High Technology Illuminates Ancient Art at Getty Museum

What do medieval art and modern technology have in common? This riddle is no joke at the J. Paul Getty Museum.

In its current exhibit, “The Passion of Christ in Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts,” 25 illuminated manuscripts are on display, several of them made hundreds of years before Gutenberg invented the printing press in 1452. Each book is open to a page that depicts an event in Christ’s last days, from his entry into Jerusalem to his arrest, trial and death.

But not far from the Illuminated Manuscripts Gallery, in the Browsing Room, museum visitors can “turn” the page in some of the exhibit’s books, and in other illuminated manuscripts in the Getty’s collection, with the assistance of the museum’s interactive videodisc program.

Painted with brilliant colors, illuminated manuscripts contain most of the finest surviving examples of medieval painting. Their saturated, rich colors have been well-preserved, and are nicely reproduced on the videodisc program. It not only lets viewers turn the pages, but also gives them the opportunity to create their own paths to knowledge about these very rare books.

Through the magic of a “touch-screen” on a color video monitor, which is connected to a computer and a videodisc player, viewers get to interact. They need only touch the screen to activate it and choose a specific topic of interest from a menu.

Music and narration accompany motion picture and still images to engagingly inform viewers about the various types of illuminated manuscripts, the materials and techniques used in making them, and the subjects that most often appear in them. The program can be stopped and restarted at a different point just by touching the screen again, so topics can be explored in any order, for any length of time.

“The fun and games side of interactive video draws people in. Kids run in and start pointing and punching,” said David Ebitz, head of education and academic affairs at the museum. “Adults peer around the corner,” approaching it more tentatively.

Two viewing stations have been available to museum visitors since 1989. According to a study completed last year evaluating the videodisc program, users spent an average of 19 minutes interacting with the system, “making many, many choices,” he said.

A separate section of the program titled “Five Great Manuscripts” allows viewers to see in sequence all the images from five of the most important manuscripts in the Getty’s collections. “The Visions of Tondal,” a late Gothic visionary tale, tells the story of a worldly knight, bred from wealth and comfort, who owns property and is mean to his tenants. One night, after he gets sick at a dinner party, he goes into a coma, and his soul is taken on a journey through hell.

“The videodisc grew out of the problem we have with manuscripts. You set a book out open to one page, and you’re only telling part of the story,” said Thom Kren, curator of manuscripts, who initiated the interactive video about manuscripts and who wrote the text for it. “Now you can browse through these manuscripts page by page, and see what the whole book was about.”

And find out what happens to the mean old landlord, which shall not be revealed here.

Kren was inspired by his colleague, Marion True, the Getty’s curator of antiquities who came up with the idea in 1984 to create an interactive video focusing on the museum’s Greek vase collection. It made its debut in 1986, and continues to inform visitors about Greek vases: potting and painting; form and function, and artistic quality. It includes live-action video of a current-day potter throwing a pot, and images of about 100 of the vases in the Getty’s collection.

“Vases are the closest thing we have to a photograph from the antiquities. They capture daily life, religious rituals and mythological scenes,” said Karen Manchester, associate curator of antiquities, who worked on the videodisc project. “They have not always been considered works of art because they are utilitarian.”

Two videodisc viewing stations are next to a gallery displaying four of the museum’s finest vases, which are also featured in the interactive video program. By touching the screen, viewers can stop the video and enlarge the picture to check out a detail. They can also choose to see inside the vase or make the image rotate to show the vase from various angles.

Manchester said the videodisc is only an educational adjunct to the antiquities department’s primary function--to display ancient works of art. “We want people to see the objects first,” she said. “But we are limited by what we can put on a label. Questions come up that a label can’t answer. The idea is to get people to take an active rather than passive role to explore specific subject matter.

“We try to make everything we possibly can participatory, so that people can make decisions about what they want to explore and can educate themselves,” Ebitz said.

Before the museum continues the production of interactive videodiscs, it wants to ensure that their programs can be used elsewhere. “This technology is being used in the schools. It’s a proper use of technology, and a good approach for us to take,” Ebitz said. “We are committed to continuing with it.”