Category: Collaborative Project Development

The Ainu: Beyond The Politics of Cultural Coexistence gave me an overview of the long history of how Ainu fought for their cultural independence as indigenous people in Japan. Obviously, the Japanese government took some wrong actions at the beginning that ignored the cultural heritage and their racial identities when trying to assimilate them into modern Japanese society. What particularly attracted me is the part what Tahara Ryoko commented on the new law, “Ainu culture is not limited to language or ceremonies or dance. It is Ainu life itself. Whatever happens every day within the household is Ainu culture.” (Suzuki 1999) I personally think that it is impossible to separate the cultural heritage from the land where the culture was actually nurtured. Thus, I believe the key to the success of actually realizing the “coexistence” and “reconciliation” between Ainu culture and the existing mass culture in Japan is to give them the rights to use and take control of the land where their culture was nourished. In this way, they could be “modernized” while still keeping their own cultural heritage.

The 2012 Tegner Report provided quite a lot of data that would certainly benefit us for our project. What interested me the most is the information of oysters on the menu. It’s interesting for me to see the change of oysters on the menus in different times in New York. In terms of visualising the data, I am thinking of creating a map that shows different species of oysters that were served in the restaurants according to the locations and times. We can definitely make it more interactive by showing the real pictures of oyster dishes that were served in different areas and different times.

 The WCS information sheets provided information of what Wildlife Conservation Society in New York is has done and is working on right now. I am especially interested in their project of getting rid of plastic straws in NYC. I have seen a lot of news and articles on how marine animals are suffering from the pollution of plastics. Whales are killed every year from plastic bags in the marine environment since they often mistake plastic bags for food like jellyfish. I’m happy to see that organisations are putting efforts on this topic and I hope that more countries and government can pay attention to this topic and start to take actions.

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After reading the 2012 Tegner report, It’s interesting to think how society’s food preference can be influenced and cause the decline population of certain species. Surely if something like that can be influenced then we can use that towards our advantage to decrease consumption of certain species. A lot of these food preferences, are based on trend. I find it particularly interesting that oysters were considered food for the poor and lower class because of how common they were which is strange to think about since they’re more expensive now. The impact of human consumption on these sea species is really apparent as shown through the information on how World War I and II gave some populations to recover. Yet after the World Wars ended, demand for fishing was back again and the populations started to decline.

The WCS information sheet mentioned how bringing awareness to human pollution and the effects it has on the ecosystem are not something new or recent. I remember when I was younger,the harm of polluting the oceans with plastic was taught in school. People definitely all have some knowledge of what happens to sea animals and plastics that are thrown out into the ocean. However, I feel like there was never a huge initiative to actually do something about the amount being discarded into the oceans and frankly, some people just don’t care enough. However, recent news of big companies such as Starbucks getting rid of plastic straws is definitely a sign that people are starting to understand how badly our environmental situations are, and I think it’s important to keep up this momentum of positive change.

“Ainu Success: the Political and Cultural Achievements of Japan’s Indigenous Minority”

Reading about some of these Ainu artists’ struggle with balancing their performance of Ainu music between a more traditional and contemporary take, highlights their challenge in what is the ‘correct’ way to express and spread their culture. As Chisato Dubreuil comments, “The rejection of contemporary Ainu art is even more mysterious… it’s my belief that if Ainu art is not allowed to naturally evolve, it supports the Japanese discriminatory position that the Ainu are a backward people incapable of fine art.” I think as important as it is to preserve the traditional aspect of the Ainu culture, it is just as important to support naturally evolving the culture. Chisato Dubreuil has a point and especially since the main emphasis is to keep the culture alive. A culture that is ‘alive’ is constantly changing, rather than forcing it to be preserved and looking at it as only a part of history. I think a more interactive website that showcases the history of the Ainu would be more engaging to audiences rather than reading a research paper/article. Additionally, I think it’s important to showcase a combination of art and music styles of the Ainu people, such as traditional and contemporary.

I found the data on the Tegner to be quite interesting and somewhat comprehensive. One set of data that stuck out to me was the list of shark sightings in New York. I was surprised by how many sharks there were around the state, but unfortunately, a significant number were just labeled as “shark”. If we were to make an interactive map or something similar of the sharks around New York, it would have to just be about the number of sharks in general, not the kinds of sharks as many were unidentified. However, we could have sets of information on the page so that people could still learn about the different species. The Seascape article also mentioned keeping the waters clean and I think it would be a good opportunity to also educate people on how pollution affects the diverse aquatic wildlife. Even though the data is set in New York I feel like it would also be a good opportunity to decry certain practices such as shark fishing for the production of shark fin soup (which is more a delicacy in China) as the procedure is quite inhumane. 

