First stop, the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology in Cambridge
As part of our pilot evaluation process, Charlotte is visiting each of the Strand B pilot museums to experience their interventions in person. Read on to learn about her first visit.
Image Description: A hand touches a terracotta replica of a Moche pot, feeling the texture and surprising warmth of the material that was used to make the pot 1400 years ago.
Sensing the Past of Peru is an amazing multisensory interpretation of a Moche pot. It communicates what the pot feels like, how it works, and what it sounds like when it’s used for its intended purpose.
In the exhibit’s accessible video, curator Jimena fills the real Moche pot with water and uses it to create a sound that can be heard through the headphones but which is also described by audio description, captions, BSL, and both a digital and braille transcript.
Image Description: A photo showing a video screen embedded into a display. The photo has captured a moment in a video which shows the curator Jimena using the original Moche pot to make a noise. A BSL interpreter has been caught mid-sign at the bottom right of the screen, and captions below explain that the pot, which is shaped like a bird, is making a noise like the call of a macaw. Below the screen is a raised QR code with text which invites you to scan the QR code for a written transcript, or to pick up the headphones, out of sight in the image, to listen to the video. The text has braille versions underneath.
It’s been amazing watching people interact with the display and I can’t wait to visit my next museum!
Image Description: A photo of a multisensory exhibit. A man stands to the side of a table-top display in the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. He is bent over to get a closer look at a cross-section tactile of a Moche pot, which he has lifted to move the water inside.