Abstract:

The cultural globalization led to a uniform human image: everywhere, at work we wear classic suit or costume, leisure time jeans and jacket. A natural question arises: we are citizens of the world, but how are we different from others? There are places in Romania, as well as in Japan or Mexico, where people wear dresses of very ancient origin, decorative art creations that one can be proud with, and by which one can assert a distinct identity.

The purpose of this study is to twofold. The proof presented is based on the RetROMANIA collection of costumes, decorative objects, furniture, jewelry and accessories from the XIX-th and the XX-th centuries, made by Adina Nanu, that is presented to students at the courses of art style history and scenography. The important collection is phisically housed in the basement of a building, in good conditions, but hardly available to a large public. The collection is now being made available to everyone as a virtual museum.

The main topics, accessible as possible itineraries through the virtual space, are:
- illustration of costume functions: utility, social communication (signaling race, gender, age, place and role in the community, wealth of the wearer), aesthetic (being the main decorative art, starting from sensations it awakens all mental functions, logical thinking, feelings, memories, expressing the conception of life and the scale of values)
- study of Romanian folk materials and techniques, proofs of his age. From prehistory, from Dacians’ time and their conquest by the Roman Empire, in the first century AD, natural materials and techniques have been preserved. These, as well as their limited colors, places this port before the XIII – XV-th centuries
- creation of a "basic pattern" able to assimilate foreign influences without changing their essential structure, which took place in the early centuries of Christianity. Instead of the ancient Greco-Roman ideal "mens sana in corpore sano", the Christian ideal separated the immortal soul, voiced by eye, from the mortal body, subject to temptations, covered by clothing
- case studies, examples of assimilation by the basic pattern of foreign influences, presenting hypotheses to explain regional variations in the integration of models coming from different cultural backgrounds, the suit from to the Royal Court or from the city
- tracking the interpretation of the folk suit at the Romanian Royal Court, seen as a symbol of national identity, but amplified and enriched, transformed by materials and precious ornaments
- the generalization after the Great Union of 1918 of a unique Romanian outfit (that from Muscel, the first Wallachian capital province, the closest to the Byzantine human ideal) in its festive version (at the dance)
- updates of the folk suit to city use in the '20s (the art deco style), in the ‘60s (the height of modernism), and today

The public audience and the target groups will be provided with a space for dialogue and learning, with immersive access to information and education resources for approx. 900 exhibition pieces and spaces, made accessible virtualy, in an interactive and immersive way through spatial exploration, accompanied by documentation and several pilot programs that facilitate their usage and explanation.

Keywords:

Virtual reality, virtual museum, intercultural dialogue, national specificity, globalization, popular suit.