¡NUEVOlution!: Participatory Stories Build Community
It’s been a pleasure working with the Levine Museum of the New South in Charlotte the last couple years on their groundbreaking exhibit ¡NUEVOlution! which explores the mutual evolution of Latino and Southern cultures. The exhibit builds on the Museum’s mission: “using history to build community” — an approach that has earned the museum national recognition for the ways they connect with community and grow with community needs.
My own focus was use of visitor stories in the exhibit. We had a special opportunity to push things a couple steps further, using a tablet-based version of Storykiosk software at community events, uploading stories gathered to our cloud-based Content Management System (CMS). We use the CMS to provide a continually updatable flow of visitor stories in the exhibit in both the Identity Theater and Hopes and Fears station (see screenshots below).
There is much to write about — I’ll blog more about each of these pieces in the future. But already we’ve seen some new forms emerge from the integrated use of stories, including a Tweet Chat that the Museum was able to incorporate in Identity Theater, and the emergence of visitors who become social media advocates for the exhibit.
The exhibit will travel eventually to Atlanta History Center, Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, and beyond, providing a great opportunity to adapt to each community through visitors’ own stories and participation.
It’s been a privilege working with the team, including Kate Baillon, Darcie Fohrman, Irene Morris, Tom Hanchett, Rodrigo Dorfman, and many more…
Bilingual StoryKiosk records stories that are fed into Identity Theater and Hope and Fears exhibit (graphic design throughout by Irene Morris).
Identity Theater blends filmmaker Rodrigo Dorfman’s videos, visitors’ stories, and moderated tweets with continual updates via the Content Management System
Icebreaker intro draws visitors to the exhibit, creating an encounter (“encuentros”) when the visitors’ image becomes part of the animation on an Ideum Presenter 55 touchwall
Hopes and Fears: visitors’ contribute stories, played back alongside filmmaker Rodrigo Dorfman’s videos on the same topic