ARt-Z: Unlock the Unseen – Chinese Art through Augmented Reality

ARt-Z: Unlock the Unseen is an innovative AR-enhanced exhibition curated by Zeyu Zhao for Gen Z audiences, held at UCL East from 1–23 May. The project features ten digitised paintings from the Victoria and Albert Museum’s Chinese Export Watercolours collection, brought to life through animations, soundscapes, and interactive storytelling accessed via mobile devices. This workshop will introduce the exhibition’s design, implementation, and the research behind it, highlighting how AR and digital tools can transform audience engagement with museum collections. Participants will gain insights into visitor responses and the potential of immersive technologies to enhance cultural experiences. The session includes a presentation, discussion, and Q&A, offering practical and theoretical perspectives on digital curatorial strategies. Attendees will discover how interactive technologies can inspire creativity, connect audiences with Asian art, and open new possibilities for innovative museum experiences.

Speakers:

Zeyu Zhao is a doctoral student at the UCL Department of Information Studies. Supervised by Dr Jin Gao, Dr Kaitlyn Regehr, and Dr Photini Vrikki, her research explores how digital tools shape audience engagement with museum exhibitions.

Dr Jin Gao is a Lecturer in Digital Archives at the UCL Department of Information Studies and Co-Director of UCL Centre for Digital Humanities. She is also a Visiting Research Fellow at the Victoria and Albert (V&A) Museum, working on various collaborative projects.

Chair of the event:

Dr. Rosalien van der Poel is an art historian and works at Leiden University as Institute Manager of the Academy Creative and Performing Arts. She is a research associate China at the Research Centre for Material Culture of the Wereldmuseum Leiden and until spring 2025 she was a (long-time) board member of the Royal Asian Art Society in the Netherlands. Recent publications include 'Performative power of Chinese export paintings: outlook on a new ‘horizon’, Images of the Global: (South)east Asian and European interplays of artists and art, as drivers of Modernity (expect 2026); 'Images for ‘a man of the world’: a shared visual cultural repertoire’ (selected works from the Royer watercolors albums in the Leiden Wereldmuseum, Historical documents of the Guangzhou port in the Qing dynasty (Volume II) (2025); ‘Signed Beijing Zhou Peichun hua. Images for foreigners’, https://leidenspecialcollectionsblog.nl (2021); ‘’Sensitive plates’ and ‘sentimental keepsakes’ - The social life of reverse glass paintings: From Canton to Leiden’, Revista de Cultura (2019); Made for Trade – Made in China. Chinese export paintings in Dutch collections: art and commodity (diss. 2016). With her profound knowledge of Chinese export paintings in Dutch collections she emphatically advocates the significant value of these collections in word and writing.