Musealization Hope

Memories that cure

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## Inspiration COVID19 is having a major impact on society and older people are particularly vulnerable. They are largely experiencing anxiety sadness and loneliness. In confinement, they especially seek refuge in their most cherished memories. We want to rescue their experiences, avoiding oblivion and encourage them to move forward with hope.

What it does

Give value to the act of remembering and rescuing significant memories by the elderly over 65 years. Memories are a source of well-being and emotional fulfillment that serve this group to move on with their life and connect with their innermost self thus overcoming difficult times.

Our intention is:

  • Create a museum and exhibitions related to their lives and memories but open to all
  • Create stories where they can be the main characters
  • Connect with other people, share and create collaborative stories
  • Overcome the sadness that comes from moments of crisis fueled by hope to boost their self esteem

This virtual museum is an active container of memory, a living entity that feeds on those mementos that serve to elaborate new ones. It is a meeting place, playful, open and participatory for all.

How I built it

We are a team of museologists and designers. The steps we took:

  1. Develop the structure of the project
  2. Contact with people 65+ in order to collect images, photographs, songs, objects that recall loving moments of family meetings, trips or specific events that evoke positive emotions
  3. Catalogue the “memories”
  4. Explore creative ways to bring the memories to life and try to define accesible tools especially for elderly people

Challenges we ran into

The development of the 3 main areas.

  1. Museum and Exhibitions: define the museum structure and exhibition themes.
  2. Stories: the way to build the stories (publications, audios, videos...)
  3. Activities: describe different activities (meetings, games...)

We have not the skills to develop a suitable software, so we ask for a web developer to bring to life the museum. It will be adapted for all types of users although the main users will be people over 65 We need also an app developer for mobiles solutions to our participatory proposals: creating stories, and activities (meetings, games…)

Accomplishments that we're proud of

The coordination of the team and level of creativity of the proposal. The expected global impact by promoting the connection between people from different backgrounds and places encouraging active participation.

What we learned

There is an emotional cost to the crisis. We do not look for medicines that cure the body, but our mind and our emotional state by creating tools based on introspection and connection with others, that are agile, flexible and lasting.

What's next for Museaization Hope

The project will continue indefinitely to adapt to technological improvements and try to reach as many people as possible, since what we are developing is a tool which will help us to through moments of crisis. Past positive experiences will generate well-being present and future ones.

Contact with the university of the Elderly of the Complutense University of Madrid to test the impact with their participation and feedback

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