In this paper, I describe a few prototypes that were created with the hope of building a vehicle for viewing and understanding Himalayan art in a culturally sensitive and accessible manner.My initial experimentation that is documented within this paper demonstrates an exploration into presenting an unique viewing experience of art for a fairly young user group. These projects could eventually be combined with educational lesson plans, facilitate a dialogue for the topic of art loss on museum or industry websites, or even stand as fun games to play on there own. I strongly believe that this kind of investigation of informal education is crucial to engraining the concepts of history, culture and art into the minds of younger-aged viewers, as well as to keep the manner relevant and accessible.
I. Historically, museums and cultural art institutions have displayed relics and art of "foreign" countries and lands via intricate exhibition designs. While this method of display serves the purpose of representation and documentation, the rich histories and provenance of the objects are often not communicated to the viewer in an adequate and engaging manner. I am investigating alternative methods for the presentation, representation and communication of cultural property. Having worked in museums for the past 15 yrs, I have always been interested in new ways to view art and for this project I wanted to build upon that interest and experience in order to prototype a potential vehicle for viewing Himalayan art in a culturally sensitive and accessible manner. For this investigation my solution was to create a game that asks the viewer to look at art by examining the absence of the art- that is art that was either lost, stolen or vandalized during war time aka ART CRIMES.
II. Before I reached the concept of a creating a game: - i looked into areas of field that had similar domains: - other museums -games -books - comics
III. Based on my research, I had determined that gaming was a valid method for experimentation. - it had been a major area of overlap (VENN) - it was an area that museums were beginning to get involved with - its something that has an audience but yet is ripe for exploration in my domains
IV. Prior to coming up with the actual game, I had struggled with how to bring the idea of provenance into the viewing experience - previous work experience at ALR - Quicktime VR - Games V.The PROJECT - after first efforts I delve into the prototyping process storyboard
3 questions audience ways to communicate history additional application- in connection with schools/educational setting
More exciting than making my way through the artwork in 2 days..ahem... was really coming up with a more exciting spin on the concept for the game. Basically the idea is to mix historical facts, visual clues and quiz based games with thematic strategy silly games. Here is my run down. The idea of a storyboard was daunting to me because I really just wanted to write out a script of sorts, so that's what I did:
1. INTRO SCREEN (WEBSITE) Click on play window 2. MAP SCREEN- choose Tibet (level) 3. CLIPBOARD SCREEN- get clipboard- clipboard has note saying that you should start in Tibet to see if you can find any clues in the original location. The monastery is in the hills of the Tibetan countryside, the easiest way to get there is to try to find a monk in the food market in the center of town. 4. MARKETPLACE SCREEN- go to the center of town- the market first search for the monk. lots of people. ask around by clicking on people to start a conversation yak herder- oh well, why would you want to go to THAT monastery? The art was completey stolen during the Cultural Revolution! The walls are stripped!
If I were you I would ask the hat seller. You are going to need a good hat if you are travelling up there!
Hat seller. These are the kind of hats Tibet is known for. Would you like to buy one? He will not talk to you unless you buy a hat. If you choose to not buy the hat, you get shoed away. if you do buy hat, he tells you that the monk is buying dri milk.
(distraction room -karaoke bar where people are singing and dancing to Nangma dance music game following the dance moves and play along the intricate beat (ala ddr).)
monk is untrusting, tests your knowledge on Tibet: click on items that are Tibetan...
Monk leads you to mountain.
5.MOUNTAIN SCREEN-need to click on things. when the yak falls a yak herder comes by to help. She first says that you need to be careful... yaks are very important to Tibetans. I need to watch out for all my yaks... particularly after the monastery was attacked! Luckily some of the art was smuggled to America. So! Lets figure out how to get you up the mountain. Well I know a special route but listen, you have to be careful for the yeti. Although it's just a legend.... he's rumored to be hanging around these hills! game of climbing up the mountain and avoiding the yeti and falling rocks.