I read the article Ainu Success: the Political and Cultural Achievements of Japan’s Indigenous Minority. The cultural divide between the Japanese and Ainu is quite severe and the Ainu people have been suppressed. Because of that, I think we could help spread the unfairly suppressed Ainu culture with designs similar to Ashley (I think that is her name) or Jenny’s interactive projects. Ashley’s perfume/fragrance line would fit well with the objective I am trying to achieve as that’s what the original project did: explore other people’s cultures. Not only would people be able to see the Ainu culture from different Ainu people, but there is lots of room to explore different mediums, not just text, but videos or pictures which could be more engaging. Jenny’s text based interactive story could also be a nice way of introducing people to Ainu culture. I was thinking of a set of topics that could be explored, like food or dance, and clicking on the people would reveal what they think about said topic. 

“Ainu Success: the Political and Cultural Achievements of Japan’s Indigenous Minority” reveals the extent to which the Ainu hold agency over and revere their identity as indigenous peoples of Japan. In particular, I found the Marimo Festival to be one poignant instance where the Ainu “took conscious agency and control regarding the relation between modern social and ecological phenomena… [and subsequently] reshape[d] their cultural identity in order to successfully respond to the demands of their contemporary situations” (Wielding Culture). I can imagine some aspect of this festival manifesting into a short documentary style film or informative web game illustrating the Ainu’s cultural negotiations as they engage with the Japanese government. 

“A Four-Century Retrospective of Marine Fauna and Fisheries Around New York City” was particularly interesting in that it provided detailed accounts and histories of particular species within the New York City area. As previously mentioned in class, I could certainly envision a digital inventory of all the menus advertising oysters (pg. 11) during the early-mid 20th century, or perhaps an animation or film featuring a first-person account (from the animal’s perspective) of the six shark sightings mentioned on pg. 14. The content delivered in this report contained a wealth of knowledge on specific species that may serve as a starting point for our projects. 

MARCO’s EFH Highly Migratory Species dataset “provides information on where any EFH life stage occurs for a given species” which may be helpful in further developing a project based on the shark sighting anecdotes found in the above-mentioned report. We might use this data, for instance, to visually contrast the shark species existing during the late 19th through early 20th centuries (based on previous shark literature) with present shark species in similar areas. Using MARCO’s vessel counts data from 2011 through 2017, we might also overlay a map of vessel traffic in the Mid-Atlantic as it relates to and potentially impacts current shark habitats.

Link to past project – BioGraphics, an interactive case study on Chinese identity:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1J5eyx1lOdGiS8Xu1pYo19rGvLvrGVoMs/view?usp=sharing

The WCS Information Sheets provided general background about some of the projects that the Wildlife Conservation Society in New York is working on. I think the sheet did a good job outlining the projects, and by creating an interactive version of it would be engaging.

On the other hand, the 2012 Tegner Report provides a lot of useful information. For creating the webpage, I think it would be better if the home page is more simple, otherwise, there would be too much information for the audience when they open the webpage. By categorizing the different data, it would be easier for the audience to navigate through the webpage and access the information. For example, by categorizing the different areas (such as Montauk, New York, to Cape May, New Jersey, to the coasts of New York and New Jersey, New York Harbor, the lower Hudson River, the East River, and Long Island Sound) by map. Also, by going through the resources and cutting down information and limiting it to only the most useful information would make the webpage neater as well.

“The Ainu: Beyond the Politics of Cultural Coexistence” was an interesting article that covered the historical background as well as the challenges they face as new reforms emerged. While reading the article, it was unfortunate to see the fight that the indigenous people had to put up, as the Japanese government attempts to assimilate them into modern Japanese society. This reminded me of a minority group that I worked with this past winter break. I volunteered in Chiang Rai, Thailand to work on a coffee entrepreneurship project. The coffee shop I worked for was located in the mountains and far away from downtown. The owner of the coffee shop is part of the indigenous Ahka group, who were not seen as Thai citizens. Due to their circumstances, a lot of the local Ahka people lived in poverty. Instead of speaking Thai, the Ahka people have their own language and are separated from the rest of the Thai community. It was interesting to see the parallels between the Ahka people and the Ainu people while reading the article. Minority groups often face challenges in embracing their own culture while assimilating into contemporary society with pressures from the government in an attempt to modernize. While in Thailand, I was able to create some videos along with my peers for the Ahka people. We filmed and interviewed them to help others better understand their culture and story. Therefore, I think that helping the Ainu produce content that will negate some of the stereotypes that they didn’t want would be impactful for them, by portraying who they really are.