Tunable, a VR reconstruction of "Listening to a Guqin" from emperor Zhao Ji

Abstract

With rumors of painted by the Emperor Zhao Ji, who subjugated his nation of Song, as a portrait of himself and his corrupted courtiers Cai Jing and Tong Guan. The work of art has been highly valued not only for being a masterpiece of the painter's unique portrait painting but also for its superb skills in composition, ingenuity, shaping, depicting and tinting. With a portrait aspect ratio so tall and thin of 1:3, the painter arranged all the figure and surroundings in the bottom half and the figures themselves bottom quarter only. The composition leaves out the space for sky and ground as the skill in later ages named "blank leaving", results in an ethereal and detached individual space, the orientation of still objects and figures wraps up the space towards inside while the pine tree reaching high up to the sky extended the dimension in altitude. Thus, the consideration of space makes it suitable for being a reference of recreation in virtual reality. The Tunable laid its foundation on prior research in the background and content of the painting and then step further in textual research of objects while bringing back the core elements hidden behind the image, the music. The painter and emperor compressed the feeling of music and motion into a still image, yet we are trying to bring it back to life.