6. EXTERIOR MONASTERY SCREEN- you make it to the monastery. another monk. another set of questions about Tibet- Geography quiz
7.INTERIOR MONASTERY SCREEN- you get into monastery need to make the mandala to get the key You can take the key opens the box the box has a map of NY and then a picture of Times Square, a flier from the Latse Library. You decide to go to NY. The monk with the key tells you that you are going to need a good luck charm and gives you a khata
------------ this is where I stopped for the purpose of completion, but in theory then you would go to NY, Times Sq, then Latse, then to a dealer, then to a collector, then to grandchildren. Side note: throughout the game there will be good luck charms that can be collected for points. I haven't figured out how that is going to play into the overall game yet. I think also you can get points based on your quiz scores etc.
This week I focused on getting information about the monastery at Palpung and trying to develop the quicktime vr idea. I spent many hours at the Latse Library and spoke with several key members of the library staff who helped me to develop my project idea. At the library, I was able to get a few images of the monastery but only exterior views. However, after researching a few books on Tibetan architecture I was interested in reading about the surrounding buildings including the Dege Sutra-Printing Academy. The academy is a fully functional print shop! Anyway, based on this research I have a different concept for the direction of my project which is to have a game that will require participants to venture to the surrounding regions of the monastery in order to solve the mystery of what has happened to the art. More on that later. QUICKTIME VR It took me a little bit longer than I anticipated to understand what goes into creating a quicktime vr movie. I tried to prototype a friend's room to understand how the qtvr functions. The steps to make the vr are really quite simple: 1. take photos (this involves taking pics with a tripod) 2. stitch photos 3. import into cubic converter 4. export
Notes: step number 1: really should be done with a wide angle lens- otherwise you will need to take something around 80 photos for the panorama as I did and still did not get an entire picture.
step number 2: i did the stitching in adobe photoshop cs3. There is an auto align and auto blend function there, however they are quirky and do not always work.
I am still trying to get my stitching to work correctly. I have done two major efforts:
The second set is from the Rubin Museum of Art's 2nd Floor permanent collection exhibition What is Himalayan Art? I spent all day Saturday photographing the images with a tripod and 360 head. Unfortunately I did not have a fisheye lens so things are still coming out funky. Because of this, I just did a drawing identifying where the images should go in relationship to the final placement on the cube.
After the realization that I am basically constructing a cube, I went back to my first prototype and started to divide it into sections as in walls. This is as far as I got so far:
It's not perfect, however I learned a few valuable lessons here, mainly that auto align doesn't work with multilayered panoramas so I had to hand stitch again. But, I think that I made some good progress at least in terms of understanding what needs to be done. The real question here though is whether I should continue this effort. I don't have any images of the monastery. I only have the images of the art. I would need to create everything or somehow get the people at the monastery to give me some help which doesnt look like a good prospect. not giving up- just questioning. Im glad to have this understanding of qtvr.
VIDEO GAME So this idea was a bit of a new idea for me. I am definitely still working out the kinks. But the basic concept is to create a game that asks the viewer to look at art by examining the absence of the art.
Look and Feel Prototype: some potential characters. (The yak would not be standing like this but I wanted him to pose for the group photo). Role Prototype
So this is clearly storyboard A. I need to develop this idea more but I was getting so excited by the prospect of the game that I got overwhelmed. Anyway, I had this other thought that the game could be done in Flash and then integrated into a website that would raise awareness about provenance issues and war- related art. It could be a forum of sorts, or a community. The goal would not be to restitute the art, there are tons of other websites and organizations that are devoted to that cause, but maybe to allow people to understand the importance of these kinds of acts of political violence.
I hope to prototype a few potential vehicles for viewing Himalayan art in a culturally sensitive and accessible manner.
In a paragraph:
Historically, museums and cultural art institutions have displayed relics and art of "foreign" countries and lands via intricate exhibition designs. While this method of display serves the purpose of representation and documentation, the rich histories and provenance of the objects are often not communicated to the viewer in an adequate and engaging manner. I am investigating alternative methods for the presentation, representation and communication of cultural property using a set of tangkas that are currently housed at the Rubin Museum of Art, New York as a case study. The paintings can be traced back to being created by Situ Panchen and his seat at Palpung Monastery in Tibet. The effects of time and the Chinese Cultural Revolution, prompted the art to be relocated to various collections throughout the world. The set's original locale- a monastery is in ruins and so at the moment the only way to view the work is in museums and/or photographs. This relocation of art poses several questions that are worth considering, including: - How are various cultures of the world represented on an international stage? - How do museums and other sacred spaces re-contextualize culture? - How can technology reconstruct and/or contribute to history? - What kinds of stories are being told about the art? - How can something politically charged be explained to a mainstream audience? Over the course of the next four weeks I hope to prototype a few potential vehicles for viewing this art in a more culturally sensitive and accessible manner.
