Practice-based Research on Digital Technology: A Case Study of

Wat Phumin, Nan Province, Thailand

Tawipas Pichaichanarong

, Veerawat Sirivesmas

and Rueanglada Punyalikhit

Suan Sunandha International School of Arts,Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University, Nakhon Pathom Campus, Thailand

Faculty of Decorative, Silpakorn University, Bangkok, Thailand

Keywords: Responsive Web Design, QR Codes, Lanna Mural Paintings, Wat Phumin, Practice-based Design Research.

Abstract: Thai mural paintings have played a significant role in Thai society since the Sukhothai kingdom period (1238-

1438 AD) until present. Wattana Boonjub (2009) points out that Mural painting were used for teaching the

Thai people in the past. Throughout history, temples have become a crucial part of Thai' lives; for example,

Wat Phumin in Nan province. Wat Phumin has exceptional architecture, beautiful visual presentations of

Buddhist storytelling on the walls which depict scenes from the Buddhist Jataka tales, and scenes of everyday

life in Nan. These unique characteristics have attracted many visitors to this temple over the years. In addition,

when those interested visit Wat Phumin, they experience this temple as a Museum. In fact, Loc Tallon et al.

(2008) suggests that the museum experience provides an appropriate situation for learning history in an

unconventional setting. As a result, previous research titled “Visual research practices on Thai Lanna mural

painting: A case study of Wat Phumin, Nan province” was presented at the 4th International Conference for

Asia Pacific Arts Studies (ICAPAS 2016). The results indicated that the information concerning the Lanna

mural paintings inside the temples was overwhelming. However, there are no directions facilitating Thai and

foreign visitors in viewing and understanding at the first episode of storytelling on Lanna mural paintings

inside Wat Phumin. Therefore, this research is the result of finding a solution to facilitating visitors in viewing

Buddhist Jataka tales through digital technology (such as responsive web design, QR codes, etc.) with

practice-based design research.

1 INTRODUCTION

The results from the author’s previous research titled

“Visual Methods in Social Research on Lanna Mural

Painting: A Case Study of Wat Phumin, Nan

Province” presented at The 4th International

Conference for Asia Pacific Arts Studies (ICAPAS

2016) indicated that information regarding the Lanna

mural painting inside the temple is overwhelming.

This is because there are no directions facilitating

Thai and foreign visitors in where to first begin in

terms of the episodes of the storytelling inside the

targeted site. Therefore, this paper results from

attempts to find an apt solutions through practice-

based research methodology.

2 LITERATURE REVIEW

Identifying a solution to facilitate the comprehension

Thai and foreign visitors of Thai Lanna mural

paintings is not an easy task. This research has

adopted practice-based research methodology

through practice in its attempt to do so.

2.1 Practice-based Research

Practice-based research is an authentic investigation

to garner new insights from a variety of practices and

the outcomes of those practices. According to

Laurene Vaughan (2017), the author describes

practice–based research as the collection of

knowledge through creativity resultings in the

scheme of designs, music, digital media,

performances and exhibitions (p.56). This research

was designed to explore an example solution to

facilitate the visitors’ viewing experience of Lanna

mural paintings at Wat Phumin, Nan province using

different approaches.

156

Pichaichanarong, T., Sirivesmas, V. and Punyalikhit, R.

Practice-based Research on Digital Technology: A Case Study of Wat Phumin, Nan Province, Thailand.

DOI: 10.5220/0009192101560161

In Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Intermedia Arts and Creative Technology (CREATIVEARTS 2019), pages 156-161

ISBN: 978-989-758-430-5

2.2 Wat Phumin as a Museum

Wat Phumin in Nan province presents a dazzling

visual presentation of Buddhist storytelling on the

walls (T.Pichaichanarong, 2016). In this research, the

setting at Wat Phumin has been treated as a museum.

Ana Maria Theresa Labradorpp (2018) points out that

museums can be sites for investigation (p.78).

Therefore, treating Lanna mural paintings as

museums would suffice as mentioned.

2.3 Objectives

1. Analyzing difference approaches to develop a

solution through practice-based research.

2. Develop tools to facilitate Thai and foreign

visitors who attend Wat Phumin in Nan province.

3. Use digital technology, such as responsive web

design, QR codes to be examples for solutions in

this research.

2.4 Definition of Terms

2.4.1 Responsive Web Design

This research chose a website to act as the channel to

facilitate Thai and foreign visitors’ experience of Thai

Lanna mural paintings at Wat Phumin, Nan province

because since the invention of the internet by Tim

Berners-Lee 1989,it has become a widely used means

of communication. According to Jason A. Clarke,

(2015) there was a change in web development from

2010 to present. Web development has expanded to

mobile platforms with mobile computing which

includes browsing the web, watching movies, typing

on word processors, etc. Responsive web design is a

set of know-how tools for creating web sites that work

on various devices and screens (p.2).

