What does “culture” mean in terms of visual style? How do we determine when our art resonates authentically to the people in the communities from which we have borrowed these elements? As a multimedia designer, this becomes integral to be aware of when utilizing cultural inspiration. A perfect case study of multimedia medium that holds international appeal with designs frequently cultural based would be Pokémon and their creatures. While Pokémon created designs inspired by many regions, it has never depicted a Germanic region, allowing for an original intercultural study into such designs.
I sought to generate intercultural dialogue and use this to design and refine multimedia applicable designs based on German cultural aesthetics. By communicating with interlocutors in Germany, gaining insights, dialogue, explanation, anecdotes, opinions, and assertions through the means of natural ethnographic interviewing, I gained a better understanding of the perspectives of participants. Co-occurrences discovered among the participants helped locate themes, topics and ideas that could be used to guide concepts and designs. With over 60 pages of interviews, insights, and further secondary research into folk culture, I was able to gain a better start into creating creature designs within the design conventions of Pokémon and express new concepts based on ideas, taste, and themes from developed research. However, such findings would extend beyond just creature design. Thorough analysis found themes in participants having feelings of unease or “dissonance” with German identity. This coincided with other feelings of differences, disparities, and responsibilities felt by interlocutors. Themes like this would carry this project forward further. As the project let me create several user tested designs of creatures on these principles; the design of Pokémon extends beyond creatures. It extends into realizing stories and themes. Multimedia designers need a similar multifaceted in-depth approach to better their work, especially while utilizing cultural inspiration.
Author(s): Noah Isaac Davis, Interactive Media Studies Major
Advisor(s): Mark Peterson, Anthropology
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