click on the image so that you can read it more clearly. For this version of the diagram I explored four domains that were on my initial diagram in greater detail: Storytelling, Imagined Realms, Informal Education and Sacred Spaces. I found that two domains that the 4 topics overlap is on the web and in museums. This fits really well with my assumptions that I made going into the project about how museums are used and the potential for overlap between museums and the web. I do see that another area to consider is games- non traditional gaming. I am not sure about what I mean by this but I am going to continue to explore this as I go out now and research precendence for my project.
CONCEPT Historically, museums and cultural art institutions have displayed relics and art of “foreign” countries and lands via intricate exhibition designs. While this method of display serves the purpose of representation and documentation, the rich histories and provenance of the objects are often not communicated to the viewer in an adequate and engaging manner. I am interested in investigating alternative methods for the presentation, representation and communication of cultural property using a set of tangkas that were originally designed by Situ Panchen and are currently housed by the Rubin Museum of Art, New York that can be traced back to his seat Palpung Monastery in Tibet, and because of time and the Chinese Cultural Revolution, have been displaced to various locations all over the world as a case study. The set’s original locale- a monastery is in ruins and so at the moment the only way to view the work is in museums and/or photographs. This relocation of art poses several questions that are worth considering, including: - How are various cultures of the world represented on an international stage? - How do museums and other sacred spaces re-contextualize culture? - How can technology reconstruct and/or contribute to history? - What kinds of stories are being told about the art? - How can something politically charged be explained to a mainstream audience? Over the course of the next four weeks I hope to prototype a few potential vehicles for viewing this art in a more culturally sensitive and exciting manner.
I hope to prototype a few potential vehicles for viewing Himalayan art in a culturally sensitive and accessible manner.
THE ART Here is a link to the set of 24 images that were originally from the Palpung monastary in Tibet.
"Using digital cameras, a team from Northwestern University, in collaboration with the Dunhuang Research Academy (an organization in China that seeks to preserve and document the caves), has photographed the wall paintings and sculpture in more than forty of the cave grottos." This project is very focused on the documentation and preservation of the caves. Because of the intense study of the subject, users can now go to the archive and get a real sense of what the caves looked like. Although I don't have high resolution images to use, I do have some great textual sources to pull from and I hope that I will be able to use these sources to create a record of some sort. DOMAINS: sacred spaces, archive, imagined realms, history, digital technology
This is a website that is funded by the Shelley and Donald Rubin Foundation (the same Rubins who created the Rubin Museum of Art). The website is " an educational online resource with over 30,000 images" of Himalayan art. The undertaking is enormous and involves museums and scholars from all over the world. The documentation is exceptional. While this project is more of a database, I like the way that they used all kinds of sources to ultimately create a living history for this art. I hope to make a piece that people can use as a reference. DOMAINS: digital technology, archive,history, website
The Asia Society created an online game to supplement its in-gallery exhibition on ancient games of Asia. Here is an experiment in incorporating gaming into the construct of the exhibition. I do not think that this is a particular great attempt, however it is a step in the direction that I would like to go with my project. Clearly, however, the accessibility of this kind of project is something worth appreciating. DOMAINS: digital technology, history, website, games, informal education, museum
Calakmul: The Adventure Interactive software exhibit that explores the past culture of the Maya at Calakmul in the Yukatan Penninsula While I cannot actually play the game (I don't believe that it's finished yet), this is very close to the end product that I would like. It's a game, it has a narrative, it still focuses on history, yet somehow I find it a little too obvious. I think that I want my project to feel more like an exploration of space. DOMAINS: digital technology, sacred spaces, imagined realms, games, informal education, museum
This is a video game that allows users to create their own civilization and suffer the consequences for each action that they take on their journey. The game has been so successful that it is being integrated into elementary school curriculums in select schools in the country. This game is revolutionary in that it's a history geek game that kids actually enjoy playing. Although I find the graphical treatment a bit difficult personally, I appreciate the role playing and strategy that is required to be successful in this game. Importantly, I need to investigate what it is that makes this game so much fun for people (particularly elementary school aged kids) to play. DOMAINS: games, digital technology, sacred spaces, informal education, public interaction, imagined realms, storytelling
