the highest scores on these measures. Full article

In contemporary museum design, architects increasingly treat spatial experience as a medium of visitor engagement, yet movement is often reduced to a problem of routing and orientation rather than recognised as engagement in its own right. This study shows how Steven Holl’s parallax operates as a motivational mechanism at the Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art. Parallax, a phenomenological and ecological construct, is examined through oblique thresholds, overlapping perspectives, and layered illumination. Integrating phenomenology, ecological psychology, and spatial configuration analysis, this study links embodied perception to measurable spatial properties. Spatial relations were quantified using space syntax—axial line analysis, justified graphs, and isovist analysis—alongside luminance and visual saliency mapping of Kiasma’s second and third floors. The results reveal a dominant ring structure in which visibility tightens at thresholds and views shift continuously along the route. Pronounced brightness gradients accompany these transitions and intensify perceived change along the sequence. These coupled spatial and luminous strategies may encourage exploratory navigation, positioning wayfinding as integral to the museum experience. This study argues that parallax links spatial configuration to embodied engagement, emerging as a perceptual effect produced through the interaction of spatial layout, luminous modulation, and bodily movement rather than functioning as a fixed design principle. Full article

The digital reconstruction of damaged archeological wall paintings is a challenging task due to severe material degradation, high fragmentation, and the lack of reference images. A crucial preliminary step is the separation and grouping of fragments originating from different wall paintings, which are often found mixed together at archeological sites. To address this issue, we explored the potential of multispectral imaging (MSI) for unsupervised fragment clustering, aiming to assess whether integrating multiple spectral bands can enhance fragment discrimination compared to using the visible band alone. As a test set, we examined five groups of wall painting fragments from a Roman domus (1st c. BC–1st c. AD) provided by the Archaeological Museum of Cremona (Italy). Images were acquired using the Hypercolorimetric Multispectral Imaging (HMI) system developed by Profilocolore^® Srl (Rome, Italy). Specifically, we considered visible reflectance (VIS), infrared reflectance (IR), infrared false color (IRFC), and Ultraviolet-induced Fluorescence (UVF) images. Through a systematic benchmarking study, we compared several state-of-the-art feature extraction and clustering methods across single- and multi-band configurations. Results show that combining MSI data can substantially enhance the system’s ability to correctly separate and group fragments, indicating a promising direction for future research. Full article

Declining birth rates are reshaping higher education across East Asia, accelerating the large-scale underutilization and, in some contexts, partial abandonment of university campus assets. Although adaptive reuse has been widely discussed, campus transformation is often framed primarily as a programmatic or policy problem, with limited attention to the inherited spatial logic embedded in campus morphology. This study revisits Le Corbusier’s concept of unlimited growth as a generative framework for campus transformation. Rather than treating it as a museum-specific historical typology, the research reinterprets unlimited growth as a scalable spatial logic defined by modular continuity, circulation hierarchy, and open-ended sequencing. To enhance reproducibility and operational clarity, the study formalizes a typo-morphological decoding protocol—modules, circulation, and growth sequence—and applies it through plan-, section-, and diagram-based analysis. Through comparative examination of three museum precedents—Sanskar Kendra Museum, the National Museum of Western Art (Tokyo), and the Chandigarh Museum and Art Gallery—the study extracts a set of transferable spatial mechanisms: modular increment, circulation-centered ordering, directional displacement, and fifth-façade ecological continuity. These mechanisms are then translated into an operational right-sizing model and tested through a design-operational demonstrator on a single anonymized Taiwanese campus experiencing demographic contraction. The findings indicate that unlimited growth functions not merely as a formal principle but as a spatial governance logic that supports phased consolidation, adaptive recomposition, and system-level coherence under long-term uncertainty. Importantly, this framework contributes to sustainability by reducing land consumption through spatial consolidation, minimizing unnecessary new construction, enabling adaptive reuse of existing campus assets, and improving long-term resource-use efficiency through phased right-sizing and ecological continuity. This study further advances a reproducible, mechanism-based methodological framework for institutional spatial transformation, providing a transferable approach for large-scale campus restructuring under conditions of long-term demographic and environmental uncertainty. Full article

