April 10, 2008
Our project proposal was evaluated very well in last year’s First Call of the 7th Research Framework Programme of the EU, but it unfortunately received no funding. So, we rolled up our sleeves, overhauled and extended the proposal, and submitted it to this year’s Third Call on Tuesday, 8 April 2008. Maybe we are luckier this time!
(Logo design by Bosse Westerlund. All rights reserved.)
July 8, 2007
The project proposal uses four scenarios to illustrate the setting and intended functionality of the Mnemosyne application(s).
Paul and Andrea from Denver are back at work after a vacation in Europe where they visited a lot of places, took many pictures and had many great memorable experiences. Both of them are heavily interested in works by Picasso and many of the activities they did were museum visits to see his works. They used Mnemosyne to help them plan the trip beforehand and it turned out to be a great help for them. They found many museums that they didn’t know about. It even led them to Barcelona where they hadn’t planned to go in the first place. Barcelona turned out to be a great place to visit and as an added bonus they saw some of Gaudi’s buildings.
When they got back from Europe they spent some time adding information to Mnemosyne. All the information can easily be added to the different museums’ web sites if the curators find the information useful for their visitors. They wrote reviews of the different museum visits and artwork they came across on their trip. They also added pictures to their reviews and relevant keywords so that people interested in Picasso will find these and get inspired to visit the same places. Paul and Andrea feel that they would like to make sure that Mnemosyne could help other people just as Mnemosyne helped them plan their trip, which turned out to be such a great experience.
July 8, 2007
The project proposal uses four scenarios to illustrate the setting and intended functionality of the Mnemosyne application(s).
Felicia, Veronica and Olaf are three friends who have very different interests. Felicia is interested in farming history, Veronica in the historical development of European villages in rural areas and Olaf is an ornithologist. Despite their different interests they decided to go on a vacation together. Since they are all interested in the outdoors and the environment they opted for the more ecological option and are going on a train tour around Europe. To prepare for the trip they used Mnemosyne, which has helped them find a number of relevant museums, and activities they can all enjoy together despite their different interests. They started from their hometown Kiel in Germany and the second stop is one of UNESCO’s cultural heritage sites, Södra Öland, which is unique from historical, archaeological, biological, geographical as well as ethnological point of view. It is a large part of an island where all these aspects are present and people are living there. Since it is not possible or even feasible to inform about all the different aspects on physical signs, Mnemosyne is used as a means of informing visitors according to their different preferences.
When Felicia, Veronica and Olaf are visiting the site they all go their separate ways and enjoy the environment in their different ways. They decide to meet at the lighthouse in three hours.
Felicia looks at her plan for the visit in her mobile phone. She then proceeds according her plan that was inspired by Mnemosyne and visits the farmhouses and observes different typical farming activities that are performed for the visitors. She takes a lot of pictures with her camera and writes down her notes on paper, since she can use the information in her thesis she is going to write next term.
Veronica is more focused on the houses and the structure of the villages. She also observes and participates in some of the household activities that are acted out by professional pot-makers, weavers and such. Veronica also takes pictures, but she uses her mobile phone to take the pictures and she uses the phone to write her notes as well. She also continually adds all this information to Mnemosyne so that her data is accessible for others right away.
Olaf knows that the area is one of the best places in Europe to watch birds in. He knows which types of birds usually are in the area, but he has seen most of them. Olaf uses his mobile phone to check information on Mnemosyne whether any rare birds have been seen in the area recently. There are two new sightings reported, so he sets out to search for them.
July 8, 2007
The project proposal uses four scenarios to illustrate the setting and intended functionality of the Mnemosyne application(s).
Pierre is a writer from Aix en Provence in France who is working on a novel that deals with the mythological topics of heaven and hell – both involving cultural artefacts as well as the museums themselves. He is now at the stage of doing research on the topic and searching libraries is not what comes to his mind in the first place, but searching the Web does. He starts with a search on Google, but as expected it only delivers tons of information Pierre needs a long time to sift through. Google does not help him to restrict his search to museums as he wants to base the story on artefacts throughout the last 20 to 25 centuries, i.e., beginning with Egyptian history.
Pierre is on his way to London for a short holiday with his wife. He would like to use the opportunity to do some research for his book. He has limited time and needs to prepare his trip carefully. Instead of sifting through Google hits he chooses to use a web service called Mnemosyne, which gives him access to information about collections of cultural artefacts from several museums around the world. What is special about Mnemosyne is that there is a lot of additional information about each artefact, for example their creation date, detailed history of the artefact as well as the artist or the creator. He can also read comments, suggestions and reviews written by other visitors. There is also more information that points Pierre to biographies elsewhere on the Web.
Pierre tells Mnemosyne what kind of cultural artefacts he is interested in, what dates he is in London and how much time he can spend on his artefact and location scouting research. As a result he gets suggestions of several itineraries, each describing a way through the British Museum and the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, linking the exhibits together in different ways, e.g., by dates, owners, a certain story, artists or relationship between artists. He finds this very interesting since he has never been to the Petrie museum before.
Mnemosyne knows about Pierre’s last visit to London last year and the results of that trip have had an affect on the present itineraries, the selection of places is different and the system does not suggest artefacts that Pierre judged uninteresting on his last visit. Pierre chooses some of the itineraries and since he will not bring his computer with him at all times he saves this information on his mobile phone, which he always carries with him. But in case he will forget his mobile phone he knows that his plan for each museum visit is saved in a computer station in the museums.
July 8, 2007
The project proposal uses four scenarios to illustrate the setting and intended functionality of the Mnemosyne application(s).
Roberto is an Italian management consultant living in Piacenza and working in Milan. He is on his way to Paris on a business trip and wants to use the opportunity to visit some museums and see art he has been meaning to see for a while. He knows that “Slave Auction” by Jean-Michel Basquiat, which he really wants to see, is on show at Centre Pompidou at the moment. To prepare for his trip he goes to Centre Pompidou’s web site to see opening hours and other practical information. He also looks for the painting on the web site and finds it. When he is looking at the painting he notices that there is a new feature on the web site, a small box or a widget with more information on the painting as well as keywords other people have added to the painting. Related artworks are also recommended in the box, for example Roy Lichtenstein’s sculpture “Galetea,” that is on show at the Jardin des Tuileries in Paris. Roberto clicks on that particular sculpture and enters a page with more information on the museum’s web site. When he has examined the page he notices that the same type of box he saw originally at Pompidou’s web site is still there. He sees that there are other interesting keywords. He clicks on the keyword 80′s, which takes him to Mnemosyne. Roberto has never used the web service Mnemosyne before, but there he can see all artworks that have the keyword 80′s attached to them and he can quickly narrow his search and find all paintings created in the 80′s by male American artists. He can also explore more and find events that are interesting for people with similar interests in art. He is very happy when he finds an exhibition with older works of Lichtenstein in Paris that opens next Wednesday, the day he has time for museum visits.
May 10, 2007
The Mnemosyne project proposal was submitted this Tuesday to the FP7 ICT call and has been referenced with the number “FP7-216616″, and today, Mnemosyne has a blog! We will use it to keep us updated about relevant information we discover and about the status of the project.
