Territories of Value
A virtual treasure room for Siam
The Value theory compose
of a range to understand how, why and to what degree people value things;
whether the thing is a person, idea, object, or anything else. Bruno Latour
mentioned about the value as matter of fact and matter of concern. The more
objects are turn into things, the more matter of facts are turn into matter of
concern. What makes a thing valuable? And to whom? How do we keep, exhibit and
protect valuable things? And who decides what makes a things valuable or not?
Evaluation of value has
been extended from the range of individual personal level to the bigger scale
of national level or cultural level, How does a culture agree on what is
valuable and not? Example from the V&A museum in London, the criteria’s of
choice were made by the council decision and voting process from the nominated
treasure.
Who wants to see the
treasures? And why? Why is it important to show and experience treasures of
past time? Could be for national and cultural promotion or propaganda, could be
for educational purposes, perhaps it could also be for sentimental and
emotional reasons.
The matter of fact and
the matter of concern were taken a big part with how we perceive the value of
the object. Example from the Michael Jacksons’ glove, the matter of fact has it
own limit of what it is, it is a glove that made for hands protection. The
matter of concern were extended out with how we visualize the object, the glove
belong to Michael Jacksons, the world famous singer, that make his glove
concern more on value.
To evaluate and
interpret the meaning of the value nowadays, we depend on the degree or amount
of value that ties to human needs and wants, as well as memories.
Thai heritage temple,
Wat Ratchaburana, Ayutthaya, Thailand, is the most valuable Phra Prang in
Thailand. It was built by King Chao Samphaya in 1424, with the specific purpose
to kept the treasure and dedicated to his two brothers. The complexity of
value through the layers inside, while approach into the treasure room create
the hierarchy and the expression of the shell and the essence part inside Phra
Prang. Today simple brick with simple ornament outside show the trace of past time,
rich of ornaments with color, shape, form and material.
Recently leaded
people to the underestimated of the value, but once get inside Prang the value
reveals itself through the treasure underneath. Express the different layers
from outside surface with ornaments, along with the laterite brick structure
and the treasure room innermost. Phraprang was to contain and protect the
valuable treasure inside, while it can communicate and express value through
the surface. Treasure is a
concentration of riches and power, often one that is considered lost or
forgotten until being rediscovered. The treasure inside was discovered by Silpakorn
department and taken out into Chao Samphaya museum for its own safety and
exhibition after a group of thief stole all the treasure. The treasure room
today contains no treasure inside, but left the trace of Ayutthaya painting
that symbolize the Buddha story.
Museum was extracts each object from its own original environment and
transfer into the new site in the museum. All the treasure was kept inside a
building in a room and in the glass box, which make people further away to
approach and interact with the object through the glass surface.
Today much of value
theory is scientifically study, recording what people do value and attempting
to understand why they value it in the context of psychology, sociology, and
economics.
The complexity of value
that ties to our own perception and evaluation was experimented in the Papaya
Warehouse, Bangkok. The experiment video shows the gather of antique
object in the same splendid place, giving the new experience through the route
in each step. The hierarchy shown through the categories of individual value, sociology
value and economy value that represent in different hierarchy of information
and graphic. Example from the chair, table and poster. Exploring the space inside. The route and the quality
of attention, sequence of perception,
scanning
and looking with different kind of the object and try to extract the value
behind it.
The value that ties to the memories, which empower the power through the
vehicle as a treasure using by the King Rama V. The Royal palanquin is now in
Bangkok National Museum to communicate the power from the past Ayutthaya history
to the present day, the value communicates through the materials and Thai
ornaments that symbolize the monarchy. Another contemporary example that can
compare with is “The Beast” President Barack Obama’s limousine. The Beast
communicated the power through the shell as a skin to protect president inside,
with the hidden specific function inside, it symbolize the democracy. Both
object ornaments communicate the power and value through the median of the
shell and skin of the surface.
As travel along the street, both objects signify the power and variety
of value through the journey along the road. To communicate the value of both actual
power and visual power, by the level change of the width and height of the road.
The space is to design the complexity in different scale, higher the
road is higher actual power, wider of the road is the wider of the visual power.
The visitor can experience all the
information and meaning through the journey passing both objects along with the
street environment from both sides.
The virtual grammars are
representing time, location, history, distance, material and value. Also how both
object perform and use with people in specific period.
In modern digital age, technology
involved being a part of our precious value memories, through the picture and
collection of data, bring back and recover to capture the moment anytime. Therefore, in this
project aim to present the virtual treasure room for Siam, Thailand.
Motion interactive screen
and Leap motion glasses become the evaluation tools of Thai heritage treasure. Tracking
the visitor motion and analyze in real-time, the glasses enable the user to see
three-dimensional images which give an illusion of depth of perception. Body
gesture sends signals to adjust the images seen by the user as they move around
their environment.
Now we are able to visualize and interact with the treasure and
becoming the part of their existing.
This new
revolution of dealing with treasures and heritage allows individuals and groups
to interact with the objects, and nominate new ones.
In the virtual treasure room, visitors are able to see and interact with
Thai heritage treasure that are nominated and voted from people. Giving new
experience of how the object virtually exhibit and kept in virtual age. Walking
and looking around Phraprang with scatter of the treasure floating around and
the collection of data attach to the treasure. Visitor can explore Thai
heritage treasure by rotating object and looking through the different
information of the specific treasure.
New and contemporary treasures nominated by the registered user. Only Thai
register able to get inside the real treasure room one person at a time.
Entering by an individual password in order to get inside. Interact with the
virtual treasures, nominating and voting treasure would be base on the matter
of fact and matter of concern. By
voting and evaluating the object base on individual perception, voting criteria
and popularity shown on the surface and covered the object.
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