2.4.2 QR Code

QR code is a readable code comprising a batch of

black and white strips, used for linking URLS reading

by a camera on a smartphone, as derived from the

Japanese industry in 1994 (Retrieved from the

internet on February 27

,2016). The QR code was

introduced to this research with responsive web

design for connecting to videos on the YouTube

channel. Indeed, video is itself another means of

facilitating visitors.

3 METHODOLOGY

3.1 Practice–based Research Design

The first step in practice-based practice in this

research starts with the inspiration from Assistant

Professor Fua Haripitak (1910–1993) who studied in

India during 1940–1946, at Visva Bharati University,

Santiniketan, India. He saw how the Indian

government has copied drawing samples of mural

paintings from various ancient sites in order to

preserve India’s heritage. After Assistant Professor

Fua Haripitak returned to Thailand, he decided to

copy drawing samples from various Thai temples in

Thailand.

Figure 1: Assist. Prof. Fua Haripitak, Thai National Artist.

Figure 2: Assist. Prof. Fua Haripitak studied mural

paintings before he copied the samples.

Figure 3: Assist. Prof. Fua Haripitak copied drawing

samples from mural painting in order to preserve Thailand’s

national heritage.

As a result, this research adopted the copy

drawing sample technique for the Thai Lanna mural

paintings at Wat Phumin. In order to copy the entire

drawing sample technique, this project required the

entire photograph of Thai Lanna mural painting at the

temple.

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157

Figure 4: Thai Lanna mural painting at Wat Phumin, Nan

province (North).

Figure 5: Copy drawing of Thai Lanna mural painting at

Wat Phumin, Nan province (North).

The author’s previous research (2016) identified

three major categories for storytelling on Lanna mural

paintings at Wat Phumin as follows: (i) ‘The Story of

the Buddha’; Second, (ii) ‘The Previous Life Stories

of the Buddha’, and Third ‘Ordinary Life of the Local

People. This research selected ‘Previous Life Stories

of the Buddha’ as the focus of practice-based

research. To understand the storytelling in ‘Previous

Life Stories of the Buddha’, the researcher studied the

relevant books and interviewed those with the

knowledge and expertise. First, to understand Thai

mural paintings in general, it is tradition when people

visit the Thai temple, they first come from the

direction of the north of the temple, then follow

clockwise to the east, south, and west as shown below

(Figure 6).

Figure 6: Direction of Wat Phumin, Nan province Image

from: The 7th Reginonal Office of Fine Arts, Nan province.

The second step of the practice-based practice

research adopted the Archaeological Mapping and

Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) coordinate for

the Thai Lanna mural paintings at Wat Phumin.

Image from:

https://coastalarchaeology.wordpress.com/2012/07/19/arch

aeological-mapping-with-idraw/

Figure 7: Archaeological Mapping.

Image from:

http://www.georeference.org/doc/universal_transverse_me

rcator_utm_.htm

Figure 8: Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) coordinate

system.

Thai Lanna mural paintings at Wat Phumin used

the same idea from both examples on the grid system.

The researcher divided the image of Thai Lanna

mural paintings at Wat Phumin, Nan province as

shown in Figure 9.

Figure 9: Divided image of Thai Lanna mural paintings at

Wat Phumin.

Third, the researcher used copy drawing samples

of the Thai Lanna mural painting at Wat Phumin to

identify the direction of storytelling on ‘Previous Life

Stories of the Buddha’. The content on the ‘Previous

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Life Stories of the Buddha’ derives from various

sources. After confirming the narrative for ‘Previous

Life Stories of the Buddha’ to be in the correct order,

the direction of the storytelling starts with the north,

followed by east, south, and west at Wat Phumin, as

shown in Figure 10.

Figure 10: Order of narrative storytelling on ‘Previous Life

Stories of the Buddha’.

As a result, there are numbers of coordination for

the storytelling on ‘Previous Life Stories of the

Buddha’ upon the four sides of the wall at Wat

Phumin.

Next, this research adopted a QR code by placing

them into the given positions of storytelling on

‘Previous Life Stories of the Buddha’ starting with

episode 1 at the coordinate of point B9, and with the

QR code image as given in figure 11 placed with the

other coordinates respectively.

Figure 11: An example of a QR code links to the video

content uploaded to YouTube (Episode 1 >

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6Dn8bAuRSo)

All of the QR codes on the images of Thai Lanna

mural paintings linked to 2D moving images for the

storytelling of Panya-Jataka at Wat Phumin uploaded

to YouTube.

In fact, the video contents on Youtube comprises

2D moving images for the storytelling of Panya-

Jataka for Wat Phumin, which the researcher received

funds from the Office of Contemporary Art and

Culture (OCAC) Ministry of Culture, Thailand in

2017. The 2D moving images for storytelling of

Panya-Jataka at Wat Phumin, Nan province totalled

amounts of thirteen videos.

After that, the researcher has completed the

placement 13 QR codes into 13 positions in the

images of Thai Lanna mural paintings at Wat Phumin,

as shown in Figure 12.

