This interactive emulates the intimate experience of reading a long-form Japanese scroll, but on a personal touch screen. It features a rarely seen masterwork, A Long Tale for an Autumn Night, the story of a homoerotic romance between a Buddhist monk and a young male novice.

Emaki (picture scrolls), first emerged in Japan in the eighth century. They generally measure about one foot high and can extend for more than thirty feet. Emaki are meant to be unrolled laterally, from right to left, and read in sequential segments. With the freedom to move through the scenes at his or her own pace, the viewer physically experiences the progression of time and space as the past is rolled away, the present is slowly uncovered, and the future waits to be seen.

SCREENCAST OF THE INTERACTIVE

PROJECT
Produced for The Metropolitan Museum of Art exhibition Storytelling in Japanese Art in 2011.

FORMAT AND PRESENTATION
Custom interactive iOS app running on touch screens (iPads).

PRODUCTION CREDITS
Director and producer: Paco Link
Production coordinator: Staci Hou
Developer: Colin Kennedy
Designer: Kevin Park