“Unframing” Chinese Paintings: Exploring Spatial Presence through X-Reality Technologies in Museums

In China, museums are increasingly applying Extended Reality (XR) technologies in order to serve a wider public desire to learn more about historical Chinese artworks. This chapter investigates the effectiveness of XR technologies in displaying and experiencing traditional Chinese painted screens and handscrolls. By studying two exhibitions, “The Painted Screen: Past and Future” (2019) and “An Era in Jinling: A Digital Art Exhibition” (2021–present), it argues that the unique spatial characteristics in Chinese paintings can be digitally transformed, presenting an “unframing” spatial presence to the public. In this way, the audience can engage with artworks in three spatial dimensions, experiencing the interactive and collaborative nature of qiyun shengdong, an intrinsic aspect of the Chinese art aesthetic.