An Art Viewing Multimedia System Developed in Collaboration with Ateneum Art Museum/ Finnish National Gallery and Now Operational at the Museum

Dai Nippon Printing Co., Ltd. (DNP) in collaboration with Ateneum Art Museum/ Finnish National Gallery has developed a digital offering, "at Home",now implemented at Ateneum and operational since March 19, 2016. This multimediasystem allows viewers to enjoy artworks (watercolors and drawings) by HeleneSchjerfbeck, a highly popular Finnish female artist, along with wide-rangingcommentaries that can be switched among four languages: Finnish, Swedish, English,and Japanese. The device also affords the opportunity for a wide audience toappreciate works on paper that were rarely exhibited for conservation reasonsgiven the fragile nature of the material.

DNP works alongside various museums in its "DNP Museum Lab" initiativein order to foster familiarity with diverse cultural and artistic contexts,making use of the latest information technology and image processing know-how.Various such art viewing multimedia displays feature presently in permanentcollections in venues including the Musée du Louvre, France and the Sèvres- Cité de la Céramique museum, as well as in temporary exhibitionsin art museums within Japan. The current "at Home" offering was alsodeveloped through this initiative.

Overview of the "at Home" art viewing multimedia system

Developed by DNP in collaboration with Ateneum Art Museum, the "at Home"art viewing multimedia system was implemented at the "Helene Schjerfbeck:Reflections" travelling exhibition within Japan (2015-2016), which featuredworks loaned by Ateneum. A large number of visitors were thus able to use thissystem. Female artist Helene Schjerfbeck (1862-1946), whose paintings show adiverse range of styles that always draw deeply on her own inner vision, hasattracted much attention in recent years, not only in her native Finland butalso on the international scene. To design the "at Home" system, someone hundred of the artist's paper-based works (such as watercolors and drawings)were digitized , to which information for enhanced understanding of her lifeand work were added, in order to broadly discover and appreciate the works froma variety of angles. Schjerfbeck's life as an artist is divided into three parts-adolescence,prime of life and her later years - thus enabling visitors to decode the characteristicsof each epoch and the artworks produced at that time. The commentary informationis available in four interchangeable languages: Finnish, Swedish, English, andJapanese.

"at Home" art viewing multimedia system screenimage

Future developments

DNP, along with Ateneum, realizing the high educational potential of the"at Home" artwork viewing system, will continue to develop educationalprograms, such as workshop programs using tablet-type devices, drawing on know-howrelated to art appreciation education in Finland.

About DNP Museum Lab

Working alongside museums and art galleries throughout the world, DNP seeksto develop innovative artwork viewing resources that allow visitors to becomemore familiar with diverse cultural and artistic contexts through its "DNPMuseum Lab" initiative. Launched in 2006, the joint "Louvre-DNP MuseumLab" project, enabled the development of artwork viewing multimedia systemsthat make use of information technologies, in order to offer an enriching "dialogue"between the artwork and the viewer. Multimedia systems developed during thisproject have been gradually installed at the Musée du Louvre, with sixsuch displays currently operational within the museum in Paris.  

In July 2015, DNP embarked upon a cooperative venture with the Bibliothèquenationale de France (BnF; National Library of France) for the 3D digitizationof 55 precious terrestrial and celestial globes from the library's collectionwith the aim of making them available to a wider audience. In February 2016a hands-on exhibition titled "Globes in Motion" opened at the DNPGotanda Building (Tokyo), presenting actual globes alongside 3D digital data.The exhibition runs over two periods: the first from February 19 to May 22,and the second from June 3 to September 4. The multimedia systems developedhere are expected to be subsequently installed at the BnF in Paris. Furthermore,in addition to DNP Museum Lab, DNP manages the DNP Kyoto Uzumasa Cultural HeritageGallery, conceived on the theme of preservation and transmission of culturalheritage, through the production and dissemination of highly durable sophisticatedand accurate real-size reproductions of important cultural assets and 4K videofootage of Kyoto's tangible and intangible cultural heritage.

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