How can digital technology help visitors appreciate caves that are unfit for public access? How can digital technology be applied to conserve grottoes that date back more than 1600 years so as to retain their artistic and social value to the maximum? Instead of visiting in person, are there any digital alternatives available for the public to enjoy the beauty of the grottoes in Dunhuang, northwestern China’s Gansu Province? WU Jian, head of the Department of Conservation Research, Dunhuang Academy, Deputy Director of the National Engineering Research Center for Conservation of Ancient Frescos, Adjunct Professor of Cultural Heritage Institute of Zhejiang University, answered those questions in the lecture on the digital conservation and its application in Mogao Caves at the invitation of Center for Digital Culture Innovation. LU Dongming, Vice President of NingboTech, members of the Center, teachers and students from the School of Design and the School of Media and Law, attended the lecture.

WU, engaged in artistic creation of photography and visual studies of Mogao Caves and other historical sites for years, has led the project of “Digital Dunhuang” and studies of key digital technologies for relevant cultural heritage. Under his leadership, his team has helped kick off digital conservation of over 200 caves in Dunhuang, and offered technical support and academic guidance to digital conservation projects of multiple cultural heritage sites including Yungang Grottoes in northern China’s Shanxi Province, Beiyue Temple in Quyang, northern China’s Hebei Province, Kizil Grottoes in northwestern China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region and Shalu Monastery in southwestern China’s Tibet Autonomous Region. WU, starting with the origin of the Silk Road and artistic value of Mogao Caves, gave a detailed account of how the digital conservation of Mogao Caves has evolved in the past 20 years and expounded on standard procedures of digital conservation of cultural relics and digital technologies possessed by the team.