About the challenge
NEW: CLOSING EVENT on Tue 12 Dec, 19.00 at the SoI or online
Students present their solutions to the Challenge provider!
Watch live online on Zoom! – Passcode: 141125 (open access)
This initiative is aimed at discussing scenarios or long-term changes in the creation, distribution, and consumption of cultural objects. The perspective that will be applied in the challenge is inspired by the idea that the future is not completely traced by the past but may offer innovative and challenging opportunities to human societies and if positively inspired to reverse discriminative practices and homogeneity pressures that permeate mainstream cultural offers and the artistic markets.
The future studies approach offers the possibility to introduce students to analysis of complex societal and global dynamics and interdependence between technological and social change. Futures envisioning suggests thinking about the futures as factual spaces where to situate our preferences in terms of social interactions, work, and daily life and where our public and citizenship rights can be acted.
The challenge encourages students, organised in multidisciplinary teams, to address critical aspects of the transformation of cultural objects with a fresh attitude, evaluating the variety of possible progresses and their unexpected social, technological, and economic implications. The instance of our challenge provider – an ethnographic museum – will offer the teams an opportunity to discuss and explore cultural and social trends, such as the preservation and diffusion of folklore and culture of European ethnic and linguistic minorities, the standardisation of cultural products offered in social media and on demand platforms, and the marketization of heritage and man-made landscapes.
About the challenge provider
The ‘Museo degli usi e costumi della gente trentina’ (www.museosanmichele.it) is a regional based ethnographic museum situated nearby Trento (IT); its collection of artifacts from alpine traditional culture is very extensive and spans from everyday tools for artisans (wood carving, weaving, etc.) and farmers, to artistic objects and folklore expressions. It also hosts an extensive visual and documentary archive of carnivals and feasts related to religious and popular traditions in Europe. The Ethnographic Museum organizes photographic and analytic exhibitions dedicated to alpine culture, exploring the multiple connections between communities and the environment, and is a well-known research institution in the Italian ethnographic scene.
Target Groups
Consumers aged 14 yrs onward.
Current state
Quantify the need
The Ethnographic Museum promotes the challenge and offers its own study case as a baseline for discussion and exploration of the future of cultural objects. The teams will develop different projects situating the museum inside different futures scenarios to be imagined and described by implementing the Futures Literacy approach.
Qualitative insights
Some scenarios may include the museum as the principal subject, other scenarios may depict a future where the traditional museum is no longer present and is substituted by other forms of cultural transmission; finally, other scenarios may even foresee no future for the preservation of traditional culture.
These imagined futures for the Museum will give the opportunity to envision a long-term perspective for local-based ethnographic museums, to invent a new role for artifacts from the past, and discuss the role of cultural and educational institutions (civic and public organizations and local governance actors).
Assessment and expectations
Desired state
Developing the futures scenarios for the Ethnographic Museum, the participants will have the opportunity to reflect on the duality nature of culture as an agent of differentiation and bonding in European societies, as well as to investigate the relationship between identities and cultural objects in a virtualized and globalized world. Specifically, we want to involve the participants in two main goals:
- first, to offer the challenge provider an inquiry of opportunities to develop projects that potentially involve its community of reference (terroir);
- and second, to learn and apply the Future Literacy approach to open up new horizons for sustainable and inclusive societies.
Learning offering details
Calendar
(changes may apply)
| Date | Hrs | Activity | Where |
| Mon 17 Oct | 15.00-18.00 | Welcome to Trento (ECIU students only) – Team building and meeting with mentor(s) at DSRS. | in Trento |
| Tue 18 Oct | 9.00-12.00 | Meetings with Unitn delegates for International Relations, SOI e DSRS – City Tour (ECIU students only) | in Trento |
| Tue 18 Oct | 15.00-17.00 | Introduction to Futures Literacy (Odella) – Seminar at DSRS | in Trento |
| Wed 19 Oct | 10.00-12.00 | Visit to the challenge provider Museo S. Michele (Ethnographic Museum) | S. Michele all’Adige |
| Wed 19 Oct | 15.00-18.00 | CHALLENGE KICK-OFF – Public event at the Museo S. Michele | S. Michele all’Adige/ online streaming |
| Thu 20 Oct | 15.00-17.00 | Tools and Methods for Futures Literacy. (Odella/Poli) – Seminar at DSRS. | In Trento |
| Thu 20 Oct | 17.00-19.00 | Teams meet the mentor(s) – Project action plan (DSRS) | In Trento |
| Fri 21 Oct | 9.00-12.00 | Tools and Methods for Futures Literacy (Odella) – Seminar at DSRS | In Trento |
| Thu 27 Oct | 17.00-19.00 | Teams meet the mentor(s) – Project Action plan (DSRS) | Blended: in person/ online |
| Tue 8 Nov | 11.00-13.00
and
16.00-18.00 | ‘Memory across Generations’- Inspirational lecture at the Museo S. Michele (Ethnographic Museum) – Following: Pitch of projects with feedback and discussion (DSRS) | S. Michele all’Adige/ online |
| Thu 17 Nov | 17.00-19.00 | Teams meet the mentor(s) – Project action plan (DSRS) | Blended: in person/ online |
| Thu 24 Nov | 19.00-21.00 | On demand mentorship – Project action plan (DSRS) | online |
| Thu 1 Dec | 19.00-21.00 | Teams meet the mentor(s) – Project action plan (DSRS) | Blended: in person/ online |
| Tue 6 Dec | 19.00-21.00 | On demand mentorship – Project action plan (DSRS) | online |
| Mon 12 Dec | 19.00-21.00 | CLOSING EVENT – Teams introduce their solutions – (SOI)
Watch live online on Zoom! – Passcode: 141125 | Blended: in person/ online |
| Tue 13 Dec | 17.00-19.00 | Award ceremony at the Museo S. Michele (Ethnographic Museum) | S. Michele all’Adige/ online streaming |
Other information
Language requirement: English B2 Level, CEFR
Mobility resources
Kick-off, museum visit, and first meeting are in presence in Trento. The rest of the challenge is blended (online for ECIU participants, in presence for UniTrento students).
ECIU students can ask for funding information at their home University.
