During class, we brainstormed for different project ideas to make/propose to the Ainu. Sabrina and Tyler were part of my group. I was the blue marker, Sabrina was pink, and Tyler was green.
For my ideas, I came up with a few. I was focused on the embroidery they showed up during the conference call. One that I got some positive feedback on was a “map” of the embroidery on certain clothing items. A high-resolution photo would be taken of the particular garment, then the user could click on the different embroidered symbols. This would then zoom in on that symbol. Text would fade onto the screen to give background information on the symbol, thread, color, frequency of use, etc. One the user was satisfied, they could click a return button and the page would zoom out to the full photo of the garment again. Then the user could click on another one.
I also thought about some form of online store. Ideas floated around about the Ainu selling embroidered items, or a user picking a symbol and getting it placed on a t-shirt. We thought this might bring them into a more modern setting, plus people could wear Ainu/Ainu-related clothing, therefore bringing more attention to them. We were worried, however, about commodifying them. That is not what we want and we don’t think that’s what they want.
Some ideas from Tyler and Sabrina included a video game and a personal narrative video. For these, we had to consider scope and interview availability.
Here are the photos of our paper:
