Virtual museum pays tribute to life of King Rama IX
The Facebook page Infographic Thailand recently launched a virtual museum in memory of HM King Bhumibol Adulyadej. Titled “King 9 Moment”, the online tribute was released on Dec 5 to mark the birthday of the late monarch.
The King 9 Moment website incorporates several multimedia elements, making it fun and interesting to follow. It is not just another website that compiles the life and work of King Rama IX with mere text and photo-based presentations. Here users can play and interact with some of the displays as if they were in a physical museum.
The online museum is divided into four sections. The first part, which is the highlight of the site, is “89 Years Of King Rama IX” featuring 89 years in the life of the King — from childhood until his last royal residence at Siriraj Hospital. What’s outstanding is that this section is presented through a technique called parallax scrolling, where the background is moving at a different speed than the foreground, creating movie-like effects. Here users are required to scroll down the page where they will be taken back in time through beautiful drawings depicting moments in Rama IV’s life. These are accompanied by short pieces of text with the piano version of royal composition Paen Din
Khong Rao ( Alexandra) playing in the background. The second part of the site is called “Love Is All Around” — basically a 360-degree virtual tour of a room adorned with several elements that remind us of King Bhumibol’s contributions to the country and his people. Here King Bhumibol’s jazzy Klai Roong
( Near Dawn) is played as the background.
The third part of the website, “89 Paintings by 89 Artists”, features works by creator of the famous Tidlom Line stickers — Zylo Studio, Painterbell, Lovecumentary, Bugboom, Monsty Planet and many more.
The 89 paintings are accompanied by text describing the meaning and concept of the artwork. They are also available for download in JPG format.
The final section of the virtual museum is “Beloved King Rama IX” allowing viewers to share impressive moments of the monarch. According to the site, all letters shared here will be collected and sent to the Royal Household Bureau later.
The development of the online museum is supported by the Bank of Ayudhya, eBay Marketing (Thailand), Land and Houses Bank, Muang Thai Life Assurance and Siam Commercial Bank. The piano solos of the royal compositions played on the website are by Sek Thongsuwan.