In this essay, the author reflects on the entangled histories of archaeology, colonial extraction, and heritage dispersion through the lens of her artistic research project, A Layer of Salt for My Oblivion. Centering the displacement of the Old Kingdom mastaba of Neferirtenef from Saqqara to the Royal Museums of Art and History in Brussels, the author unearths the silences embedded within archival photographs. The archive in focus is that accumulated by Belgian Egyptologist Jean Capart, several of whose archaeological missions were funded by the Belgian industrialist Baron Empain. The latter’s imperial ambitions also defined the urban fabric of the author’s own childhood in Egypt. Blending essay, archival intervention, and poetic voice, the author proposes an alternative mode of listening to displaced heritage: one that honours the agency of the silenced, embraces rupture over restoration, and invites the possibility of care over control. Full article

The article presents the first scholarly study of a silver ark preserved in the “Dudian” Museum of the Armenian Diocese of Romania, Bucharest. The object is examined through an interdisciplinary art-historical approach that integrates typological, iconographic, stylistic, and symbolic analysis. The donative inscription links the ark to pilgrimage practices, identifying it as a memorial commissioned in Constantinople in 1799 by Mahtesi Asfatur from the city of Focșani. Stylistically, the ark exemplifies the “Constantinople style”, reflecting a synthesis of Eastern and Western artistic traditions. Its church-shaped form and iconography are interpreted as a symbolic representation of the Heavenly Jerusalem. Full article

The iconic Dali’s painting The Temptation of St. Anthony dated 1946, housed in the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium since 1965, displays worrying surface conditions in specific areas, notably the figure of St. Anthony. The problematic paint layers similarly exhibit uneven transparency and a rugged surface irrespective of their color, raising questions about whether these features reflect deliberate artistic intent or material degradation. To evidence potential degradation mechanisms and to identify the associated painting materials, Dali’s picture has been investigated through a large panel of imaging and analytical techniques, including digital microscopy, MA-XRF, Raman and FT-IR spectroscopies, XRD and Py-GC–MS. The obtained results were subsequently assessed against the material and technical information collected from Dali’s 50 Secrets of Magic Craftsmanship, as well as against archival photographs. By combining historical and multi-analytical approaches, it was possible to diagnose the altered condition of the artwork, but above all to determine when and how the deterioration patterns took place. Visible changes of appearance occurred prior to 1965 and were most probably already initiated during the curing and drying processes of the paint films. The present study tends to demonstrate the key roles of mobile resin acids from amber, reactive zinc oxide pigment suspected of containing crystal defects, uncured lead-white-rich underlayers, and chlorine environmental contamination, regarding the early and peculiar degradation behavior observed on Dali’s masterpiece. Full article

The George Washington University holds a collection of African objects donated by a private collector in the 1970s, many of which are culturally misattributed. Among the objects are two large wooden posts cataloged as “house posts” from Côte d’Ivoire. These posts exhibit two distinct sections, each resembling material culture used in ceremonial traditions, but together have not been identified in existing museum collections or scholarly sources. This paper documents the findings of an investigation into the provenance and the cultural context of these posts through the analysis of the objects’ materiality, stylistic characteristics, and possible market production to determine a framework for their ethical handling and restitution. What do the combined objects reveal about the interconnectedness of Western market demands and the creation of African tourist art from the 1970s? And what are the implications of these unique forms of African material culture in the conversation on museum reforms and ethical display? The research points to the blurred boundaries between authentic ritual objects and the fabrication of “authenticity” for Western consumption. The goal of this paper is to reveal the possible connections between carvers producing objects for the tourist market within the social and cultural environment of the Senufo workshop system. The paper argues that the objects in the George Washington University collection were adapted for a Western market and audience. Through a comparative analysis of cultural ideographs from surrounding cultures in the area, records of workshops and economic production, the paper concludes that the objects were not produced for sacred use but more likely for commercial purposes, and that their cultural value is not diminished. Instead, they represent another form of expression developed by carvers who adapted Indigenous forms to satisfy Western market demands. Full article