Yertönts, the Vertical World
Thesis Project
2023. Sep - Present
Click Here to Read The Research paper.
According to CNN, one-fifth of the world’s more than 7,000 languages are projected to become dormant or extinct by the end of this century. Currently, approximately nine languages vanish each year, equating to one disappearing every 40 days.
Traditional Mongolian is the only language in the world that’s still written vertically. Despite efforts by young Mongolian artists and programmers, smaller languages struggle to keep up with the rapidly changing contents and trends in both pop culture and academia. This leads to my thesis question: When the decay of certain cultures in the material world is unavoidable due to complex reasons, how can we preserve the culture, which is inherently a fluid entity, in another world without reducing it to just a static repository of collective memories? Conversations about digital preservation typically focus on losses during translation. However, my persistent curiosity centers on how introducing a real-world environment into the digital space can breathe life into a culture during translation between different media.
In collaboration with many local Mongolians and young Mongolian musicians from Inner Mongolia, this project tries to reconstruct the circular world of one’s memory, Yertönts, in digital space and make one’s memory an interactive experience in the VR world. Religions build conceptual worlds, imagining realities that are patterned and purposefully regulated. In this project, the circular form of the world not only is linked to the meaning of the Mongolian term for memory, "ergentsüülel," which means cycling back, but also comes from the circular traditional nomadic Mongolian housing unit, the Mongolian yurt. Samsara, the fundamental concept in Buddhism that is linked to the karma theory and refers to the belief that all living beings cyclically go through births and rebirths, also serves as the main theoretical base for worlding and capturing the glitches and fuzziness of the world of memories.
.
According to CNN, one-fifth of the world’s more than 7,000 languages are projected to become dormant or extinct by the end of this century. Currently, approximately nine languages vanish each year, equating to one disappearing every 40 days.
Traditional Mongolian is the only language in the world that’s still written vertically. Despite efforts by young Mongolian artists and programmers, smaller languages struggle to keep up with the rapidly changing contents and trends in both pop culture and academia. This leads to my thesis question: When the decay of certain cultures in the material world is unavoidable due to complex reasons, how can we preserve the culture, which is inherently a fluid entity, in another world without reducing it to just a static repository of collective memories? Conversations about digital preservation typically focus on losses during translation. However, my persistent curiosity centers on how introducing a real-world environment into the digital space can breathe life into a culture during translation between different media.
In collaboration with many local Mongolians and young Mongolian musicians from Inner Mongolia, this project tries to reconstruct the circular world of one’s memory, Yertönts, in digital space and make one’s memory an interactive experience in the VR world. Religions build conceptual worlds, imagining realities that are patterned and purposefully regulated. In this project, the circular form of the world not only is linked to the meaning of the Mongolian term for memory, "ergentsüülel," which means cycling back, but also comes from the circular traditional nomadic Mongolian housing unit, the Mongolian yurt. Samsara, the fundamental concept in Buddhism that is linked to the karma theory and refers to the belief that all living beings cyclically go through births and rebirths, also serves as the main theoretical base for worlding and capturing the glitches and fuzziness of the world of memories.
.
Drag or Scroll with Your Mouse to Interact with The Model Above
Yertönts, the Vertical World
Scan the QR Code to Navigate The AR Temple
Isometric View of The Photogrammetry Model of Uxin Ju Temple
Elevation View of The Photogrammetry Model of Uxin Ju Temple
The Motion Capture for Cham Dance
Photos of The Physical Installation