The tumblr site I created as a prototype to place all the images I have edited from contributions has been going fairly alright. However, the site is more of a gallery than anything else now. While the images and captions are presented in a clean manner, there is nothing to do aside from just viewing them on tumblr. I initially thought it’d be great to have people share/reblog these images on their own tumblr/social platforms, but I realised that is the sole action that anyone could do on the site too.

Perhaps the images are too static. Suggestions about adding fictional anecdotes to create a story arc around the images arose. I also toyed with the notion of animating the images. However, I eventually concluded that simply animating the existing images and uploading .gifs doesn’t eliminate the problem of having a lack of objective on the site. Visitors would most probably not revisit after looking at it once (most probably due to the novelty of the topic at hand).

I decided to google for interactive websites.

One that really stood out was Soul Patron by Frederik Rieckher, an interactive documentary about the Mizuko Jizō in Japan. Rieckher even made a bunny character, Tokotoko, that would lead the viewer around the web documentary. Tokotoko was actually intended for a baby that ended up stillborn. This goes back to the concept of Mizuko Jizō, which is a protector for deceased children in Buddhism.

Eventually, I decided to go along the documentary route. Instead of just having a compilation of collaged images, it would be interesting to have several ‘Period Diaries’ on a site. Something like an online anthology of characters. The interface would be something I’d have to think about. But for now, I’m going to prepare the assets for the site that I intend to create.

Another direction I’d like to venture into would be to get the males to look at the same images (I haven’t decided if it should be the unedited or the edited ones) and have them answer some of my questions about what they see/think. It could even be the other way around. One surprising factor about this project would be the interest I’ve gotten from the males instead of the females. I’m getting questions about how menstruation is like, what girls do when they have it and et cetera. They are intrigued by the topic and the edited images – something I did not expect. That could be an interesting factor to include.