This week, I went on the Hard Times: 1880s tour at the Tenement Museum. There were about 8 people on the tour, and one knowledgable staff that walks the group through the rooms of two german families while telling their stories. Being in the environment that was decorated and preserved as how it was back in the 80s, I felt like I traveled back in time. It's a new format of a museum, which was cool and exciting experience. Funny thing was that I started thinking of what my life would be presented 100 years from now.
Essay
The way we live now probably would probably seem bizarre for people from the past because it's so different. People from 2122 probably would feel the same way about us. From 2020 to now, it has been difficult and strange due to the COVID-19. People lose their loved one, and people don't see each other. There are a lot of sadness surround us, but there's always good because it makes us stronger and find other ways to make moments special. I want to create a museum that tell stories about people's hardships and how people make the best of it during these difficult times around the world.
About
We tell the stories of ordinary people from Beijing, China, NYC, U.S.A., Britain, UK, and Taipei, Taiwan during the pandemic. By walking through the emotional journey of all families and seeing how people lived through this period can give visitors an idea the impact of the global disease as well as the changes and sacrifices everyone had to make during that time. We presents the background information about COVID-19 and how it progressed to give visitors a scale of the impact. The display will be people's living environments, personal used and meaningful objects, COVID-19 data and so on in an old two floor building/house. First floor is about COVID-19, and second floor is a walk and audio tour of how people live.
Vision and Mission
We aim to build an empowering and unitive spirits of humanity and believe that the exploration of our difficult times for all human races — one with moments of both inclusion and exclusion — helps prepare us to recognize and discuss issues with the importance of empathy and togetherness in mind.
Media
First floor:
Interactive installation — We want to have an interactive installation that visitors can touch and scroll based on timeline and how disease travelled and the reasons.
Video/Slide with Audio — We want to use imaginary and a series of short videos to visually show how much COVID-19 has changed people, for example, crowds wear masks, outdoor dinning in the cold and new elbow "hand" shake and so on.
Second floor:
There will be no media elements because we want to preserve the originality of the living environment. Visitors will listen to the audio with earphone that tell the stories of each family they walk by.
Content/Stories
Information around COVID-19
From the first reported case to the development of vaccinations, the information about COVID-19 will give visitors an overview of the disease and how tough it is to beat.
Data on how it progressed and spread to the whole world: that's where the interactive installation comes in and let visitors explore the impact of COVID-19 themselves.
Racism all of the world: Because of the origin of the disease, Asian hate crimes increase all over the globe. This section displays news and unfortunate events happened due to racism.
Beijing, China
China's zero covid policy has been in place since December 2019 when the first outbreak happened. Residents are in prisoned at their homes and some people have been put into metal box containers for quarantine. It's a bizarre situation, and people were living a humane life. Some were starved because they couldn't go out and buy groceries. We want to show how families lived under that condition and how people became more resilient and came together to help each other.
NYC, U.S.A.
There was fear and uncertainty when the pandemic and lockdown happened. No one knew what it was and what they should do. Remote working started and everyone stopped going to the office. We show how families with children adjusted to the situation and how people had to move out of their apartments and move out of their dream city.
How the pandemic became the new normal
Adapting COVID-19 and all the changes have became the new normal. People make face mask into fashion. Zoom parties have became popular since people are cautious seeing others. Less air traveling reduced air pollution. Outdoor dining even in winter has became normal.
Experience and Interaction
It will be a dome structured building that has two floors. Floor 1 has a big screen display video/slide media in the center and an interactive installation for data and historic timeline for visitors to stop and explore on their own. Floor 2 is where the stories begin. There will be an app or small device that has audio recording on for visitors, and every visitor will be given an earphone before they enter the museum if they don't have one. The audio will walk them through the stories of how people live. It's position sensor based. Once visitors walk and stand right next to an exhibit or object, audio will trigger and start playing stories and background music.
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