Immersive storytelling to narrate an artwork and its renascence: the real-life experience of the Simone Martini’s polyptych

Demonstration
Chiara Evangelista, Italy/Norway , Chiara Evangelista, Italy/Norway

C.Evangelista¹, M.Carrozzino¹, C. Bay², D. Matteoni²

^{1 PERCRO Perceptual Robotics Laboratory – Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna
Via Alamanni 13b, 56017 Ghezzano San Giuliano Terme, Pisa, Italy}

^{2 Museo Nazionale di San Matteo, Pisa, Italy}

The work we intend to present is a complex multimedia application realized ​​by Mnemosyne Cultura Digitale (spin-off association of  Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna of Pisa) and centered on the famous Simone Martini’s Saint Catherine of Alexandria Polyptych (a.k.a. Pisa Polyptych) exposed at the National Museum of San Matteo in Pisa, the most complex and complete among Martini works that has come to us.

The artwork has recently undergone a major restoration, and this event pushed for the realization of a multimedia installation which, on one hand, has made the polyptych accessible, although in digital form, to the museum visitors during the restoration, and on the other hand has served as a means to interactively document the renovation works. The storytelling experience is in fact based on two narrative levels, the first focused on the artwork, together with its history, and the second concerning all the activities involved in the restoration process.

We want to demonstrate the multimedia installation we have realized to communicate the famous Simone Martini’s Saint Catherine of Alexandria Polyptych exposed at the National Museum of San Matteo in Pisa, in order to make the polyptych accessible, although in digital form, to the museum visitors during its restoration, and at the same time to interactively document the renovation works.

The selected information are available in form of text pages, images or movies. Commonly static information are presented directly on the touch console whilst on the big screen are shown more dynamic information such as movies or the results of the free exploration of the painting. The visitor can pan and zoom with the typical touch gestures on the console and see the effects on the projected screen which shows FullHD images of the artwork. Also, several selectable hotspots are placed on the artwork image shown in the touch console which can be clicked triggering different types of presentations. A similar interaction paradigm is used in the “Beyond the visible” section, where the pan/zoom operations are associated to a sort of plate, draggable on the digital artwork, and magnifying images coming from X, UV, infrared rays and so on.

Although the Museum initiative was mainly dictated by the need to respond to the lack of one of its most important works during its absence, the installation has actually provided the possibility of expanding the perception of the work through a series of information otherwise unavailable without an experienced guide and spatially contextualized on the artwork.

Today, even if the renewed polyptych is again in place, the installation is used daily as a teaching tool in order for the museum to deliver lectures able to adapt to different types of audience.

Find here the YouTube video.