Promoting art and culture in Vietnam through digitisation

Promoting art and culture in Vietnam through digitisation

An increase in digitised cultural content can help engage local audiences and introduce a contemporary image of Vietnamese culture to international audiences, according to latest research from RMIT.

“How are Vietnamese cultural professionals harnessing new digital technologies to reclaim the narrative on Vietnamese art and culture?”

This question spurred RMIT School of Communication & Design lecturers Dr Emma Duester and Ms Michal Teague to conduct a research project, where they interviewed 50 artists and cultural professionals in Hanoi on the current practices of digitising art and culture.

The duo published part of their findings in an article in the Creative Industries Journal earlier this year.

The study found that the digitisation of art and culture has been occurring more systematically and across the sector for the past five years in Hanoi, including photographing, scanning, and making digital archives or stores for these artworks and collections. 

news-1-promoting-art-and-culture-in-vietnam-through-digitisation Ms Michal Teague (pictured left) and Dr Emma Duester (pictured right).

State museums and art institutions have been carrying out digitisation projects, focusing on the preservation of folk arts, crafts, and intangible cultural heritage. Moreover, some cultural professionals are now beginning to find innovative ways of publicly displaying digitised content by using new technologies like 3D scanning, virtual reality (VR), and augmented reality (AR).

The RMIT researchers cited the success of ‘Into Thin Air’ as an example. This is an ongoing art-in-public project initiated and curated by Manzi Art Space which transforms physical spaces into digital art installations across Hanoi.

Meanwhile, RMIT is also helping the Vietnamese Women’s Museum digitise their collection using VR and AR, and upskill the museum staff to do it themselves.

Dr Emma Duester commented: “Digital platforms allow more connection with diverse audiences and provide the ability to raise awareness on lesser-known aspects of the culture or previously unpublished content, such as Vietnamese photography and Vietnamese women.”

“We can now bring contemporary Vietnamese art and culture closer to the world, rather than only the stereotypical images that circulate online about traditional customs, war, and tourist spots in Vietnam,” she said.

Associate Lecturer of Design Studies Michal Teague revealed that the research was motivated by the importance of engaging with contemporary Vietnamese art and culture in teaching and learning at RMIT.

“This is a new area and new transition in Vietnam. While elsewhere has been digitising for many years, Vietnam has only recently started to digitise art and culture,” she said.

“Our research has highlighted a lack of resources online about Vietnamese art and culture, which means that educators cannot use authentic resources but instead have to use Western sources.

“Issues around intellectual property and copyright with working and publishing art online are also evident.

“Most of all, this research has highlighted acute challenges in Vietnam around lack of budget, human resources and technological resources for digitising art and culture,” Ms Teague stated.

The researchers said that one way to address the challenges is by establishing a ‘digital culture’ policy for Vietnam.

“While many discussions nationally are about policy concerning the preservation of cultural heritage and traditional culture, more consideration is necessary on how to make digitised archives publicly accessible and how to best preserve contemporary culture digitally,” Dr Duester said.

“There is policy and discussion on digital citizens, digital society, and digital economy; however, there also needs to be an inclusion of ‘digital culture’ in national strategy documents.”

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Are you interested in the digitisation of art and culture in Vietnam? Join the Vietnam Art & Design Archive Forum (VADA Forum) on 9 November 2021 (part of the Vietnam Festival of Creativity & Design 2021) to discuss the creation of an online archive for art and design in Vietnam.

Story: Ngoc Hoang

About the experts

Dr Emma Duester is a Lecturer in the School of Communication & Design at RMIT University. Her areas of research interest include the creative industries, art and culture sector, digital technologies, and transnational communication. Dr Duester received a PhD in Media and Communications from Goldsmiths, University of London. She is the author of ‘The Politics of Migration and Mobility in the Art World: Transnational Baltic Artistic Practices Across Europe,’ published by Intellect in 2021. Previously, she was an Associate Lecturer at the University of Roehampton, the University of the Arts London, and Goldsmiths, University of London.

Ms Michal Teague is an Associate Lecturer in Design Studies at RMIT University. For over 10 years, Ms Teague has worked professionally as a transnational practitioner and educator in art, design and communication in the Middle East and Vietnam. She holds a Master of Arts in Public Space from RMIT University. Prior to becoming an educator, she ran a graphic design agency in Sydney, Australia for more than 10 years. Ms Teague’s areas of research interest and creative praxis are social design, creative and cultural industries, urban spaces and ecology, and transnational design pedagogy.

28 October 2021

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