Handscroll paintings, painted horizontally on pieces of silk or sheets of paper and mounted as scrolls, are a major type of traditional East Asian painting, distinctive in their format and method of viewing. Their creation is based on special principles that differ from those of painting single-framed pictures as they are continuous pictures that progress in space and time. Handscroll paintings are meant to be handled as well as seen–unrolled for viewing and rolled up for storage. Viewing section by section calls for particular kinds of engagement or participation on the part of the viewer moving forward (from right to left) stopping and going back. In addition to painted images, the scrolls often include handwritten text, artists’ signatures and seals, and the seals of later owners of the painting. The texts might include narrative and descriptive passages on the painting itself and colophons added at the end, including comments by of the painters’ associates and later viewers, including owners of the paintings. These can provide a social history of the painting.

Because of the rare and fragile nature of these paintings, however, they are rarely shown. They cannot be handled by the public or exposed to light for extended periods in exhibitions. Therefore our center created this interactive site to simulate the experience of viewing handscrolls in ways that published photographs in books and projected slides cannot and to make them more widely accessible for teaching and research.

手卷是东亚传统书画的主要类型之一，在丝绸或宣纸上横向创作后装裱为卷轴，其形式和观赏方式都具有鲜明特点。手卷的创作原理与单幅书画不同，着重展现图像随时间、空间的延续和演变。观者在阅览时手持画卷，逐段地舒卷观赏，平时则卷起以便于保管。逐段浏览的形式要求观者以特定的方式与手卷互动，在从右至左观赏的过程中，时而前进，时而后退，时而驻足。除图像以外，手卷通常还包含题跋，画家的落款和印章，以及之后的收藏印鉴。这些文字可能包括题在画面上的叙述性段落，题于引首及拖尾的跋文，通常是画家友人及后来观赏者（包括收藏者）所题的评论。这些文字呈现出绘画的社会性和历史性。

手卷材质的脆弱导致了其稀有，因此现在很少有机会被展示在大众面前。手卷不能被过多地触碰或手持，以及长时间暴露在展厅的光线下。基于这些特性，芝大东亚艺术中心创建了这个交互式平台，来模拟还原手卷独特的观赏形式，也使得这些作品能被更广泛地应用在教学与研究当中。