Marek:
Hello, hello. Welcome to our interview with Luigi about Deaf Museums, part two. You've been working on your exhibition. I'm wondering do you have a specific audience that the exhibition is for?
Luigi:
The exhibition is for for everyone, for hearing people, deaf people, for sign language users, researchers, young and old alike. We want to make sure that when people see the exhibition that they can have an idea of what it was like to be deaf in the past. How has that changed over time. How has the deaf experience improved over the years.
For example: now deaf people are independent and they can run their own lives, whereas in the past deaf people were seen as not being able to do many things. They were really put in a corner. They came together but weren't able to succeed. To really move up the ladder in life. Now you see deaf people on television, you see deaf people using an interpreter to access the world and their professions and they're able to really move up in the world.
The young people of today they'll be able to look at the exhibition and be familiar with how it is now but not realize how it used to be. Older deaf people will see the exhibition and be able to relate to how it used to be and realize: Oh yes, we had so many challenges then and what it's like now. Whereas hearing museum goers will be able to see what it used to be like. Maybe they didn't know what the deaf experience was like in the past.
Marek:
So you'd like the deaf or hearing or any viewer to see how the deaf experience has changed over time. And they can learn from the exhibition. Great. For audience members that don't know sign language: how will they be able to access the exhibition?
Luigi:
Well, if people don't know sign language, we'll have the signed videos captioned. We'll make sure that it's accessible to everyone, make sure that everything is signed in British Sign Language and make sure that everything is captioned, or perhaps as transcripts. We haven't planned that far just yet. We're currently still looking at the online version and looking at the content and seeing how we want to design that.
Once that's designed, we'll look at it together with this designer and see how we can make sure it's accessible. So first you're working on the visuals of the exhibition itself and then you'll take it step by step. Yes, the exhibition again is really for all audiences: for deaf people, for hearing people.
For deafblind people, we need to think about making it accessible, possibly in braille, but we need to look at that in the near future. Right now, we're focusing on the content and then we'll see how we can make sure it's all accessible.
Marek:
Yes, it's important that we make sure all of our materials and what we create is accessible, so that people can learn from us. Just like how deaf people want to make sure that all the information out there is accessible. We want to make sure it's accessible both ways. Great.
Now that you're creating your exhibition do you have any plans to also get some feedback from the community or from from outside of your project group?
Luigi:
We haven't done that just yet we're still looking at it internally, we're still discussing possible content. Right now, we're looking at the past, the present and the future. But we're focusing still on why have things changed, and how can we make sure that that change is really visible and evident in the exhibition. But we do have plans to get some feedback throughout the whole process.
Marek:
When looking at the exhibition that you're creating now: do you think you can go forward or are there any stumbling blocks that you might come across, do you think?
Luigi:
Well, we'd like to conduct interviews, but we're having some issues there due to the COVID crisis. Many people are not willing to meet in person. We have a list of people that we'd like to interview. However once they go ahead and say they'd like to be interviewed, we're not sure how we can actually do this. Of course the older generation is very vulnerable so we want to keep that in mind.
Secondly, we're a little bit concerned about what we have in mind if that will be translated well to the designer. We don't know if what we end up explaining to the designer if that will actually come across and fit what we have in mind. Once we get to that stage and what they design is what we want, then we can take it from there.
Marek:
Yes that's always an issue especially. I've had that experience myself with a designer. Communicating what you want, it is very important to make sure that you're on the same page. Is there anything else you'd like to add?
Luigi:
I think right now, our project group, we're all working away at different exhibitions. It's interesting to see what all the partners are creating. I'll be looking forward to seeing them once they're done, and comparing and contrasting them. On the other hand, I also do see some similarities within the different exhibitions . We're all from different countries, but there's a sense of a similar Deaf culture underlying all of the exhibitions. You can see our Deaf experiences reflected in the exhibitions.
You know our exhibitions are challenges, but it's interesting to see what everyone has completed thus far, just like yours is really beautiful.
Marek:
I think it's also nice within this consortium that we don't feel alone, that we have a lot of experiences that we can share with each other. That way future generations will also have an example to follow with what we are creating.
Great. Thank you for the interview and I'm looking forward to interviewing you on future topics.