Masks: Faces of the Pacific

Almost all civilizations have used the practice of masking, but how do we enter the world of meaning that lives behind a mask? In Masks: Faces of the Pacific, DNA Media invites you to go behind the visible and explore the richly layered creative world of masks and what they mean to the peoples of five cultures on the Pacific Rim.

Visit a Yupik qasqiq in Western Alaska or a Kwakwaka'wakw big house in British Columbia; explore a haus tambaran on the Sepik River and discover the malagan rituals of New Ireland in remote Papua New Guinea; or enter the ancient traditions of the Japanese Noh theater and Bali's dance drama. This is cross cultural investigation and learning at its best.

While masks as art objects can seem lifeless when displayed within museum cases or on the pages of coffee table books, here their hidden essence is brought alive through personal immersion in the cultures that created them. Learn how each of these cultures manifested their intimate beliefs and ancient stories through the carved and painted forms of the mask.

Walk in the traditional performance space of each culture as recreated by our 3D artist. Pick up an artifact and travel to the land of dreams where the masks take on a life of their own and experience their stories. Try your hand at restoring barely recognizable masks and learn how to tell a real mask from a fake one. Meet some of the carvers who are working today and hear them tell about their techniques and philosophies. Listen to music and play interactive instruments, watch videos of ceremonies and navigate the Pacific through the map interface. Moreover, the DNA Waymark engine allows you to leave your annotations in any part of Masks.

Over an hour of original video clips from all five cultures, a sound-track based on culturally appropriate music, and informative text which can be saved to hard-drive for classroom and research needs, allow you to contextualise these visually stunning masks and give them life through the cultures that made them. And then, you can go behind the scenes and interact with the DNA team's personal travel journal; their adventures are yours to share and explore. This visually stunning, richly informative CD-ROM is sure to be equally engaging for the curious student, the armchair traveler and the professional researcher/explorer.

Masks: Faces of the Pacific is produced by DNA Media in association with the National Film Board of Canada.

Like all the titles DNA has created so far, Masks started as a vague idea in somebody's head. In this case, Steven Forth's, our president. It was another one of those improbable ideas which, at first, no one really believes in, but that keep coming back to haunt whoever had them, until one day they start making sense and get funded.

Daniel, the writer, did a monumental amount of research. Angela, our Director of Content Acquisition, started investigating the possibility of purchasing visuals from museums and private collections. Then I found a cheap ticket to Alaska, where the Yupik people live and carve their strange and beautiful masks to dance and remember. Angela established contacts and soon I was back with a wealth of photographs and video interviews, but also with the firm conviction that travel and personal contact with the cultures that make masks was the right approach for this project. After that, it was easy to convince Steven that we should treat the remaining four cultures in a similar way. We organized trips to Alert Bay, Japan, Bali and Papua New Guinea in a flash, Daniel pleaded that good writing must be based on personal experience, and off we went around the Pacific Rim.

In search of masks, carvers, shamans, dancers and all who believe in the power of masks, we made our way across the snow-laden mountains of Vancouver Island, discovered the ancient intricacies of Japanese etiquette, slept in bamboo huts in the land of the head hunters of Papua New Guinea, walked in the shadow of the volcanoes of Bali... In our minds, Masks was taking on new dimensionsit was becoming a fascinating journey beyond the masks and into the lives, traditions and beliefs of the people who make them.

Back in our Kitsilano offices, the masks were incorporated into a coherent visual universe under the artful touch of Gregory, while Rita enveloped the whole in an intricate soundscape, rich with the influences of five very different cultures. Ray and Lorraine, the technical director and programmer, not only made the whole work, they also incorporated a host of technical and navigational novelties like the WayMarks annotation engine, and found a way to integrate an unprecedented amount of video.