OUR PROJECT
A proposal is to concretise ideas, supported by research, for a final design revolving a given theme "Mythology". We conducted real life research by study trip, required to collect visual, oral, textual evidence.. Tactile artifacts must be recorded, and documented, accompanied by necessary information that would be part of our research materials for the ideation. Utilising the data collected from the research trip, we are required to produce visual design outcomes using any medium of our choice.
The traditions of Thai Lersi, also known as Ruesi/Hermit have been forgotten over the years. Most Thai people tend to misinterpret Lersi due to their unique way of life & many judge their lifestyle, even portraying their own perceptions of such Lersi into current dramas. In modern times however, there are a few people claiming to be Lersi indicating that the tradition, once thought to be forgotten is slowly being manifested into reality again.(Wilmer, F. 2018) The last even known true Lersi passed on in 2005 and never took on a disciple.(La Magie Du Bouddha) This research is to retell the legend of the Lersi because it is not told often and is not understood by many.
- What is Lersi?
- What are the different terms of lersi in Thai culture?
- Why is Thai Lersi not as popular as the monks?
- What are the differentiating qualities of Lersi and are they all the same?
- What is the significance of Lersi?
- What is their influence on Thai medicine & yoga?
- How do modern Lersi hermits today compare to ancient Lersi hermits?
Storytelling Approach - wayang-kulit inspired
We recreated a puppet show including Thai traditional puppetry inspired by wayang - kulit to retell one of the many legends of Lersi and also to revive the art of traditional puppetry to the audience. There are not many recreations of the legends of Lersi out there, or visual story telling of such legends, which inspired us to tackle this problem as these legends which are slowly being forgotten, need to be heard and reached to a wider audience. We felt that a puppet show would be the most appropriate method to capture the essence of the Lersi hermits as it is also such a traditional method that is not practiced as often these days. We took inspiration from our very own local culture, Kelantan wayang kulit which is influenced by Thailand and Johor wayang kulit which is influenced by Javanese, Indonesia. We created 4 Lersi puppets with sticks attached on joints for the movement, a recycle box for the puppet show set up, and some manually painted backgrounds of the Lersi habitat. The colours are vibrant to make it lively & joyful atmosphere.
We came up few research questions & technical questions in order to retell the story by using puppet show and website for audience to understand more about Thai Lersi. We filmed the puppet show based on the story of animal headed story of Lersi. We pasted a qr code on board so the audience can freely scan them to read more.