"Using the technology behind online video games, we want to help you discover, research and explore the ancient civilizations of Greece, Egypt, and the Americas." They created (and are perfecting software to help art historians and students to recreate ancient spaces. Not yet fully functional as far as I can tell. This game is also very close to what I want to do, however I'm not creating a software. I like how it appeals to both academic and laymen audiences. DOMAINS: history, sacred spaces, imagined realms, digital technology, games, informal education
And
This is an animation by Steven J. Baughman that approaches the topic of civilization and history through an investigation of maps.First of all, the fact that this is short animation caught explained the purpose of maps so succinctly is great, however I feel that the beauty in this piece is that it inspires creativity about history. DOMAINS: animation, history, digital technology, symbolism
ExploreArt http://www.exploreart.org/exploreArt/exploreArt.html Rubin Museum of Art's Educational multimedia website The storytelling of this site is strong, and the educational content is great, but I find that the site is almost too polished to be truly accessible. I don't really understand why that is. DOMAINS: museum, history, storytelling, public interaction
Ayiti: The Cost of Life http://www.unicef.org/voy/explore/rights/explore_3142.html "... challenging role playing game created by the High School students in Global Kids with the game developers at Gamelab, in which you take responsibility for a family of five in rural Haiti." I like the fact that this game is about activism and social responsibility, but it's not preachy. DOMAINS: games, storytelling, public interaction, imagined realms
Radford Outdoor Augmented Reality Project http://www.roanoke.com/news/nrv/wb/180461 Matt Dunleavy will be investigating the types of skills that can be acquired and honed from the integration of real-world/environmental play and computer-generated data. According to the article, user testing has been done for games about historical subjects such as "Buffalo Hunt" a game about Native American history. I find these sorts of projects really unique and thinking outside of the box is required to play. It's successful because you don't need too many tools to play and the novelty of the kind of play is fascinating. DOMAINS: history, games, public interaction, imagined realms, storytelling, informal education
A video game that allows people to understand the concept of evolution by forcing users to help evolve a creature beyond its initial "spore" state. Other than being fun, this game takes a topic and helps the user to understand it by gameplay and narrative. These are elements that I feel will make my project successful. DOMAINS: history, informal education, imagined realms, storytelling, fantasy
Asia Society: Guided Tours http://www.asiasocietymuseum.com/gt_main.asp?power=off&sFile=intro Guided tours of collection via slides. Museum tours are expected. I want to work against this tendency when I create my project because it has a certain element of the "other" which I want to avoid.DOMAINS: history, museums, website, accessibility, viewpoints
An interactive timeline of events that happened in art history spanning, millions of years, international. Created by the Metropolitan Museum of Art and includes objects from their permanent collection. The timeline is a great resource, but I like it because it provides a source for contextualization. Somehow, I feel that my project needs to tie in what is happening in other parts of the world. DOMAINS: history, museums, website, contextualization, sacred spaces, imagined realms, digital technology
National Air and Space Museums Quicktime VR Artifact Photography http://www.nasm.si.edu/interact/qtvr/uhc/qtvr.htm 360 degree photographs of artifacts from the Smithsonian Collection. 360 degree views of objects! It's amazing, it's in situ and it really is technically beautifyl .DOMAINS: digital technology, history, museum, public interaction, sacred spaces, conservation
Grave of the Fireflies http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095327/ "A tragic film covering a young boy and his little sister's struggle to survive in Japan during World War II." An emotional story that brings the historical topic of the second world war to life. This animation makes a historical topic personal by creating a strong narrative. I don't know if I want to include a narrative in this project yet, but if I do, this will be a strong reference. DOMAINS: history, animation, emotional interaction, subjectivity, viewpoints, imagined realms, fantasy, informal education
Kapilavastu (Buddha) http://www.amazon.com/Kapilavastu-Buddha-Vol-Osamu-Tezuka/dp/1932234438 "Tezuka, the master of Japanese comics, mixes his own characters with history as deftly as he transfers the most profound, complex emotions onto extremely cartoony characters, and his work defies easy categorization." (language from Amazon) I like the way that this book mixes humor and history. This project is an interesting source for me because it appeals directly to my pop culture interests which I think are very accessible. DOMAINS: comics, history, informal education, storytelling, handmade technology, imagined realms, fantasy
