digital museum final project 7 2014

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Final Project for The Digital Museum Jon Bunge July 21, 2014

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Page 1: Digital museum final project 7 2014

Final Project forThe Digital Museum

Jon Bunge

July 21, 2014

Page 2: Digital museum final project 7 2014

Proposal for The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s

Sierra Leone Youth Art Project

Page 3: Digital museum final project 7 2014

My Original Questions:

• Given the very unequal distribution of cultural riches in the world, how could they be better shared?

• How could the Internet and digital media be used to share the cultural resources of a great museum with people of impoverished countries, who have much less access to such resources?

Page 4: Digital museum final project 7 2014

My Client: The Met

• Because their encyclopedic collection would appeal to people of various cultures

• I wanted to be careful not to “export” only Western culture (the main focus of some U.S. museums)

Page 5: Digital museum final project 7 2014

My Target Country: Sierra Leone

Why Sierra Leone?

• A mentee of mine, Mohamed Bah, is from there• Small, impoverished nation in West Africa, population about six million• One of the poorest countries in the world• One of the lowest literary rates in Africa

Page 6: Digital museum final project 7 2014

My Original Idea

• Educational videos produced by the Met about art objects from the Met’s collection that could be viewed online

• The Met staff would give background and explanation of various objects on the videos

• Videos would be translated into the main native languageof Sierra Leone (Creole) or be subtitled

• Videos could later be subtitled in many languages to be used not only in Sierra Leone—with the idea that the Met is a global institution and in keeping with “One Met. Many Worlds.”

• For older children, videos could be a curriculum tool in schools

• Adults could learn about art and have their world expanded

Page 7: Digital museum final project 7 2014

What I learned from Mohamed

• My idea isn’t a good one because it requires Internet access• Less than 1% of the population of Sierra Leone is online

(according to one figure on the net)• Electricity outages are common, so Internet access is

inconsistent• Subtitles won’t work well – only 43% are literate – and

Creole is not really a written language• No free public education in Sierra Leone, so only an

estimated 25% of kids are in school (and thus wouldn’t see videos)

• Mohamed himself didn’t start school until he was nine• Main takeaway: I didn’t realize how big the “digital divide”

still was.

Page 8: Digital museum final project 7 2014

New Proposal (in conversation with David)

The Met would:• Collaborate with a NGO in Sierra Leone which focuses

on youth and education (the Met would not run the program itself)

• Solicit donations of computer tablets and solar chargers (the latter to address the electricity issue)

• Load the tablets with images of masterpieces of world art (not just Western) from the Met’s collection

• Find someone fluent in Creole, perhaps a volunteer, to translate background information and discussion questions about the art objects

• Load translated information onto tablets

Page 9: Digital museum final project 7 2014

Example of Tablet Screen

Page 10: Digital museum final project 7 2014

Proposal (continued)

• An instructor from the NGO would run classes for children• Instructor will lead discussion about works of art on the

tablet (to address lack of art education in school)• Children will then be taught how to take photos on the

tablet• Photo activities could be based on images studied from the

tablets• Children would then share their best photos on Facebook• Facebook pages would be maintained in Creole (for

audience in Sierra Leone and West Africa) and English (for audience in the U.S. and other English-speaking countries)

Page 11: Digital museum final project 7 2014

Facebook page (Creole version)

Page 12: Digital museum final project 7 2014

Proposal (final points)

• The Met would maintain a blog about the project on its website, with a link to both versions of the Facebook page and other social media

• With some funding and in-kind donations, exhibits of the children’s artwork would be mounted in both Sierra Leone and New York

• The children would help with prepping the work for the shows (such as matting and framing), thus learning more skills

• The shows would help to publicize and raise money for the project

• Some of the proceeds from any sales at the shows would go to the children and their families

• With increased visibility and funding, the project expands to serve more children

Page 13: Digital museum final project 7 2014

Thank you so much for listening!