ART RESEARCH vol.22-2

ISSN 2436-5408 (Online)
ISSN 1346-2601 (Print)

Digitization during the COVID-19 Pandemic
Collaborative Workshops to Update Global Digitization Standards
Naomi Hughes-White (Researcher on the Nara to Norwich: art and belief at the ends of the Silk Roads
project at the Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures)
E-mail naomihugheswhite@hotmail.com

1.

The Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic
forced museums around the globe to temporarilyclose their doors, limiting public access tomuseum treasures.1) This reduced the level ofinteraction between museums and the generalpublic, preventing people from quelling their
existential fears about the pandemic throughcontact with cultural items.2) Therefore, it was ofvital importance to digitize cultural artefacts
with little or no digital records, although thequestion arose of the best practices to do so.
2.

SISJAC’s Digitization Workshops

As a research institution that aims todevelop understanding of Japanese cultural
heritage, the Sainsbury Institute for the Study ofJapanese Arts and Cultures (SISJAC) led aninternational initiative through two workshops
to establish and circulate the procedures and bestpractices for digitizing 2D and 3D items. The
workshops were organized through SISJAC’s
research project titled ‘Using Digital Archives toCreate a Research Network of Japanese Cultural
Resources in the UK and Utilising Digital
Resources for Japanese Studies’, and werefunded by the International Joint Digital
Archiving Centre for Japanese Art and Culture(ARC-iJAC).
Each workshop began with a three-hour
lecture where esteemed scholars, specializing indigital archiving, demonstrated the digitization
process, followed by a question-and-answer
session. The workshops were livestreamed
through Zoom and later uploaded to the Internetto extend their reach as cutting-edge resources

3.

Digitizing Two-dimensional (2D) Items

The 27th of May 2021 saw the launch ofSISJAC’s digitization workshop series, beginningwith the digitization of 2D items. Professor RyoAkama, a deputy-director of the Art ResearchCentre (ARC), Ritsumeikan University, led athree-hour technical lecture which invited aninternational exchange of ideas regarding theeffective digitization of Japanese hanging scrolls
through high resolution photography. Although
the focus was on Japanese hanging scrolls, thediscussed method can also be used to digitize
most 2D items, including paintings and textiles,
making it a highly generalizable and important
procedure to learn for digital archiving.
As the technique at the forefront of 2D
digitization in terms of both popularity and1

Digitization during the COVID-19 Pandemic Collaborative Workshops to Update Global Digitization Standards

that transcend spatial and temporal boundaries.
Both livestreams had a vast outreach, attracting
students, researchers, and archivists from both
England and Japan.
After concluding the workshops, SISJAC
staff and Master’s students from the Universityof East Anglia (UEA) applied the procedures toJapanese cultural items, producing digital
resources
thatcontributetowards
thepreservation of Japanese culture in the UK.3)
The workshops also served as specialist
training for future academics, as they provided
Master’s students from UEA with hands-on
digitization experience. One student centered her
Master’s dissertation on the methods discussed
in the workshops and their feasibility in a
COVID-19 world. In this way, the workshops
enhanced educational projects and broadened theacademic prospects of postgraduate students.

Introduction

ART RESEARCH vol.22-2

Digitization during the COVID-19 Pandemic Collaborative Workshops to Update Global Digitization Standards

items of immensely different proportions (thefirst standing at three meters tall and the second
measuring thirty centimeters in height)
deepened the understanding of the SISJAC teamregarding the differences between 3D modelling
large and small items, in addition to outdoor andindoor items. These findings were relayed during
the workshop through a short presentation by
one of the Master’s students involved in theproject. This enabled the workshop to educate
others about potential pitfalls in thephotogrammetry
procedure
beforetheyembarked on their own photogrammetry projects.
The three-hour technical lecture was led byAkiko Nakamura, a researcher from the Nara
National Research Institute for CulturalProperties. Nakamura provided a comprehensive
description of the procedure for photogrammetry,separated into the photography phase, theediting phase, and the computer modelling phase.
Nakamura applied the lecture content to
the Wooden Statue of Shōtoku Taishi to provide
attendees with an example of how the proceduremust be adapted to fit the specific requirementsof an item. For example, the Statue has apartially reflective surface which can create noisein photographs and subsequently, decrease thequality of the 3D model. By using this item as an
example of how lighting adjustments can reducereflection and therefore noise, Nakamura
assisted in optimizing the quality of the output
from the session while illustrating that
researchers
whowouldapproach
photogrammetry with flexibility could obtain
results of the highest quality.
The active question-and-answer session at
the end of the workshop encouraged attendees toseek advice from experts in 3D modelling.
Members of staff from UEA, the Cambridge
Heritage Research Centre, and from Norwich
Castle Museum partook in the discussion,
creating scope for future collaboration between
these international institutions. This saw theworkshop establish a new network of partners to
exchange perspectives and expertise with,regarding Japanese culture.