Petra: The Lost City of Stone http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/petra/interactives/ In this exhibition, The American Museum of Natural History created several interesting interactive components to explain the geography and history of Petra. This exhibit was really inspirational. In terms of actual artifacts from Petra- there were few, but these dynamic visuals made the show something of substance. The graphics were awe inspiring (because the nature of the space) and I think that anything that can build a sense of excitement about a city that is no longer functioning is worth looking into. DOMAINS: museums, history, sacred spaces, imagined realms, public interaction, preservation, digital technology, storytelling
- Karl Debreczeny, Curator Rubin Museum of Art - David Jackson, Scholar, Himalayan Art - Situ Panchen Chokyi Jungne (18th c.) - Jeff Watt, Director Himalayan Art Resource - Kristina Dy- Liacco, Head Librarian Latse Library,NYC
* Domains: What are the domains/fields with which your project engages? List keywords, terms, phrases, concepts, industry-jargon, tags that illustrate these domains. What relationships exist between these domains? Illustrate the domains your project deals with in a Venn diagram. Make a list of 3-5 primary questions that explain what it is that you are trying to discover. AND, illustrate 3-5 the primary motivations for your work. Your primary questions or motivations may contain a set of sub-questions/motivations as well.
- How are various cultures of the world represented on an international stage? - How do museums and other sacred spaces recontextualize culture? - How can technology reconstruct and/or contribute to history? - How can something politically charged be explained to a mainstream audience?
Bodhisattva Tibet, 12th century gilt copper alloy C2003.24.1 Rubin Museum of Art, NY This Bodhisattva from the Rubin Museum of Art is an inspiration for me. As you can see from the various bullet holes and overall abrasion, that the object was caught in the crossroads of the Chinese Cultural Revolution. Yet, here it stands, in a New York museum, quietly tucked away in a corner of a gallery that most of the world will never see and certainly never connect to its rich provenance. I am interested in exploring methods of presentation, representation and communication for my final project. At the moment I am thinking of creating an interactive 3-dimensional space that will allow users to navigate through worlds that no longer exist in order to explain history, while highlighting the cultural and political tension that the art evokes.
While this is one idea, I am open to the possibility of exploring other realms of my interests. I appreciate this exercise because it forces me to articulate all of the things that have been circulating in my mind. I hope to become more focused in my research efforts. I always find that I get overwhelmed in the process of defining myself, my areas of study and my work. I think about all of the potential things to look into and it feels like everywhere that I look is something that I need to research and I get unbelievably overwhelmed. I find that this kind of thinking prevents me from moving forward. One of the reasons that I was so interested in this graduate program was the possibility that I could have some strategy to overcome the blocks that I create for myself with my constant feeling of being behind on research.
The domains that I have listed above are the areas that I feel strongly about. I feel that these domains are top level domains in that they are areas that I always want to keep in mind when I am working. I think that as I develop a more complete concept for my final project, other areas will be identified that are of importance maybe to the particular project but not my overall scope of interests.
The idea that technology is a collection of skills and techniques that we discussed in class really helped to ease my mind about the possibilities of what I can do within the construct of this program. The Venn diagram that I have created above illustrates my range of interests and I feel that the current area of flux that I now reside in is innately visible. The skills and knowledge that I came to the program with are listed in areas such as: history, community, storytelling and handmade. Areas that I wish to improve or acquire more knowledge in are also listed: animation, digital art, narrative and public interaction. I also have a del.icio.us account and I feel that this acts as another aggregator for my domains. I am going to look at this Venn diagram as an evolving and organic chart. I hope to revise it often to reflect my current areas of intrest.
Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens Brown paper packages tied up with strings These are a few of my favorite things - Maria, My Favorite Things (The Sound of Music)
VISUAL ART Hayao Miyazaki, Craig Thompson, Robert Frank
Grave of the Fireflies I chose each one of these artists because they impacted my visual art world in different ways. Miyazaki, with Grave of the Fireflies showed me that something can be both visually and emotionally shocking. I watched and weeped and was inspired to combine my love of art, history, animation and storytelling. Craig Thompsons graphic novel Blankets, took sketch journaling to a higher level and intwined his very personal stories with his loose style of illustration. Robert Frank photographed America as an FSA photographer and captured the essence of the country through his use of clarity and composition,while simulaneously raising the art form to a higher level.
