Museum of Formosan Aborigines

Abstract

In the beginning, the purpose of this thesis was to explore the feasibility of creating a computer-based visual museum. I wanted to experiment with 3-D interactivity, such as how to set up the cursor movement in a 3-D world and how to use 3-D animation in interactive multimedia. I wanted to use Native Americans as the subject of this 3-D museum project. After I sent my thesis proposal to our department, I found my classmate's project was about Native Americans also. Therefore, I decided on another topic. In July 1995, 1 went back to Taiwan to visit my friends. I found that Sinorama magazine had a series of articles discussing Taiwan's indigenous culture. By this chance, I reviewed their culture from hunting to battle, agriculture to fishing; from weddings to funerals, worship to exorcism, prayers for good harvests to harvest celebrations; from leg ends to stories, myths to ethnic-origin tales, concepts of nature to the view of the world. Their culture was so exciting to me. I started to think about changing the subject of my thesis. I discussed the idea with my friends. All of them encouraged me to do this project and also helped me to do research. This thesis still focuses on the 3-D museum, which attempts to preserve the tribes' rich past and present it in an intuitive way. Interactive media is used to maintain the audience's attention while introducing them to a foreign society. The interactive program was created using numerous computer software packages, combined together to comprise the heart of the thesis. The program has been built around Macromind Director,Video Fusion, Strata StudioPro, Adobe Premiere, Adobe Photoshop and SoundEditl6. The combination of all these programs results in the end product: an inter active program.