NMC Laboratory for the Creative Application of Museum Collection Included in the Third Group of Key Laboratories of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism

Recently, the Laboratory for the Creative Application of Museum Collection of the National Museum of China (NMC) was established with the approval of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. It becomes one of the 18 laboratories in the third group of key laboratories designated by the Ministry and the only one supported by cultural relic-related institutions.

In the last few years, NMC has been striving to create a smart museum and exploring new modes of museum operation through the building of a “smart NMC”. The Laboratory for the Creative Application of Museum Collection, Ministry of Culture and Tourism, is a laboratory established to study the major technologies needed for the creative application of cultural relics. It is a response to the important speech made by President Xi Jinping where he stressed that “we need to bring all collections in our museums, all heritage structures across our lands and all records in our classics to life.” It also aims to meet the people’s increasing new spiritual and cultural expectations. Compared to other scientific research institutes, NMC has a richer collection of cultural relics. On this basis, it can provide a significant amount of data and application scenarios for the key laboratory. Up to now, the laboratory has accumulated numerous achievements in researches on the creative application of museum collections and has taken the lead in setting standards for the acquisition of 3D data of cultural relics, pioneering the industry.

The key laboratories of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism are an important part of the national innovation system of science and technology and a vital basis for cultural, scientific and technological innovation. NMC will build on the establishment of the key laboratory and develop technologies for the digitization and smart services of museum collections, conducting researches on common key technologies such as digital acquisition, transfer, sharing, and protection, as well as big data, artificial intelligence and multimedia display. Aiming to invoke different senses of the audience, NMC will offer a full experience of the story behind the relics, so that every visit will be a journey back through time and ancient cultural treasures will gain the new brilliance of modernity.