MCN 2024

The CMA has prioritized collection digitization for two decades, refining workflows into a comprehensive roadmap that fully documents asset creation, management, usage, and preservation. This initiative does not just include traditional 2D digitization, and additionally incorporates a major investment in generating 3D assets with advanced photogrammetry techniques and animation. This investment in 3D allows us to be agile, iterative, and collaborative when creating new immersive and interactive experiences.

While we know the process of collection digitization is never truly done, we see immense value in sharing digitized resources on a global scale, and believe that continually incorporating new practices allows us to make remarkable content that makes art matter to all.
Our latest case study involves collaboration with an organization in South Korea where we leveraged our digitization efforts for an immersive exhibition featuring a folding screen depicting the landscape of a remote mountain range in North Korea, exhibited simultaneously at the CMA and at the National Palace Museum (NPM) in Seoul.
Through a partnership with the Overseas Korean Cultural Heritage Foundation (OKCHF) and collaboration with the experience design firm Technology Research Institute for Culture & Heritage (TRIC) the exhibition on view at the CMA and NPM took shape from the collaborative digitization of objects in our Korean art collection and years of sharing assets between organizations. The exhibitions used CMA’s 3D modeling techniques developed through multiple years of prioritizing 3D as a method of digitization, and TRIC’s animation of the illustrations in the folding screen to create a captivating, first person narrative.

Each institution worked to shape their version of the exhibition to align with their institutional goals. Our result? An immersive exhibition harmonious with the learning goals of our iteration, born from the success of a comprehensive 3D digitization initiative, complete with the voice talents of a famous actor, a cinematic score, and primary source materials from an ancient traveler, all combined for an exhilarating trip into an otherworldly terrain where few can currently set foot.