Ukrainian Village Project Update

[Natalie O. Kononenko]

Ukrainian Village Project Update

We are pleased to announce major additions to the Ukrainian Village
Project located at http://cti.itc.virginia.edu/~nkm/.

The purpose of the Ukrainian Village Project is to make available folklore
and ethnographic data about Ukraine.  The Project is an on-going effort
and the data for it has been and is being collected by Natalie Kononenko
of the University of Virginia, Peter and Greg Holloway, and a number of
Ukrainian folklorists.  Data collection has so far taken place in the
Kyiv, Cherkasy, Poltava, and Chernihiv regions.

The first unit of the Project, posted approximately one year ago,
showcased material culture.  There was a model of a real village house,
along with a discussion of traditional house-building techniques.  There
were several sample costumes.  The costumes and the house can be viewed in
three dimensions.  Using QuickTime, which is available as a free download,
the user can navigate through the house and farmstead, getting a sense of
relative dimension and placement.  For material culture, 3-D viewing
offers significant advantages in terms data presentation and use.
Furthermore, culturally important parts of the house, namely the stove,
can be isolated and studied.

Over the past year we have added a unit on rushnyky or ritual towels.
This unit contains pictures of almost 100 traditional items from Central
Ukraine.  There is a discussion of rushnyk uses and symbols, a symbol
glossary, and a presentation on variation in folklore, using rushnyk
motifs as data.  We have just added Rushnyk-Maker, an interactive program
which allows the user to design his or her own rushnyk using traditional
motifs.  I used Rushnyk-Maker in my courses to teach variation within
traditional limits.  This program can also be used as a design tool.

We are proudest of our pysanka (Easter egg) unit.  This unit, like the
others, contains background information on pysanky and their symbols.
There is also a plate with clickable pysanky.  Each egg is then glossed
and can be rotated to show all sides using QuickTime.  We have produced a
program called Pysanka Tutor.  This is an instructional, interactive
program that provides 3-D help for teaching the process of pysanka dying.
The program is too large to place on the web and we are considering
selling it, should there be sufficient demand.  What is on the web is a
low-resolution video which runs through the stages of pysanka dying and
thus offers a sample of Pysanka Tutor.

Our final new unit is Baba San'ka's House.  Like the Latysh house, it is
3-D and the viewer can "walk through" the house, examining all rooms.  The
house provides additional data on house construction and layout and offers
a sample from another village.

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