An Annotated Coded Messages: CHAINS
Cultural Ecology from Ghana to the World Wide Web
by Melissa Lang and Andruid Kerne
Creative Media Cauldron &; NYU Center for Digital Multimedia


A note on navigation: Netscape 1.1 or higher is required to enjoy the complete design. Additionally, you will need helper applications in order to hear the sound files, and view the Quicktime movies. We have a help page set up to help you get your machine properly configured. The links we have set up here go to the actual site. To return to this article use the "Back" button on your browser.

The Doorway stands between the dungeon and the light. A figure stands poised, ready to cross the boundary. Thus begins your journey through the web site, Coded Messages: CHAINS. The CHAINS site is one product of our own journey to Ghana in 1994, a testimonial to our study and collaboration with traditional drummers and dancers there.

We didn't go to Ghana just to collect sounds or conduct anthropological research, though we did do this to some extent. Our main intention was to interact with the people, to establish relationships with them, to share an understanding about our different ways of life. Our desire was to provoke ourselves and our fellow human beings into new experience and new perspective. We went to Ghana to exchange creative energies in a common cultural ecology.

Our work is about moving between contexts and boundaries. We challenge the separation of disciplines and strive to forge connections between cultures. This web site joins the spaces between tradition and technology. As we walk you through the site, take time to find new connections in what we present. Challenge our perspective. Find your place in context. We are offering one of the many possible routes through the CHAINS site. It is not the only way, nor the right way. Our discussion will present a mix of the nuts and bolts of designing and constructing this site, and an explanation about the content.

Copyright 1996 by Creative Media Cauldron. All rights reserved.



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