The AAU-CRENAU research team of the Laboratory Ambiances Architectures Urbanités (UMR 1563) announces the defense of Yang Lu’s doctoral thesis entitled :

  • « Tour into Painting. System Design for Virtual Exhibition of Chinese Hand-Scroll Painting »

the 12th of July 2022 at the ENSA Nantes at 2 pm, (room amphi 150).

Jury:

  • Yun Gao, Professor, University of Huddersfield (UK), (rapporteur)
  • Pascal Terracol, Professor, Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture Paris-Val de Seine, (rapporteur)
  • Sang Bum Park, Research Associate, Florida A&M University, (examiner)
  • Claus Diessenbacher, Professor, Anhalt University of Applied Science (Germany) (examiner)
  • Johannes Kalvelage, Professor, Anhalt University of Applied Science (guest)

Supervision:

  • Laurent Lescop, Professor, ENSA Nantes (Supervisor)
  • Jasper Cepl, Bauhaus University, Weimar (Supervisor)
  • Pascal Joanne, Lecturer, ENSA Nantes (Co-supervisor).

Abstract

The VR-based virtual exhibition system has become a popular solution for the remote exhibition of paintings. The existing virtual exhibition systems have successfully created an immersive experience of being in the exhibition hall. However, as for the presentation of Chinese Hand-Scroll Paintings (CHSP), they still have two insufficiencies. First, CHSPs are fully displayed pure images and can not be manipulated in the original way of scrolling. Second, the essential aesthetic experience of the “recumbent tour” in the painting has not been interpreted intuitively. This thesis proposes an exploration of a virtual exhibition system to complement these deficiencies.

We adopted two methods to achieve this goal. First, we applied the conventional method of “simulation” to recreate a virtual CHSP and simulate the interactive functions of a CHSP. Second, we adopted the method of “generation” to reconstruct the virtual scene of the diegetic world and drive the VR user’s virtual movement in the diegetic world by following the generative logic of the aesthetic experience in classic Chinese aesthetics.

However, the Chinese “perspective” is different from Brunelleschi’s pinhole perspective. This means that conventional 3D reconstruction methods and estimation methods of viewpoint position based on pinhole perspective are not applicable for our research. For this, we established the projection transformation model in the CHSP based on the analysis of its visual structure and inferred the corresponding 3D reconstruction algorithm and estimation algorithm of the viewpoint’s position. We realized these algorithms as script modules and integrated them into the virtual exhibition system. The system is presented as a VR application that features an interactive display and visual interpretation. It has a built-in virtual CHSP that can be manipulated in an original way and will synchronously interpret the CHSP by reproducing the experience of touring in the painting.