A Peacock Made of Light
An Immersive Installation of The Peacock Spreading Its Tail Feathers
The National Palace Museum especially planned this cross-discipline engagement with multimedia artists, the Taipei City Zoo, and contemporary dancers to create a new media art reinterpretation of Castiglione's Peacock Spreading Its Tail Feathers. This work reconstructs elements from the original painting, using modern technologies to manipulate light, shadow, sound as a commentary upon Castiglione's painterly treatment. The design for the shimmering peacock tail screen was meant to mimic stained glass windows found in Italian churches. Researchers from the Taipei City Zoo provided behavioral information to make the peacocks in the installation more vivid and lively. Accessible from the exhibition mobile app is a live stream of real peacocks from the Taipei City Zoo. An animated projection of the original painting, punctuated with the short dance sequence, Spirit of the Peacock, performed by the famous artist Yang Liping, works together with an immersive sound system to situate visitors within the integrated virtual painting.
The work is inspired by "The Peacock Spreading Its Tail Feathers", and using multiple optoelectronic materials to modulate light transmitting and imaging. Combining the music from Qing court and spatial ambient sound, it simulates the scenery of day and night moreover transforms the two-dimensional painting into an interactive immersible installation situated within a multilayered, ever-changing spatiotemporal structure. The artists intend to map the new way of seeing and reconstructing the artistic space when contemporary viewers confronted with an interpretation of classical artwork with new media. In this way, they hope to explore the"visible, translucent, invisible of the ideology, vision, context of human beings under the sublime authority of the triad of belief, power, history" and pay tribute to Castiglione with dynamic translucent illumination technique 300 years later.
Artists：The National Palace Museum, Wang Lien-cheng, Louis Erwin Lee, Chang Po-chih, Xiao Zi-xiang
Original work of art：Peacock Spreading its Tail Feathers by Giuseppe Castiglione
Dance video："Spirit of the Peacock" provided and licensed by world famous dancer, Yang Li-ping
A Tour of the Imperial Garden
Immortal Blossoms in an Everlasting Spring New Media Art Installation
Animated elements were taken from Castiglione's Immortal Blossoms in an Everlasting Spring. As if one were entering an imperial garden in full bloom, this installation uses 3D animation to erect Castiglione's perspective composition in three dimensional space. The images in the screen are arranged in one-point perspective and slowly zoom in towards the visitor to create the illusion of entering the picture plane.
Artists：The National Palace Museum, Vick Wang
Exhibition Design：Jeffery Shaw (City University of Hong Kong)
Original work of art：Immortal Blossoms in an Everlasting Spring by Giuseppe Castiglione
The Emperor's One Hundred Horses: New Media Animation of the One Hundred Horses
Giuseppe Castiglione's hand scroll One Hundred Horses renders horsesin a naturalistic manner, revealing his fine brushworks and his tight andcontrolled style.
To remain faithful to the original painting, the animation teamemployed the latest animation technology to represent the horses in variousforms such as frolicking, resting, galloping, and crossing the river tounderscore their vitality.
Length: 3 min 49 sec
Artists：The National Palace Museum, Digimax
Original work of art：One Hundred Horses by Giuseppe Castiglione
Let's Paint One Hundred Horses
The viewer can choose from the blank horses on the scroll and color them in on the tablet computer. The finished image can then be uploaded onto the 4K resolution screen. This installation presents the opportunity for visitors to exercise their creativity and participate in the making of Castiglione's artwork.
Concept：Jeffrey Shaw (City University of Hong Kong)
Application：Mo Luk
Original work of art：One Hundred Horses
Castiglione's Virtual Flowers
This interactive augmented reality installation visualizes Castiglione's Gathering of Auspicious Signs and Vase of Flowers. A 3D holographic image of a vase of flowers appears on the physical pedestal when viewed through a tablet computer. The application uses the image on the pedestal for reference. Holding the tablet computer, the visitor can walk around and view the holographic image from different angles.
Concept：Jeffrey Shaw (City University of Hong Kong)
Application：Leith Chan and associates
Original work of art：Gathering of Auspicious Signs, Vase of Flowers
Castiglione's Road to China
Viewers are able to learn about the various chapters in Castiglione's life three hundred years ago through videos about Castiglione using touch screens and hand controllers.
Visitors can choose either to watch video clips or download the full video onto mobile devices. The video introduces Castiglione's birthplace, Milan, the cities he travelled to, including Genoa and Coimbra, and his journey to Beijing after he sailed all the way from Lisbon to China. It also includes the remains of the European-style buildings that he helped to design for the Old Summer Palace.
Artists：Victoria Lu, Institute for Information Industry
Copperplate Engravings with Sound Effects
This immersive acoustic corridor engages the visitor in a visceral experience of Castiglione’s monumental battle scene engravings.
Concept and design: Jeffrey Shaw (City University of Hong Kong)and N7 Communication
Original works of art: Copperplate engravings of Storming of the Camp at Gadan-Ola and Lifting of the Siege at the Black Water River from Victory in the Pacification of Dzungars and Muslims