SCULPTURAL Alberto Giacometti/Dale Chihuly, Miya Lin and Jim Henson I like artists who incorporate the environment into their work- whether that be a physical, emotional or social one.
BOOKS/ WRITERS Dear Theo, Where the Wild Things Are,Forever While Van Gogh, Maurice Sendak and Pete Hamil are very different stylistically, each book, perhaps at different phases of my life helped me to change my perspective on the world. Dear Theo is a biography of Vincent Van Gogh but specifically written through the vehicle of letters that were sent between him and his brother Theo. It is a very real description about what it means to be an artist and a believer. I love Where the Wild Things are for different reasons. I will just say one of them here, which is that I recently found out that Maurice Sendak was from a Jewish family and on Friday nights (shabbat) he would as a child crawl under the table and see the various naked feet of family members. In his book, he made each monster with a different kind of foot for this reason, while grown ups and monsters may seem the same, on a very personal level they are very different. Forever, is a story about a man who travels from Ireland to New York in the 1700s and is granted the ability to live forever with the exception that he must never leave the island of Manhattan. The story takes you through New York history, world history, life, art and spirituality. I aspire to create stories that are as wild as this, but mostly, I just didn't want the book to end. While these three might be very different, they are all within my realm of interests.
THINKERS Tim Burton, Bruce Mau, Martin Luther King Tim Burton created worlds, opened imaginations and changed an entire field of art to something of a masterpiece. Bruce Mau introduced me to sustainable design and the responsibilities that we have as designers. Martin Luther King had the vision to think of the world as a place that could be changed, inspired and revolutionized.
WEBSITE OR SOFTWAREdrawn, illustrationfriday Adobe Illustrator Drawn and illustration friday I appreciate for the communities that have been established because of the website as well as the personal education that I received by following them. Adobe Illustrator was the first digital design tool that I have and I value how it has allowed me to meld into the digital art fields.
These may not be representitve of what I do as an artist, but I am the most proud of them. My yaks were illustrations of yaks that I did during a boring meeting on budgets that became the mascot and identity for the Rubin Museum of Art's childhood programming. My undergraduate thesis was a 250 page product of 2 years worth of study on digital art. When I sat on my dissertation one of my professors told me that they didn't believe that digital technology can be considered an art form and that I wasted my time. Well... I would love to see that professor now! It really gets me excited to see how much the field can change in 8 years. My thesis was on the terminology that we use to talk about digital art and basically how the taxonomy is based on a system perscribed for photography, which ironically was based on a system for painting. The eulogy that I recently gave at my grandmothers funeral was one of the hardest things that I ever had to do. When I was younger, my father died and so my grandparents played a very big role in my life. Speaking about someone who essentially made you into what you are today is humbling, impossible and liberating.
COMPANY OR ORGANIZATION Laika, Pixar, NPR
Laika is a company that I respect because of its creativity and versatility. I recently saw a preview for its upcoming movie Coraline, and am now inspired to look more deeply into outdated processes for animation in order to move my art technically forward. Pixar, is the other end of the spectrum- exception CG and fantastic storytelling. I particularly appreciate the company's dedication to apprenticeship. NPR- the oddball in my list. I think that I listen to NPR more than any radio station or any music. The style of the company, to take what already exists and make it accessible to people in a upfront yet admittedly subjective manner has changed my worldviews.
PROFESSION OR PRACTICE: animator, conservator, community organizer
Animator- I believe that this is what I aspire to be, but I don't want to box myself in. I love how an animator can take a fantasy and bring it to life. I have the potential to make people of all ages smile in this field. It is a dream Conservator- I always wanted to be a part of a living history. As an artist, I have always carried a sketch book to help me to better understand the world, but being able to repair the wounds of time, or war would take my knowledge of history and life to another level. After working on provenance of post- WW2 art, I have a deep understanding of how art represents more than what it is aesthetically and the power that it has to connect people. Community Organizer- I am deep believer in what Gandhi referred to as "being the change you wish to see in the world". I admire those who can go out and reach for that change in a very real way.
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