Elizabeth S. : Center for the Art of East Asia Digital Scroll Project

CAEA - Center for the Art of East Asia

I came across this site a couple of years ago while enrolled in a Chinese Art History course. During the course, the professor emphasized the intimate nature of scrolls, and how, in most cases, placing them on display in flat form against the wall was a most unnatural presentation. The scrolls were intended to be handled individually or with a very small group, only a portion at a time. So, as the viewer advanced, the already-viewed portion was rolled up. This type of handling poses a problem for access. It is not possible for very many people to engage with works of art in this manner for a host of reasons, not least of which due to preservation concerns. The scrolls are very old and in some cases, tremendously fragile. The Center for the Art of East Asia saw digital technology as an avenue toward expanding the audience for these scroll paintings.

As we have seen with some previous examples, this one is somewhat "artificial" in the sense that not all of them are part of the University of Chicago's collection. There are only a handful of scrolls there, and all of them have information as to where they are from, but no hyperlinks to the actual sites on the main index page. There are hyperlinks to the collections beneath the image on the scroll-viewing page.

Unfortunately, when I revisited this site today, I discovered some (hopefully temporary) structural problems. Several links, including the "about" link failed, so I was unable to locate any kind of documentation as to how the scrolls were digitized or what technologies were used. The main page mentions that they were "stitched" together, and I tried zooming in and I found that I was able to click 12 times. The scroll appears to be one Flash file, and has an "autoscroll" feature. When I tried to scroll through too quickly, the image was pixelated for a few seconds. Another notable element is the ability to view "hotspots" (perhaps not the most useful term) within the scroll--in other words, as the scroll was moving along, little boxes appeared indicating the title, signature, stamps and so on--which is essential information unavailable to those who do not read Chinese.

All of the scrolls have extensive metadata, including title, name of the artist in transliterated and character form, the date of creation, materials, dimensions, the collection and physical location of the scroll.

Naturally, this site depends on a high-speed internet connection and a browser with Flash plugins installed. I would speculate that most of the target audience would be in the higher education or art field, and would likely have these features, but access is certainly not universal. In spite of the problems, the intended features were accessible. I know that when I was an art history student, I found it very helpful to be able to see the scrolls in this manner.