Museomix India, 2019 Workshop
MUSEOMIX is a global event that brings together storytellers and makers of all kinds to reinvent local museums by prototyping new ways of interacting with the exhibits. MUSEOMIX is a creative 3-days marathon in museums. This international event takes place every year in November. MUSEOMIX in India was held at the SANSKRITI KENDRA TERRACOTTA MUSEUM, Delhi.
The workshop, hosted by Unbox, Banana House and Makers Asylum, and moderated by Hugo Pilate, was about bringing an intervention, analog or technological, to specific spaces within the Terracotta Museum of the Sanskriti Foundation on the outskirts of Delhi.
After a brief introduction to the workshop agenda, all participants were divided into four groups. We were given 7 different topics to choose from. All groups had people from different backgrounds like designers, artists, coders, researchers, etc who choose to work in the different topics of interest from the Sanskriti Museum.
Our team had 4 people were called “The Madhubani Discovery”. We choose to work on a wall mural from Bihar (A State from East India) painted on one of the walls inside the museum. Initially, we did some research to understand the background and meaning behind the mural painting.
The mural is called Khobar Ghar, the Bride’s Nuptial Chamber. It is a traditional mural made in Nuptial Chamber in the Maithil culture to bless a newlywed couple. Specially skilled women draw this painting on the wall of the rooms during the marriage ceremony. This particular painting was done by traditional artisans named Shanti Devi and Girindra Mohan from the Madhubani area, Bihar.
The central theme of these Kohbar paintings is love and prosperity depicted with symbolic images. The visually rich mural is filled with traditional motifs and fertility symbols. It has paintings of birds, animals, insects, humans, and gods. The most prominent image on the walls is the bamboo-tree and the ring of lotus, called ‘purain’. The lotus circle is a symbol of the female sex, while the bamboo-tree represents the male sex. The animal forms like tortoise, peacock, fish, parrot also appear here. There is a central circle surrounded by other smaller circular forms which may be depicting Navagrahas.
The colouring is done with natural colours and pigments Bright and bold shades of colours are used for the geometrical patterns in the mural. The artists use various items to draw these geometrical shapes and figures such as brush, rice straws, twigs, fingers, matchstick.
After our internet research for a day, we came to the conclusion that this painting depicts an ecosystem of the village in which nature is a big part. We wanted to bring forward this hidden symbolism and meaning from this painting to viewers for a better understanding of the mural and its context. The mural is a set up for the newlyweds for their new journey of discovering themselves together. Since the painting serves as an ice breaker between strangers who just got married, we wanted to bring the same experience in the museum space too.
Exhibit Concept
We started brainstorming on the storyboard for the visitor’s walkthrough experience of the mural. We decided to have two entry points for exhibit space so that two people can enter from opposite sides. As the participants enter, they will see spotlights moving from one motif to another and it will move in coordination with the participant’s movements. We wanted to highlight certain areas of the mural and bring attention to its hidden symbols accompanied by an audio explanation in the background. This playful activity is something that the participants have to find out themselves by moving around, adding a discovery element to the whole experience. At first, the lights would randomly move but as soon as the participants move in synchronized movements towards the mural, the lights circle will also move in sync.
After the concept development on the second day, we started to assemble the assets needed setting up the room and projection. Since the wall was in an open area we need to block the light to come in so that the projection was clear. We made floor signages and posters to guide visitors to space and made printed zines to handout to visitors.
We used processing (open-source coding library) to create the spotlights and flickering animation which synced with the feed from cameras sensors which was tracking body movement. Then interactive animation was projected on to the mural by the projector.
By the end of the third evening even though we couldn’t complete the whole coding but we figured out ways to highlight the areas and bring in music and animation into space. We opened the exhibit for visitors in the evening for a few hours.
The three-day workshop gave us a good introduction to how technology can be used in museum spaces for better interaction and experience. Collaborating with people with different experiences was an exciting and enriching experience.
Read another team workshop account here (Team spin) below.
