Reviving Ancient Art: "Across" by Xuguang Zhu and Chao Yang

Digitally Conserving and Modernizing Holan Mountain's Ancient Rock Paintings

The inspiration behind "Across" comes from the Holan Mountain rock paintings, a significant part of China's ancient civilization. Despite their cultural importance, these rock paintings are gradually disappearing due to environmental factors, and many remain unaware of their existence. To counter this, Xuguang Zhu and Chao Yang planned a digital art festival with the theme "Across". The festival's main visual element involved digitally redesigning the rock paintings as a form of digital protection, allowing them to be disseminated and applied in the contemporary era, thus highlighting the contemporary value of ancient culture.

The unique feature of "Across" lies in its poster design, which uses lenticular material. One side displays a modern digital Holan Mountain motif, while the other side showcases the original Holan Mountain motif. As the viewpoint shifts, the original Holan Mountain image disappears, replaced by the new digital Holan Mountain, symbolizing the revival of an ancient civilization.

The realization of this design involved the use of raster material, known for its alternating effects when viewed from different angles, and comprehensive material painting. The designers used a mixture of ink, tea, gelatine, and gold powder to create pigments, then employed the Chinese painting technique of ink splashing. The resulting texture, similar to rock, effectively represented the traditional Holan Mountain rock painting.

The project began in Hangzhou in March 2021 and was completed in April 2021. It was presented in Helan Mountain, Ningxia, in May 2021. The underlying research focused on the modernization of ancient civilizations, specifically aiming to modernize and digitally conserve the ancient rock paintings of the Holan Mountains. The design was presented at a digital art festival in the Holan Mountains, successfully raising awareness of the culture and leading to the purchase of design souvenirs by many attendees.

The biggest challenge faced during the design process was the clever use of materials and graphics to convey the theme. Despite this, "Across" was recognized for its creativity and professional excellence, winning the Silver A' Graphics, Illustration and Visual Communication Design Award in 2022. This award is given to top-of-the-line designs that demonstrate outstanding expertise and innovation, and introduce positive feelings, amazement, and wonder.