Figure 12: QR codes placed on the coordination of

storytelling on ‘Previous Life Stories of the Buddha’.

Next, the researcher deleted the lines on the

images as shown in Figure 13.

Figure 13: Final image of storytelling on ‘Previous Life

Stories of the Buddha’ in the north.

3.2 Responsive Web Design

What is RWD?

According to Jason A. Clarke (2015), the author

of the book “Responsive Web Design in Practice”, the

idea of building web sites that work on multiple

devices and screens in order to serve the new era of

digital technology with limitless power.

The responsive web design was used in this

research because of its ability to work on multiple

devices and screens. The researcher suggests RWD

can facilitate Thai and foreign visitors to Wat

Phumin, in their experience of Thai Lanna mural

paintings at Wat Phumin in Nan province.

3.3 Google Sites

For the first version of RWD, the researcher used

Google Sites as a tool. Google Sites is one of the

products from Google first released in 2008. Google

Sites was created for anyone who wants to create a

personal website. The new version of Google sites has

the responsive web ability to open its website on

various platforms. In addition, Tatpuje and Ganbote

(2015) point out Google platform contains with

Practice-based Research on Digital Technology: A Case Study of Wat Phumin, Nan Province, Thailand

159

number of tools and apps, use of videos, online tools,

interaction through Google community.

In Thailand, there is the collaboration between

Google and Thai Universities called “Google for

Education” in order to help the students improve their

learning and innovation (retrieved from

https://edu.google.com on February 28

, 2019).

The researcher used Google Site from Silpakorn

University, Thailand for the first version of RWD as

shown in Figure 14.

Figure 14: Google Sites version.

3.4 RWD Frameworks

For the second version of RWD, the researcher used

the RWD frameworks to create a responsive web as a

tool. A framework is a collection of files-scripts,

HTML, CSS, and so forth. In addition, Priyanka

Panchal (2017) explains that the quality of this web

properties will calibrate from mobile screen to full

desktop resolution continuously. This research

selected the “Bootstrap” framework

(http://getbootstrap.com/). Bootstrap is the most

popular of the three frameworks widely used globally

presented in Figure 15.

Figure 15: RWD Frameworks version.

4 DISCUSSION

A result from both version of Google Sites and RWD

Frameworks is an example of the solution in order to

facilitate Thai and foreign visitors at Wat Phumin

through digital technology. It is illustrated in Figure

16.

Figure 16: A diagram of a solution to facilitate visitors at

Wat Phumin through digital technology in this research.

4.1 Data Analysis

This research used a practice-based research design in

every steps of producing the final outcome to answer

the objectives of this research. Indeed, the researcher

followed all the practice–based approaches in the

framework as given in Figure 17.

Figure 17: Practice–based Research Design.

This research focuses only on the storytelling on

‘Previous Life Stories of the Buddha’, with Khattana

Kumara Jataka on the northern wall, the eastern wall,

the south wall and the Nimi Jataka on the western wall

as illustrated in Figure 18.

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Figure 18: Khattana Kumara Jataka (left), Nimi Jataka

(right).

5 CONCLUSIONS

In conclusion, this study has achieved all the

objectives as set. However, the idea of this study

derived from the creativity related to the literature

review and in-depth interviews from field trips. In

addition, the researcher added digital technologies in

this study as well, and expects new knowledge to be

derived from this experiment.

From the results from our research, we can

conclude that new digital technologies can influence

the ways in which individuals and institutes act as a

museums. Susana Smith Bautista (2014), author of

“Museums in the Digital Age: Changing Meanings of

Place, Community, and Culture” asserts that museums

( for example, Wat Phumin in Nan province) today can

integrate both traditional elements and the context of

the digital age to embrace the legacy of place, locality,

culture, and community (p.xxi). This can then reach a

modern younger generation.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We are very grateful to The 4th International

Conference for Asia Pacific Arts Studies (ICAPAS

2016) committee, and The 1st International

Conference on Intermedia Arts and Creative

Technology (CREATIVEARTS 2019), both veld in

Yogyakarta, Indonesia for allowing us to begin our

journey with ICAPAS in 2016 , and other episodes

with CREATIVEARTS in 2019. In addition, we

would like to express our gratitude to our universities

for their support.

REFERENCES

Bautista, S. S., 2014. Museums in the Digital Age:

Changing Meanings of Place, Community, and Culture.

MD: Alta Mira Press.

Clark, J. A., 2015. Responsive Web Design in Practice

(Library Technology Essentials). MD: Rowman &

Littlefield.

Dalferro, A., 2018. Museum NOW! Articles from Talks

Presented at Academic Conferences. Bangkok:

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History of QR Code How was the QR Code created? How

has it come to be used so widely? | And what is its

future? (n.d.). Retrieved February 26, 2019, from

https://www.qrcode.com/en/history/

Panchal, P., 2017. Responsive Web Design and Web

Development Using Bootstrap Frond-End Framework.

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