Rebuilding the Tong-an Ships New Media Art Exhibition

"Rebuilding the Tong-an Ships New Media Art Exhibition" was designed in partnership with Songshan Feng-tian Temple with the core principle of "presenting a first-rate collection of Chinese art and artifacts to the world using technology."

This exhibition contains interactive and digital art installations featuring holographic projection, naked-eye 3D, augmented reality, and kinect sensor technologies to reinterpret the rise and fall of Tong-an ships in Chinese maritime history. With advanced digital technology, the audiences can enjoy a much more immersive viewing experience. The exhibition reenacts the heyday of East Asian maritime culture during the 19th century and restores the historical elegance of Tong-an ships.

These large traditional sailing vessels, which emerged in the middle of the Qing Dynasty, were so named because they were constructed in Tong-an, Fujian. They were first widely used in the private sector and by pirates before finally becoming the naval mainstay of the Qing court. Before the arrival of steamships in China, Tong-an ships were the most representative sailing vessels.

A curatorial focus of the exhibit rests on the idea of "tides," as in ocean tides, immigration tide, economic tide, all of which can be associated with Tong-an ships. First, ocean tides brought unlimited opportunities, opening an indispensable link to the outside world beyond China's coast. Tong-an ships also helped spur a tide of immigration, adding to the development of Taiwan. With the arrival of people came an economic tide, creating a rich and pluralistic maritime commercial culture at a time that saw the rise of the "Pirate Kings" such as Cai Qian. In addition, interpreting and presenting artifacts from NPM using new media technology represents a new trend, or "tide," in contemporary exhibit installations. Thus, the different meanings of "tides" mentioned above is the underlying inspiration for this exhibition.

This exhibition follows three main themes: "Period Background," "Main Characters," and "Ship Construction." The integrated application of advanced new technology allows viewers to fully experience the emotional impact and atmosphere of each work, to obtain historical, military, and cultural information related to the Tong-an ships, and to view the rich content of original historical documents.

Organizers: National Palace Museum, Songshan Feng Tian Temple
Collaborating Institution: City University of Hong Kong
Supporting Institutions: Taipei City Government Department of Civil Affairs, Taipei City Government Department of Education, Taipei City Xinyi District Office

Venue: Heavenly Lord Gallery, Level B2, Xiangke Building

Exhibition Content:

The Side Gate
The side gate is the ship's main entrance. When on deck, visitors can experience an amazing view and hear the sounds of the sea.
Audio effects, such as crashing waves and seagulls, and the scent of sea spray fill the air to produce an immersive experience.

Cross-over Dialogue: Holographic Projection
Holographic projection is one of today's most advanced methods for projection. It uses a fine silk screen or a high reflectance transparent film to enable viewers to see the foreground projection more clearly.

"Cross-over Dialogue" lets virtualised moving images of Emperor Jiaqing, Commander General Li Changgeng, and the pirate Cai Qian tell their stories so audiences can learn about them and their time.

Deconstructing the Tong-an Ship
This laser-detector-controlled interactive installation allows the viewer to disassemble and then reassemble the ship, letting viewers quickly discover the major working parts of Chinese warships.

The Navigation Chart Interactive Tabletop
The Coastal Defense Diagram of Zhejiang and Fujian Provinces and the Complete Map of Seven Coastal Provinces are the two most typical coastal defense charts of their ages. However, over 10 metres in length each, they are too lengthy to be fully displayed in a museum room .
The NPM created interactive table using multiple-resolution display and multi-touch control in order to highlight selected areas from any chart. The viewer can zoom in or out of any area of interest from the two charts for detailed viewing. The system may also explain the charts to the viewer.

Breaking Waves
"Breaking Waves" is a fully immersive interactive Tong-an ship simulator based on the CAVE (CAVE Automatic Virtual Environment) architecture. It shows viewers the main components of the Tong-an ship, and enables viewers to sail the ship, fire the guns , and chase the pirates in its interaction zone under the system's instructions.

Cloud Gallery
Thanks to cloud technology, we can see the NPM's current exhibits and certain rarely seen masterpieces without actually visiting the target site.
The Cloud Gallery displays the art using a massive screen comprised of six 46" monitors. To change items, the NPM can update the server remotely.

Documentary: Rebuilding the Tong-an Ships (50'00")
The original video documentary Rebuilding the Tong-an Ships was produced in line with the NPM's vision of "forming new vitality for the collection, creating new value for the museum." Starting with the NPM's Diagram of the Tong-an Ship Ji and related Qing archives, the project team begins a journey to salvage a long forgotten history. It uses technologies such as scale models, 3D models, and many other visualization tools to restore the East Asian maritime glory during the 19th century and unveil the multiple aspects of the Tong-an ships. 

Animation: The Formosa Odyssey (11'45")
With his pumpkin-shaped head, almond eyes, and sickle tail, an unexpected visitor in the form of a Qing-era Formosan Mountain Dog named Blackie arrives at the NPM's Multimedia Display Room 210, He encounters a trio of constant traveling companions: Child Pillow, Jade Duck, and Jade Pi-hsieh (talisman) who follow Blackie’s on a thrilling adventure across raging waves to exciting Qing dynasty Taiwan, the island Formosa.

This animation won the Platinum Remi Award at the WorldFest Houston International Film & Video Festival and Gold Award of FIAMP (International Audiovisual Festival on Museums and Heritage).