quality, the photography procedure wasdescribed in fine detail, from setting up theequipment to ensuring that the camera settings
were correct for capturing high-quality
photographs. This included adjusting aperture toa value greater than f/8, setting the data to RAW,and using a 230-peaking highlight in order toprevent over-exposure. By combining heritage
conservation with archival standards, theworkshop provided its attendees with theexpertise needed to efficiently preserve 2D
cultural items from Japan.
Following the lecture, SISJAC staff andMaster’s students from UEA digitized 25
Japanese hanging scrolls from the Robert andLisa Sainsbury collection at the Sainsbury
Centre in Norwich under the guidance of scholars
from the ARC. A full-sized photograph was takenof each hanging scroll, in addition to close-up
photographs of the scroll’s painting and of details
within the painting. This culminated in upwardsof three photographs per hanging scroll. Allphotographs were edited and sent to theSainsbury Centre to be uploaded to their publicwebsite.
The workshop was important in spreading
knowledge and producing digital records ofJapanese cultural artefacts from the Sainsbury
Centre. The majority of the 25 hanging scrollsthat were digitized did not have photographic
records prior to the workshop, and those that did
were not of a high quality. Thus, in archiving
cultural treasures by uploading them to theSainsbury Centre’s website, the workshop
improved access to Japanese culture not only
during the pandemic, but also in the greatly
anticipated post-COVID-19 world.4)
4.

Digitizing Three-dimensional (3D) Items

The second digitization workshop took
place on the 29th of July 2021 and explored thedigitization of 3D items through photogrammetry.
The workshop was centered around two objects:
the Usagi Kannon statue by Leiko Ikemura,which was digitized at its location in Yorkshire
Sculpture Park before the workshop, and theWooden Statue of Shōtoku Taishi (registrationnumber 1944,1019.1), housed at the British
Museum in London, which was digitizedfollowing the workshop.5) Photographing two5.

What Next?

SISJAC’s
collaborative
digitization
workshops marked the first step in a much larger

2ART RESEARCH vol.22-2

initiative to improve the standards for digitallyarchiving Japanese cultural items. Although
situated in the context of the pandemic, themethods discussed in the workshops extend
beyond a COVID-19 world, and their existence as
online videos will allow them to serve as
academic tools to educate others and disseminate
knowledge about Japanese culture for years tocome.

Digitization during the COVID-19 Pandemic Collaborative Workshops to Update Global Digitization Standards[Notes]1) UNESCO. Museums facing COVID-19
challenges remain engaged withcommunities. 2020-04-04.
https://en.unesco.org/news/museums-facingcovid-19-challenges-remain-engagedcommunities (accessed: 2021-12-17).
2) Andrew, Dana. Mami Kataoka, Director of
the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo Tells How
Museums will Change Post COVID-19. UK
Committee of the International Council ofMuseums. 2020-08-24.
https://uk.icom.museum/mami-kataokadirector-of-the-mori-art-museum-in-tokyotells-how-museums-will-change-post-covid19/ (accessed: 2021-12-17).
3) The author (Naomi Hughes-White) was oneof the Master’s students from UEA who took
part in both workshops.
4) The photographs of the hanging scrolls canbe viewed on the Sainsbury Centre’s
website: https://www.sainsburycentre.ac.uk/.
5) Steve Colmer 3D modelled the Usagi Kannon
sculpture using the photographs taken by
the SISJAC team. It can be viewed here:
https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/leikoikemura-usagi-kannon-ii31df9e00a63144f78bc99caa97b08d17.

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