Pilgrimage to Pureland

Check our paper at: https://arxiv.org/abs/2304.07511

Abstraction

Virtual reality (VR) supports audiences to engage with cultural heritage actively. We designed an easy-to-access and guided pilgrimage VR reconstruction to offer the general public an accessible and engaging way to explore two-dimensional Dunhuang murals. In this project, we reconstructed the Mt. Wutai pilgrimage mural in Cave 61 into an immersive VR environment and curated a first-person perspective experience. We aim to give audiences more straightforward access to visit, understand, and appreciate the complex religious, historical, and artistic value of Dunhuang murals.

Introduction

"Pilgrimage to Pureland" is an immersive virtual reality (VR) reconstruction that creates an alternative method for the audience to appreciate the Dunhuang murals better. Due to Dunhuang's strategic location in Northwest China, Buddhism gained substantial influence in the region, providing the Dunhuang murals with multivalent significance in religion, history, and archaeology. VR gradually gains traction in the field of art and archaeology as a visualization and presentation tool. The primary advantage of VR is to provide audiences with a sense of being in the natural environment and embodied interaction because of its immersive experience and intuitive interaction mechanisms. These immersive and controllable illusions support audiences to actively engage with the cultural heritage and related art-historical stories rather than passively receive information from the elusive artworks. We create an immersive virtual environment and dynamic interaction mechanism based on the Mt. Wutai Pilgrimage Mural in Cave 61 of Mogao Caves, Dunhuang. Compared with the previous immersive Dunhuang experience, our reconstruction will contribute to translating Dunhuang murals into a series of 3D and interactive VR scenes.

Contribution

Research Project(3 members + 2 professors): Programmer | Experiment Conductor

Credits

Music: 西域寻梦(第一幕) 张千一

Art reference: https://www.e-dunhuang.com/