Honored and Feared

How to convey the tension and depth of the contraction between the honored place elephants hold in Indian culture, and the fear these massive mammals can instill when they trample crops? Personal stories do that so well! This touchscreen plays three stories using custom footage from India’s Assam region. The real people featured tell of their reverence for Indian elephants, on the one hand, and the “normal” behavior by angry farmers who counterattack after elephant raids, on the other.

The kiosk is set within a themed environment of a broken-down farm hut after an elephant raid. The nearby shrine to Ganesha (Indian elephant-headed god widely revered as the remover of obstacles) was designed by ECOS to add to the placemaking and storytelling aspects of the visitor experience.

Video touchscreen interactive produced with Boston Productions, Inc.