SILHOUETTE
Personal project; Creative coding
TOOLS
Illustrator
P5.js
Projection
SOURSE
Ethnologue
TIME AND DURATION
September 2020 - November 2020
BACKGROUND
When brainstorming for Panorama, I got several ideas of further addressing this issue of language endangerment to the audience. Here, I want to explore a more creative and artistic way of presenting.
Research and Brainstorming
Focus of the issue
Different from the approach of Panorama, this project focuses more on endangered scripts in China. The languages might be seen as major dialects in the region, and are still spoken by many people at least in their informal conversation, but scripts are less used. They are either seen as only applicable for religion or regional institution usage from the past, or gradually substituted by Simplified Chinese script. Few people understand the script and study about them. Here, I focus on three types of scripts: Dongba script, Shui script and Dai script.
For the interaction, I got inspirations from the teahouse in Team Lab exhibition in Shanghai and the restaurant Ultraviolet. I think that the projection into a space during leisure might be an interesting way to teach the audience about the issue as well as entertain them. In addition, tea-tasting culture prevails in China and tea has a strong implication of civilization and culture. Therefore, I chose teahouse as the target space, and selected three types of tea that have regional and cultural connections with the three scripts mentioned above.
Features of the project
CONNECTING SCRIPTS WITH TEA CULTURE
Drinking tea is a major culture in China, and the three chosen scripts are from provinces with distinctive types of tea.
PROJECTION
When drinking, animations about the scripts are projected from above, increasing the visual input in the drinking experience as well as addressing the issue.
INTERACTION
The projection is triggered by the teacup touching the table, and the projected scenes changes as the user puts down the teacup.
Design
Sketch
Choosing words
I read through dictionaries for these three scripts and chose 15 words that are associated with tea, plants and drinking culture for each script.
Coding
I coded the animations using P5.js. Here is a section of my code.
For the complete codes, please check the link below.