Shifting Perspectives
Featured The Inclusive Museum: Edutainment Allowed View Digital Media
Innovation Showcase Janelle Christine Simmons
This presentation will re-define the role of the modernized inclusive museums. The museum is a social institution that intends to serve its community through education. Many museums have set pedagogies. However, many of these pedagogies appear to be archaic in nature. Museums such as the Smithsonian are full of information, but are often dry in their delivery of said information. While museums such as MoPop "is" innovative, but definitely focuses more on the entertainment side of delivering information on music/music history, etc. The presenter will focus on establishing a premise that museums may want to re-think their museum education/pedagogy to include reasonable forms of entertainment, which blends educational models with enough entertainment to students (i.e., keeping all age groups interested as well as learning). The point of museum education should be to enable its participants to receive information (i.e., the stimulus/stimuli), encode it (i.e., by means of mnemonics and entertainment), and thus learn the material so they may apply it in the future. After all, who said museum learning has to be dull?
Migrating Artifacts View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Yaroub Al Obaidi
I raise a few questions as an introduction to my argument. First, is there a homeland for artifacts? Do artifacts migrate? Why do artifacts migrate? Are they seeking sanctuary or looking for someone to hear its untold story? I argue there is a home for these artifacts and its home is where they were found for the first time. That home is where people lived thousands of years ago - according to their history and geographic information. The formation of countries led to the division of these artifacts. Artifacts are products of human achievement and are unlimited to place. When people lived there it was based on where the resources are more available to sustain their life, not the country. I claim that artifacts move like people and this migration happens for several reasons - sometimes naturally and sometimes forced migration. While human life is most valuable, artifacts are valuable too, because they contain the meaning of life and great achievements. I believe that immigrants from the same countries where certain artifacts originate should be given the right to enjoy the artifacts where they are. More cultural programs along with artifacts should be created with and for people from those countries.
Uncovering Narratives Through Curated Education
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Michelle Pannone, Iain Kerrigan, Stephanie Golden, Danna Biello
Celebrating inclusion is an interdisciplinary student-led and organized exhibit seeking to research narratives of minority groups in the field of design. In recognizing the need for expanding our communities’ collective knowledge and growth, the design of each exhibit traverses through a rigorous research and synthesis phase engaging a diverse set of students and faculty collaborators on the curation team. The research and curation for each exhibit occurs over the course of eight months after a particular focus has been identified. The process includes comprehensive research, group synthesis, organization, and graphic communication to create a compelling display that takes the viewer on a journey through the rich narrative of underrepresented voices. Two exhibits have been completed to date, the inaugural exhibit celebrating Black designers by looking into the history of licensed Black architects in the United States, as well as issues of racism and neglect in predominantly Black urban communities, and how the next generation of designers can begin to amend these acts. The most recent exhibit highlighted Women in Design by creating an extensive timeline of women’s design history that overlaid the chronological context of Women’s Rights in the United States to give a greater understanding of the rise of female equality in society. The exhibit functions not only as a point for education, but a departure point for discussion about why these designers are not included in the curriculum, and how students can call for a more inclusive education.
