Folkvine’s three ring circus-y: A model of avant-folk mapping

Abstract

This chapter argues that Folkvine uses artistic approaches as a method of cultural mapping, and also that a review of the project's practical, technical, and theoretical difficulties can help refine other groups' projects. It combines applied community-based arts education, critical approaches, and aspects of traditional folklore, but the primary focus is on the artistic approaches in the Folkvine.org project: the formatting, design, and presentation of the materials—elements of practical and aesthetic concern for cultural mapping generally. The chapter explains in detail how we constructed the websites and the site's cultural mapping using the folk art as guides to the design. The goal of using the website was to allow the general public, tourists, collectors, and fans greater access through clear user-friendly navigation to often inaccessible folk life and art, both geographically and culturally. To some, the entire website might appear "circus-y" rather than something constructed in an appropriately staid and serious style.