Muse-unveiling methodologies
The methodology of the project is based on interdisciplinarity, a participatory approach and co-creation.
Interdisciplinarity. The project requires collaboration between historians, digital humanities scholars, cultural heritage scholars and cultural institutions to create a cohesive and interconnected narrative spanning multiple universities across Europe.
Participatory approach. The methodology follows a participatory, bottom-up approach involving museum staff, academic bodies and students in structuring, elaborating, designing the virtual exhibitions hosted in the virtual museum space. This approach aims at fostering dialogue, encouraging the direct involvement of students and library and museum staff to re-imagine the heritage.
Academic bodies and museum staff were asked to choose between 3 and 5 objects, which were presented to the research group during two general meetings. The research group agreed to include also paper print documents as well as replicas and environmental or historical elements in the surroundings of the museums. The research group agreed to add an extra exhibition on the The heritage of the dialogue and the circulation of ideas between universities. For each object, the research group of each university provided the metadata (data about data) on the origin, provenance, physical location and so on of the object, as well as a ‘biography’ exploring the meaning and proposing a storytelling of it.
Co-creation of contents. The ‘biographies’ have played a pivotal role in the co-creation process. Starting from a list of common questions they provided the individual story on which the overall storytelling was built. The questions characterizing the exhibition Unveiling the Environmental Heritage of University Museums were: Why can the item be considered part of the University's environmental heritage? What fields of study is it linked to? What has been its role in the history of scientific research? How does it fit into the human-environment relationship? Why is its history relevant to the challenges of the present?
Based on these ‘biographies’, the exhibits were organized and grouped according to common perspectives and suggestions, highlighting possible links between them, but also ensuring new perspectives and interpretations. Letting the objects retake centre stage in the generation of the narration of the exhibition, we tried to create a potential space where the objects could perform, thus regaining their authority and significance as instruments of (knowledge) production and not only as (cultural) referents.
Through this process the ‘biographies’ also became the way to activate the research team in each museum and a fundamental tool for the participatory construction of the narrative.
The storytelling of the exhibition is thus the result of a complex collaborative process aimed at stimulating new reflections and perspectives on university heritage rather than providing a definitive interpretation.