Isamu Noguchi’s Akari: A Twine
As a collector and curator of objects, I wanted to choose one infused with a distinct history. I settled on a stubby paper lamp I bought at The Noguchi Museum on a whirlwind 36-hour trip to New York. The lamp is in my living room, and I often admire its minimal form and think about all the other thoughtful shapes and designs created by sculptor, Isamu Noguchi. My intention was to share the rich story of this simple, functional and seemingly common object.
I chose Twine as the platform to contain my artifact as its functionality allows visitors to actively engage and explore the material. Twine provides an interface to help one build a web-based narrative utilizing HTML, CSS and JavaScript – it’s not coding from scratch, the interface allows for easy building of a base, then the design can be tweaked at the user’s skill level. My aim was to create both a nuanced space, analogous to a well-curated museum, with a path or storyline within. Like walking through a self-guided tour at a museum, there is some guidance, but the pace and direction are determined by the visitor.
I feel I achieved the museum-like space I intended and was successful in creating a minimal design that reflects the aesthetic of my chosen object. However, my impression of Twine is that my exploration only touched the surface of what the platform can provide and with significant time and experimentation an even more engaging multimodal virtual space could be built.