Cultural Heritage Decoding of Chiang Rai Myth and Folktale into Community Artworks Creation Approaches

Abstract

This research entitled “Cultural Heritage Decoding of Chiang Rai Myths and Folktales into Community Artworks Creation Approaches” aims to collect both oral and written ethnic Chiang Rai myths and folktales and to decode the cultural local wisdom found in them for developing art design product prototype guidelines for Chiang Rai communities. The data included 18 ethnic stories from 18 districts in Chiang Rai Province. Among them, nine stories were selected for the research based on two main criteria including characteristics and potentials for developing “art products” for local communities. The data from stories were analyzed, synthesized, and culturally decoded using surface and deep structure analysis methods.
Results showed that these stories are linked to the Tai ethnic groups’ traditional and Buddhist beliefs of the Mekong River basin. The decoded data from these stories showed four substantiable development processes used for art design product development including 1) revitalization, 2) conservation, 3) application, and 4) innovative development. These concepts were applied for the selection of three approaches for art design product prototype guidelines including 1) Realism Design Art, 2) Stylization Design Art, and 3) Freedom Design Art. A total of 20 art design products were created and introduced as products for generating extra income for communities in Chiang Rai Province.