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April 2000“Five Windows into Africa” CD-ROM Published
This spring marks the publication of Five Windows into Africa, an interactive CD-ROM on African art and culture, co-produced by the Teaching and Learning Technologies Lab (TLTL) and Indiana University Press. Five Windows was authored by Patrick McNaughton (IU Professor of African Art History), John H. Hanson (IU Associate Professor of History and Director of the African Studies Program), dele jegede (Supervisor of the Art Appreciation Program at Indiana State University), Ruth M. Stone (IU Professor of Folklore, Ethnomusicology, and African Studies), and N. Brian Winchester (Director of IU’s Center for the Study of Global Change). The project was partially funded by an NEH grant.
Five Windows’ authors, clockwise from top left: Brian Winchester, Patrick McNaughton (Project Leader), dele jegede, John Hanson, Ruth Stone. The authors’ fieldwork in Africa informs the five “core events” of the CD-ROM: a dancer’s role in Mande culture (Patrick McNaughton), funeral rites in Liberia (Ruth Stone), the politics of Zimbabwe’s War of Liberation (Brian Winchester), Muslim traditions and rituals in Wa, Ghana (John Hanson), and urban life in Lagos, Nigeria—one of Africa’s largest cities (dele jegede). Five Windows combines spoken narration, text, music, and visuals—from photos and video shot on-site by the authors, to historical images from news sources, and maps and charts created by TLTL designers. While all the sections of the CD-ROM share a general overall design and common functionality, each window has a unique flavor, from the colors chosen to the kind of images that predominate. Schematics illustrate the stages of dancer Sidi Ballo’s performance, for example, while video footage documents the funeral of a native Liberian man, whose body travels from Atlanta to be interred in his home country. Five Windows explores (below, in descending order): a dancer’s role in Mande culture (Patrick McNaughton), funeral rites in Liberia (Ruth Stone), urban life in Lagos, Nigeria, one of Africa’s largest cities (dele jegede), Muslim traditions and rituals in Wa, Ghana (John Hanson), and the politics of Zimbabwe’s War of Liberation (Brian Winchester).
Because of its innovative interface, Five Windows allows users to explore core events as discrete units, or investigate cultural themes as manifested in the specific instances drawn from all the core events; users can switch back and forth from either mode without returning to the main menu and starting over. Further, through the “Scene Palette” and “Related Topics” features, users can customize sessions to focus on elements that interest them most. The “Getting Around” screen explains the flexible architecture of Five Windows. Once users have selected one of the five core events, they may individualize their explorations through the “Scene Palette” and “Related Topics” features.
The “Topic Tours” feature enables users to follow thematic threads—“Spirituality,” “Many Kinds of Power,” “Aesthetics,” “Entrepreneurship,” “Individuals,” and “Community”—as they are manifested throughout all the core events.
TLTL Director David Goodrum directed Five Windows, Dan FitzSimmons led user interface engineering, Frank Morris (who was involved in the project from start to finish) served as project manager for the Lagos segment and designed the main menu, Mike Price worked on the introduction, and Julia Walsh designed the “Getting Around” segment and led final testing. William Yang and Gail Rathbun also served as project managers for core events. Senior Sponsoring Editor Janet Rabinowitch, Assistant Sponsoring Editor Dee Mortensen, and Marketing Manager Susan Havlish produced the project for IU Press. Although the press will market Five Windows with its textbook Africa, edited by IU professors Phyllis Martin and Patrick O’Meara, the CD-ROM will be purchased separately, and will likely have a broader use than the book. Primarily targeted at an undergraduate audience, Five Windows will also appeal to secondary schools, libraries, and individuals. Below, in descending order: the opening screen of the Kono Don bird dance segment, based on the Patrick McNaughton’s fieldwork in Mali; a screen that lets users follow the stages of dancer Sidi Ballo as the performance progresses; a screen that offers information on cast members—the drummer, Sidi Ballo’s apprentice, or Kono Don (Ballo’s dance persona) and dance themes—Mande spiritual associations, the visible and less visible worlds, or attitudes toward the wilderness.
Five Windows was a collaborative project from the beginning. The Office of Academic Affairs and Dean of the Faculties, which oversees ISS, was interested in broadening opportunities for faculty publication, in taking advantage of the talent in the newly formed TLTL, and in making IU faculty’s pedagogical efforts more visible. IU Press shared the desire to explore new areas in publishing, in particular multimedia projects, and expressed interest in designing a product that would complement Africa, one of its most successful textbooks. A brainstorming session with faculty members, including several of Five Windows’ eventual authors, got the project underway. Images such as the photo below illustrate Brian Winchester’s core event: Zimbabwe’s fight for independence from British rule.
Five Windows is the most ambitious project to date for TLTL, which has developed two other multimedia CD-ROMs: Investigating Olduvai: Archaeology of Human Origins, produced with faculty author Jeanne Sept (published by IU Press in 1997), and Music and Culture of West Africa: The Strauss Expedition, developed with Gloria J. Gibson and IU’s Archives of Traditional Music (to be published by IU Press this fall). At least one other title is in the planning stages. For more on Five Windows into Africa, see the Research & Creative Activity article by Mike Wilkerson (Vol. 21, Number 3: January 1999), at http://www.indiana.edu/~rcapub/v21n3/p26.html, or visit the IU Press website. |
Back to April 2000 Contents
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