CHArt Computers and the History of Art CHArt 2000 Conference Paper Abstracts

VISUAL CULTURE AND THE NEW MILLENNIUM

Patrick McNaughton,
Indiana University

A CD-ROM on African Art and Culture, with a closer look at Bird Masdqu

I want to present the development of a new 2 disk CD-ROM called Five Windows into Africa, created by five scholars (with me as project leader) in collaboration with Indiana University's Teaching and Learning Technologies Laboratory. Each of its five units explores a different topic and geographic area, by presenting an actual event and an extensive collection of themes that bring the event to artistic, cultural and social life. This massive project involved much experimentation with software development, content presentation, user-friendly units of information, screens and user interfaces, navigation, and variation and consistency across the five units. Two of the authors were art historians, and several lab members had strong art backgrounds. Thus aesthetics played a pronounced role in the project.

My presentation will focus on my unit, a dramatic bird masquerade by a virtuoso performer named Sidi Ballo. I saw him in 1978 at the height of his expertise, and his artistry was inspirational. Leaping benches, ascending high platforms, slamming into walls, dancing the masquerade upside down and demonstrating invisibility were key elements in his aesthetic strategy. I had not expected to witness this, so my documentation included still photographs but no video to demonstrate the motion. I wrote a vivid description, and interviewed the artist, other performers and bird masquerade enthusiasts, both in 1978 and on a return visit in 1998. Through carefully articulated presentation and a dynamic interplay between performance description and an elaborate constellation of themes, we capture the drama, intellectual dynamism and cultural significance of the masquerade.