Science and Technology for Art 2012: Conserving and Recording Tangible, Intangible and Natural Heritage Civil Law Auditorium, University of Santo Tomas 03 September 2012 by Ari Ide-Ektessabi, Ph.D. Professor Kyoto University Dear friends, colleagues, ladies and gentlemen. With our thanks to Fr.Abano, Director of UST Museum; Dr. Sison, Dean of Graduate School of UST; Dr. Miralao, UNESCO National Committee of Philippines; Dr. Laborado from the National Museum; Dr. Diokno, Chairperson of NHCP; and all very distinguished scientists, and our young scientist here who will contribute for decades in this field. It is my great pleasure to be here with the scientists and researchers from the Philippines, a country of beauty and natural diversity and Japan, in this very unique conference. The Islands of Philippines holds many of the most important cultural heritage treasures of the world and Asia and has contributed tremendously in the history of Asia; on the other side Japan with an old and elegant culture has important achievements in conservation and preservation of cultural heritage. Today we are participating in one of the major events that bring the scientist and researchers from these two countries to exchange ideas and information on the most recent scientific and technological aspects of the current activities in the use of state of the art technology: such as digital technology, conservation science, and reconstruction of historical buildings. The exchange of information and knowledge between the scientist present here today, hopefully will be presented to a wider international communities in the world especially in ASEAN countries and Asia who share similar cultural heritage in many ways. Last year, we finished a digital project in Ninnaji Temple in Kyoto. Ninnaji is one of the most beautiful temples in Japan and is a designated UNESCO world heritage. The Kannon-do in Ninnaji is about 380 years old, with Buddhist paintings in extremely good preservation conditions. The Kannon-do was and is still closed to the public. In one of the world’s biggest digitization project, about 10 new systems were designed and built, the wall paintings which are as big as 3.8 m by 8 m were digitized in high resolution, 31 Buddhist sculpture were digitized, not to mention painted columns and other objects. In Kyoto University we strongly supported the idea of this project. The main purpose was, and is, to use these invaluable data for making pigments database, for conservation, restoration, and protection of these paintings, and the building itself. I am indebted to the Ninnaji temple for sending their researchers to this conference to give an introduction to this project. In Kyoto University, most, if not all of the professors and researchers have their basic mission to participate and support the ideas and projects all around the globe for initiating and creation of knowledge. It is based on this idea, that we established laboratories in, Xian in China; London in United Kingdom; Seoul in Korea; Cairo and Giza in Egypt; the same way we did in 5 other sites in Japan. We support all the activities related to digitization of world cultural heritage, and strongly recommend the governments, international agencies, local governments, volunteers, and private companies to give their support for this type of activities. Here, I also want to emphasize on one point. I personally think that the world heritage is in extreme need of attention and support. I believe that world heritage assets of old days are suffering and are in danger because of three problems: wars, poverty, and ignorance. Now, in Philippines and Japan we have reached a high level of science and technology, social stability and peace, and are looking towards a stable economic growth and prosperity, a first step for protecting our cultural assets. And finally, please let me to express our sincere appreciation to all members of the University of Santo Tomas, for their support of organizing this international conference and educational program, and members of the Ide laboratory for their assistance. I also acknowledge the Japan UNESCO committee for providing all the financial support of this event. The Kyoto System- Recording the Beauty - Introduction to Japan Official Development Assistance Grants for UNESCO Activities, Education Program for Recording and Utilization of Tangible and Intangible Heritage in the Philippines Ari Ide-Ektessabi, Kyoto University, Japan Maricor Soriano, University of Philippines Science and Technology for Art Conserving and Recording Tangible, Intangible, and Natural Heritage 3-7 Sept. 2012, UST, Manila, Philippines Ari Ide-Ektessabi [email protected] Graduate School of Engineering, Kyoto University Maricor Soriano, University of Philippines Japan Official Development Assistance Grants for UNESCO Activities, Education Program for Recording and Utilization of Tangible and Intangible Heritage in the Philippines  Aim: educating experts working in the filed of recording and documenting national and world cultural heritage in Asia. It covers Tangible, Intangible, and Natural Cultural Heritage, through joint and equal partnership of the partner institutions.  Acting Agency: Kyoto University, Japan  Potential Partners: University of Philippines, Other Universities, Museums, National and regional libraries  For: On the project-site-training, providing equipment, holding conferences, schools, supporting local projects How: Organize on the site training and digitization pilot projects.  In museums  In libraries  Technical and art schools Contact: [email protected] The aim of this workshop: Organize a Japan+Philippines++ Conference and summer school, in September Three Main Subjects are: 1. Tangible heritage 2. Intangible heritage 3. Natural heritage We are looking forward for you to Join, help, organize, teach, and learn together to protect our cultural heritage around the world. Introduction to our group activity: In the Ide Laboratory, Graduate School of Engineering, we have developed the state-of-the-art ultra high resolution imaging systems (hardware and software) for applications in the field of cultural heritage and industry. At this moment more than 30 systems are being used in a Japan, Europe, Asia and Africa on the site. In this documents we briefly show the history and technology and the projects that has been carried out till May 2012. More than 30 Universities, museums, broadcasting organization (such as NHK Japan) are among the list of users of the technology developed in Ide Laboratory. The huge size cultural heritage that were documented by our technology, are a wide range of Japanese, Chinese, Islamic (Alazhar, Egypt), and European objects. More than 6 Japanese companies are also using these technologies for developing contents for Education and museum applications. Joint Research Laboratories IDE Laboratory Advanced Imaging Technology Laboratory Kyoto University Padova Boston China3 United States (negotiation) Italy As of April, 2012 Our Criteria for Scientific Imaging: What is a good imagining system for scientific recording of the cultural heritage? It must • have a high color fidelity (be able to record the true color) • have the minimum light irradiation on the object • have high resolution to detect microscopic scale areas • be practically fast enough to produce images of hundreds and thousands of objects in museums and national library • be cost effective • be applicable to different sizes and shapes • be non-contact, non invasive • Be able to produce analytical information 7 An Overview of the integrated System Design for Imaging System The system is composed of three main components, an image acquisition system , the pigment analysis system, the secured storage and dynamic display system. Development of an Integrated System for the Dynamic Display and Secured Storage of Large-sized Ultra-high Resolution Image Files High Resolution Non-destructive High Resolution Flatbed Large Scanner Pigment Analysis System Display System A software system with Fast and secured displaying An image acquisition system material database for and browsing system for with low-level, controllable, pigment analysis based on detailed and precise viewing homogenous, uniform light image data of cultural of high-quality image data of system heritage cultural heritage Amateras or Pigmalion KOKUSAI SCANNERS Pigmalion Viewer