Barco transports visitors through time to witness history at the Gansu Bamboo Slips Museum

Barco has developed an innovative immersive experience and interactive imaging technology for the Gansu Bamboo Slips Museum, setting a new benchmark in the museum industry. Using 75 Barco projectors to create all 32 projection displays, the experience vividly showcases Silk Road culture and Chinese wisdom.

Context

Gansu, often referred to as the “Land of Han Slips”, is renowned as a major region for Chinese bamboo slips. These long, narrow strips of bamboo, each typically holding a single column of several dozen brush-written characters, were the main media for writing documents in China before the widespread introduction of paper. The Gansu Bamboo Slips Museum, constructed over four years, is the largest specialized museum of Han slips in China, debuting thousands of precious bamboo slips for the first time.

The museum, themed “Introducing China on Bamboo Slips, Understanding the Silk Road from Bamboo Slips”, features four main exhibition halls. A total of 75 Barco solid-state projectors were used to create all 32 projection displays within the museum, vividly presenting the history of bamboo slips, stories of the Silk Road on slips, the daily life of Han dynasty frontier residents, and the calligraphy art contained within the bamboo slips.

Challenge

Considering the uniqueness and preservation needs of the bamboo slip artifacts, the use of projectors should avoid any potential light damage to the artifacts.

In addition, the museum has limited internal space, with a lot of exhibits involving projectors while maintaining overall aesthetics, which entails high standards on the installation positions and wiring methods of the projectors. The installation of projectors should be reasonably planned to ensure it meets display needs without affecting the visitor experience.

To conclude, it is necessary to ensure that the temperature and humidity conditions inside the museum meet the projectors’ usage requirements based on the strict rules of the museum for indoor temperature and humidity to protect the artifacts from damage. Attention must also be paid to the projectors’ heat dissipation and ventilation to prevent overheating, which could affect the system’s performance and lifespan.

Solution

Barco’s projection portfolio is represented throughout the different halls of the exhibition, creating vibrant and colorful historical scenes for visitors for a truly immersive experience.

In the Bamboo Slips Era Hall, fifteen projectors illustrate the academic journey, including immersive experiences like the “Time Tunnel” and “Discovering Jiaquhou Hall”.

The Silk Road Sketch Hall has twenty-eight units recreating the historical glory of the Silk Road with an immersive CAVE space and panoramic scenes.

An additional seventeen projectors are installed at the Frontier Family Hall displaying dynamic images of the Han frontier through interactive holograms and immersive simulations of Han soldiers’ lives.

You find another system of thirteen projectors, ultra-wide screens and artistic effects in the Calligraphy on Bamboo Slips and Silk Hall to visualize the aesthetics of calligraphy.

Results

The Gansu Bamboo Slips Museum, through Barco’s innovative projection technology, not only promotes the history of Hexi and Silk Road civilization but has also earned recognition as a national first-class museum and received the highest exhibition award from National Culture Heritage Administration. The use immersive scenarios to tell China’s stories, brings history to life, and empowers the future development of knowledge popularization and cultural transmission.

The Barco projectors, with their professional quality and powerful lineup, provided high-quality visualization solutions for the museum installation