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
Friday, December 5, 2008
Some scenery and FINALLY real progress with narrative
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.
HERE ARE SOME PROGRESS IMAGES:
INTRO SCREEN
MAP SCREEN
CLIPBOARD SCREEN
MOUNTAIN SCREEN
EXTERIOR SCREEN
INTERIOR MANDALA SCREEN
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.
HERE ARE SOME PROGRESS IMAGES:
INTRO SCREEN
MAP SCREEN
CLIPBOARD SCREEN
MOUNTAIN SCREEN
EXTERIOR SCREEN
INTERIOR MANDALA SCREEN
Monday, December 1, 2008
A Few Prototypes
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.
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.
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
River City Project
Just discovered another resource/ precedent. The Rivercity Project- organized by Harvard University is an interactive virtual reality where students act as characters in order to investigate what is happening to the residents of Rivercity and making them so sick.
http://muveb.gse.harvard.edu/~muvers/rivercityvideos/H264%20web/RC%20Project-pro-RC%20Full%20Sequence.mov
http://muveb.gse.harvard.edu/~muvers/rivercityvideos/H264%20web/RC%20Project-pro-RC%20Full%20Sequence.mov
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Revised Concept
In a sentence:
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.
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.
Sunday, November 16, 2008
eVENNtually I will get going on this project
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.
PRECEDENCE
The Mellon International Dunhuang Archive
http://www.artstor.org/what-is-artstor/w-html/col-mellon-dunhuang.shtml
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
The Himalayan Art Resource
http://www.himalayanart.org/
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
Asian Games: The Art of the Contest
http://www.asiasociety.org/arts/asiangames/
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
Sid Meier's Civilization
http://www.civilization.com/
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
Ancient Spaces
http://ancient.arts.ubc.ca/
"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
Spore
http://www.spore.com/ftl
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
Heilbrun Timeline of Art History
http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/splash.htm
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
Venn diagram with previous projects insertedBOOKS
- Digital Museum, The: A Think Guide
Herminia Din and Phyllis Hecht, editors; introduction by Selma Thomas - Museums and the Web 2008: Selected Papers from an International Conference
Edited by Jennifer Trant and David Bearman - Wired Museum, The: Emerging Technology and Changing Paradigms
Edited by Katherine Jones-Garmil; introduction by Maxwell Anderson - Virtual and the Real, The: Media in the Museum
Edited by Ann Mintz and Selma Thomas - Digital Technologies and the Museum Experience
Edited by Kevin Walker and Loic Tallon
- 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
Friday, November 14, 2008
Venn will I start my final project? (get it? Venn?)
* 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.
References to look into (suggestions welcome):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venn_diagram
http://www.himalayanart.org/search/set.cfm?setID=211
http://rmanyc.org/
http://www.latse.org/
http://www.tibethouse.org/
http://www.asiasociety.org/
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?
BodhisattvaTibet, 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.
References to look into (suggestions welcome):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venn_diagram
http://www.himalayanart.org/search/set.cfm?setID=211
http://rmanyc.org/
http://www.latse.org/
http://www.tibethouse.org/
http://www.asiasociety.org/
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