Dublin, July 1st 2009
Museum Building Manifesto
Citizens of Trinity, Dublin and beyond:
For over 150 years I have sat here in the heart of the Trinity Campus. Since my birth I have been a subject of many power struggles, as the highest authorities of Trinity College fought about my location and architects fought about my fatherhood. I survived many smoggy winters, the slow dilapidation of my internal spaces, student pranks and a few dodgy maintenance experiments. I have been a home for many noble and decent people, who have fought important wars, built railways in lands far beyond the horizon and created knowledge. I was born to a high standard, embellished by some of the best craftsmen in this country, and yet today very few people would dare glance at me or explore the many layers of culture, technology and stories that I have accumulated over all these years. I have sat in misery while my brother the Old Library gets all the attention. I am aware that I might come across as uninviting and shy, but I have feelings too and after all these years I feel neglected.
I am a living creature as much as any of you and I will no longer sit here in silence. I declare myself free from the tyranny of packaged guided tours, the banalization of everyday life and the trivialization of history. I will make myself heard and reappropriate the technologies of our society of digital spectacle to encourage play against passivity and isolation. I will breathe, scream and reveal my hidden layers and secrets to the limits of my decency. I have enlisted a group of revolutionaries that are loyal to me and believe in my ideals. They have the most effective digital and analog tools, the sharpest thoughts, and will stop at nothing till this Revolution succeeds.
Citizens of the world, you are a part of this, as much as you are a part of me. I invite you to join me in this struggle, to listen to my breathing and to share my heart beat. My limbs are outstretched to embrace you. I invite you to step off the beaten path that leads nowhere and follow your emotions in a journey of discovery. Liberate yourselves from your everyday routine, throw away your guide books, reset your ears and eyeballs and join the Revolution!
Signed:
__________________________
The Museum Building and SEMB
We met in the morning and discussed the Manifesto ideas. We agreed to use Marcos's manifesto with a few alterations. The Manifesto was "written" by the Museum Building, and we are the "comrades" that the Building enlisted to carry on the Revolution. :-) We also discussed our ideas for experiments. Binbin suggested analysing point of view of Asian tourists as they seem to pay more attention to traditional buildings than western tourists. We thought that it might be a case for an experiment. Dara came up with several experiment ideas using sound and light and suggested we run a few of them on Sunday when the building is quiet.
Killian suggested we draft letter to Neil (administrator) with our questions. We hope this letter will be circulated to users of building so we can get some data about them.
We created a shared document so we can put all our experiments in it. I emailed Manifesto to Nicky, he gave us positive feedback and suggested we carry out a few more experiments so that on Wednesday we can discuss them via Skype.
NEXT STEP: meeting tomorrow to talk about experiments list. Looking to pay a visit to the Science Gallery to enquire about their RFID tracking system for the Infectious exhibition.
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